Peggy Carter Scene Almost Didn’t Make It into Avengers: Endgame

The scene of a time-traveling Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) coming across long-lost love Peggy Carter [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

The scene of a time-traveling Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) coming across long-lost love Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) in 1970 New Jersey wasn't included in the earliest drafts of Avengers: Endgame.

"Our first draft did not have this, and it would have been a shame. It's really lovely," co-writer Stephen McFeely reveals on the Endgame commentary track.

"Just the structure of the scene. The production design, setting up this office in such a way that he can be in shadow, and she can be in light."

"And that performance from Evans, the longing on his face without a single line of dialogue, you understand how important she is to him and how much he misses her," added director Joe Russo.

"This is now the fourth time," McFeely said. "So, even if you somehow didn't see any of the movies, you know who this person is to him."

"And by seeing this picture on her desk," added co-writer Christopher Markus, "he gets a little bit of confirmation that she wants the same thing he does." Or, McFeely countered, she also "hasn't let it go."

"Yeah, so that if he were to go back, you know, it might be reciprocal," Markus said.

Steve again setting eyes on Peggy, who died during the events of 2016's Captain America: Civil War, proves to be a pivotal moment when Steve later decides to live out his life in the past alongside Peggy after utilizing time travel to return the six Infinity Stones to their rightful places in the timeline.

Markus and McFeely argue there were always two Captain Americas in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, making it possible for an aged Steve Rogers to quietly attend his wife's funeral.

"Here's how we reconcile it. We think there have always been two Caps from 1945 to, say, now, and we just didn't know that. That's the loop, right?" McFeely told Backstory Magazine.

"It's not Back to the Future rules, it's branch reality rules. This is not stepping on a butterfly that turns the world into Biff's casino. You can't alter your future by going back to the past. We sort of created our own time travel rules wherein, as the Ancient One says, if you remove an Infinity Stone from a timeline, that creates a branch reality."

When sent back in time by Smart Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), "We think Steve went back, put all the stones back, clipped those branches," added McFeely.

"Those are fine. And after he did the last one, he jumped to 1948 and decided to stay. So, his younger self is on ice somewhere and it's only in 2011 that there are technically two Steves running around — to the point where if you were to look closely at Peggy's funeral, there'd be an old man in the back named Roger Stevens."

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