The heartbreaking Vormir scene in Avengers: Endgame has been heavily debated about since the film’s release. The scene sees Black Widow and Hawkeye realise that one of them would have to sacrifice themselves for the other to retrieve the Soul Stone. Seeing as how they’re best friends, Black Widow and Hawkeye start fighting each other to pin the other one down and commit suicide. It’s a genuinely sad sequence that eventually leads to Black Widow’s death. And while some fans are happy with the decision, especially since Clint Barton has a family and kids, others feel Clint should’ve been the one to bite the dust to atone for the murderous rampage he was on as Ronin.
Previously, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have mentioned that the scene went through multiple changes throughout the scripting process. Ultimately, they decided to go with Black Widow’s death after consulting some of the female crew members, who felt that it would be a heroic and empowering sendoff to the intriguing character. Markus also said:
“She has red in her ledger and to take her all the way to that sacrifice point is where her character is headed. And to not let her do that seemed a disservice to her as a hero.”
However, it looks like there was a version of the script where the scene plays out completely differently, and not just in terms of who lives or dies either. Speaking at ACE Comic-Con (via Screenrant), Jeremy Renner, who plays Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe revealed that the Vormir sequence we saw in theatres was part of extensive reshoots. The original version is much more elaborate and even involves Thanos launching an attack on the planet. Renner said:
“There’s an attack. Thanos is in some ship or something, and a bunch of weird aliens were running around and it was too complicated, so what they did is we shot the scene, still with the same kind of idea, but now we’re just fighting each other to commit suicide for the Soul Stone.”
This isn’t very hard to believe, as even in the theatrical edition there’s a scene where we see Nebula trying to send a message to Black Widow and Hawkeye upon realising that Thanos knows about the Time Heist. While this amounted to nothing in the final cut, perhaps Nebula’s quick thinking helped Black Widow and Hawkeye out in the version where Thanos attacks. Having said that, I love the more personal approach of the final cut. It allows the two best friends to have an intimate moment before doing what needs to be done.
