Avengers: Endgame Writers Explain Why Gamora Returned But Black Widow Didn’t

Both Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) died on Vormir to unlock the Soul Stone, but the Gamora still alive by the close of Avengers: Endgame is a past version displaced from 2014.

"It's not the Gamora that was killed by the Soul Stone, that is the Gamora from the past," co-writer Stephen Markus explained to Variety.

"When Gamora went off that cliff, the Gamora from that time period died. But this is the Gamora from prior to that. So she's still alive, she traveled in the time machine to the present. You know, like you do."

"As you do," quipped co-writer Stephen McFeely.

The original Gamora, who starred in both Guardians of the Galaxy and Vol. 2, perished in Avengers: Infinity War when adoptive father Thanos (Josh Brolin) murdered her to win the Soul Stone.

In Endgame, Black Widow prevents close friend Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) from sacrificing himself, and her death gives the Avengers one of the six desperately needed Infinity Stones required to resurrect the billions of lives vanished five years earlier.

Retrieving a still-living Black Widow from an earlier timeline "would've been a weirdly selfish decision," Markus said.

"Like, effectively, we're going to kidnap a version of Black Widow who knows nothing about the current circumstances and bring her to the future just so we can have one. It's not really asking her whether she wants to go."

Both 2018 Gamora and 2023 Black Widow's deaths are irreversible, part of an everlasting exchange preventing their resurrection.

Where Gamora goes from here will be determined by Guardians of the Galaxy franchise writer-director James Gunn, who will return to Marvel Studios to helm Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

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