Captain America's Decision In Avengers: Endgame Was Influenced By Fight With His Younger Self

Captain America's decision to go off the designated path and forge a life for himself in the past [...]

By Russ Burlingame

Captain America's decision to go off the designated path and forge a life for himself in the past with Peggy Carter was influenced, at least in part, by the fight he had with his younger (2012) self in Avengers: Endgame, the filmmakers revealed. In the commentary track for Endgame, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely say that part of Cap's decision to embrace a new life for himself comes from seeing the difference between the man he was when he came out of the ice and the man he had become by the time Endgame came around and he was time-traveling.

Cap's exasperation with his younger self's steely determination and "I can do this all day" declaration is a moment of levity in the middle of some pretty serious stuff in the movie, but it also helped shape how Cap perceived his past self and some of the decisions he had made in life. According to Marcus, the Cap from Avengers is "essentially 1940s Cap," and his older self "sees his past self here and what a hard nut he is."

"That was the intention of all this, how distinctly different these two characters are, right?" co-director Joe Russo chimed in. "That what 11 years does to him and everything he's been through. And the sort of square version of Cap from Avengers 1 running into the wizened."

This, like much of what we have learned from subsequent interviews and the commentary track, is not exactly obvious in the text of the film, but serves as useful background information for people looking to do a deeper dive into the characters.

Spider-Man: Far From Home is still in theaters, and Avengers: Endgame was just made available on digital services. 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.

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