Avengers: Endgame Writers Explain How “America’s Ass” Joke Came to Be

In one of the most memorable jokes from Avengers: Endgame, Captain America(Chris Evans) from 2012 lay unconscious on the floor of Stark Tower as the current timeline Captain America looms large. Playing off a joke made set-up moments earlier, Cap remarked his rear was, in fact, “America’s Ass.” While Disney hasn’t leaned into through merchandise (which is pretty understandable), you need not go far to find fan-made merch or memeable material. In reality, it was a moment that didn’t even come to fruition during principal photography. Rather, the powers that be eventually added it in during a set of reshoots.

In an interview with SYFY WIRE this week, Endgame scribe Christopher Markus explained it was originally only Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) involved in the joke. “It sort of grew on its own,” Markus explains. “The first thing that was there was Tony looking at Cap’s terrible Avengers outfit and going, ‘that suit does nothing for your ass.’ That stood on its own for a while, and then Ant-Man was added to the scene, and he said, ‘I think that’s America’s ass.’ And that was the joke for a while.”

That’s when Markus’ writing partner Stephen McFeely added the team decided to Evans into the joke during reshoots sometime after principal photography had already wrapped. “We redid the Cap on Cap fight, the ending of it, and that helped us tremendously,” McFeely continued. “And then we needed to get out of that scene a little differently, and there [2012 Cap] was, slumped on the ground with his butt in the air.”

You can see Captain America — and America’s Ass — in Avengers: Endgame, now available wherever movies are sold.

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Marvel Studios Disney+ series without release dates include Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk.

What’s your favorite joke of the MCU? Share your thoughts in the comments below!