Why Marvel’s ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Added That Five Year Time Jump at the Last Minute
Avengers: Endgame took fans on a rollercoaster journey through space and time that concluded with an emotional sendoff for some of Marvel’s flagship characters. Yet one of the movie’s most significant changes was the choice to add a five-year time jump following the events in Avengers: Infinity War. While fans have been speculating about the time jump for months, Endgame writer Stephen McFeely just revealed why they decided to extend the timeline at the last minute.
Why did Endgame feature a five-year time jump?
Endgame featured some emotional moments for some of Marvel’s biggest characters. Not only did the movie feature Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) death, but it also killed off Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and retired Captain America (Chris Evans).
But before these characters said farewell, we got to see them cope with the biggest tragedy any of them had ever faced. While the five years after Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) finger snap were rough, there were some bright spots for the characters.
We got to see Tony start a family with Pepper Potts, while Natasha Romanoff stepped up to lead what was left of the Avengers. We also got to watch Thor (Chris Hemsworth) transform himself into an overweight version of himself as he did what he could to deal with the grief of losing so many people.
These storylines helped bring the focus back to the Avengers, which is exactly why the writers felt like the time jump was needed.
According to Express, McFeely revealed that they wanted to highlight the characters who were going to say goodbye in the film, and the five-year time jump allowed them some extra space for character development.
“The second movie was supposed to be an Avengers movie, specifically the six original Avengers because we were going to say goodbye to most of them,” McFeely shared. “Five years isn’t just random, it’s sort of, ‘What can we do on a character level and not have to recast our actors?’”
The jump in time may have seemed a little odd at first, but it definitely makes sense now that we know what the writers were thinking.
What about potential time travel plot holes?
One of the biggest controversies in Endgame was the introduction of large-scale time travel. More specifically, Marvel fans have argued that having the Avengers travel back in time opened the door for major plot holes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
This includes the creation of alternate universes, where some characters may have survived the war with Thanos. Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo have already addressed this, but the debate lives on.
While fans will likely debate this for years to come, Endgame co-editor Jeff Ford recently revealed that they added a line about time travel at the last minute to help curtail potential plot holes.
As fans may recall, there is a scene when one of the Avengers asks Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) about traveling back in time and killing baby Thanos.
Without explaining why, Hulk simply answered, “That’s not how it works.”
In a new interview, Ford revealed that they decided to add the line at a late stage in the game to help explain some of the movie’s time travel theory.
They wanted to make sure fans understood that they were handling time travel differently than any other film and that killing an early version of Thanos was not the answer.
Is Marvel pitting the Avengers against X-Men
Endgame controversies aside, Marvel recently ruffled some feathers by alluding to the idea that the X-Men are in a different league than the Avengers.
Marvel recently acquired the X-Men franchise from Fox and has plans to introduce the mutants to the MCU in the near future. Although we have yet to see what that looks like, it is difficult to compare the X-Men and the Avengers in their comic-book forms.
Because they are mutants, the X-Men are more powerful than the vast majority of the Avengers — and there are more of them to boot.
We still do not know how Marvel plans on introducing them, but we cannot wait to see how they compare on the big screens. The only bad part is that we’ll likely have to wait for years before that happens.
Until then, the next movie in Marvel’s lineup is Black Widow, which is scheduled to open in theaters on May 1.
