Avengers: Endgame Directors Explain Why Time Travel Was Used Even Though It’s a Ludicrous Notion

In Avengers: Endgame the World’s Mightiest Heroes — or what’s left of them — come together and enlist time travel in their attempt to retrieve Infinity Stones, reverse The Snap, and save the universe. However, the time travel element is one that many fans might have found to be a bit ludicrous, and they’re not alone. The film’s directors also thought it was a bit of a wild idea, but there was a far more important reason they employed it — it allowed them to heal emotional wounds and repair people.

In the commentary track to Avengers: Endgame, which saw home release on digital platforms Tuesday, director Joe Russo as well as writer Stephen McFeely addressed the use of time travel in the film, especially why it was less about the time travel itself and more about what it accomplished for the characters as they carried out the plan.

“Ultimately we realized that, look, time travel doesn’t exist, so it’s a ludicrous notion,” Russo said. “It’s a construct of genre filmmaking and you know, I think when we all bought in on it was when we realized the emotional scenes that could take place between the characters and people that they loved who are no longer with them.”

McFeely added that the scenes would fix some of the characters in a sense.

“It’s those scenes, we’ll get to them, are gonna do many things,” he said. “They’re gonna collect stones, but they’re gonna repair people.”

And that’s exactly what happens. Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) gets to observe the love of his life, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) alive, young, and most of all healthy as opposed to her later years where she suffered from Alzheimer’s. Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) gets to see his father, Howard, right on the eve of his on birth and see firsthand how nervous and excited his father was. Even Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow has her moment, sacrificing herself in a truly selfless act. And for Russo, those moments were worth the premise.

“So, ultimately, if you’re entertained by them coming up with the plan, executing the plan, and then you’re emotionally fulfilled by what they do while they’re executing the plan, its’ worth the construct.”

Avengers: Endgame is now available digitally ahead of a home media release on August 13th.

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, What If? In summer 2021, Hawkeye in fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021