The climax of Avengers: Endgame is an emotionally harrowing one. After engaging in a gruelling and brutal battle with Thanos, the Avengers find themselves incapable of stopping him. That is until Iron Man acquires the Infinity Stones from the Mad Titan, merges them with his nanotech gloves and snaps his fingers. The good guys win, Thanos and his army vanquished, but at what cost?
The snap took a toll on Tony Stark, killing him in the process. In the theatrical version, we see the likes of Tony’s wife Pepper Potts and Peter Parker having a moment before he lets out his last breath. Later, during the funeral scene, we see all the good guys of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in attendance, paying their respects to the fallen warrior.
However, there is a version of the film that sees all the heroes honour Iron Man on the battlefield immediately after he dies. Hawkeye is the first to kneel and bow his head in respect to his fellow soldier. Black Panther follows suit, followed by Captain Marvel and one by one, the rest of the Avengers too. Even the Guardians of the Galaxy join in. It’s a beautifully directed scene that brought tears to my eyes. Check it out:
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In an email exchange, directors Joe and Anthony Russo told the following to USA Today:
“It’s a beautiful scene with moving performances, but we filmed it prior to Tony Stark’s funeral. The funeral scene ultimately became a more resonant and emotional reflection on Tony’s death for us.”
A part of me wishes the directors would’ve just kept this sequence in the theatrical version of Avengers: Endgame. But I also understand that having both the kneeling down scene and the funeral scene could’ve been an overkill not to mention lessened the emotional weight of both.
Another interesting aspect of the deleted scene is that it sort of puts an end to the whole “is Gamora from the alternate timeline still alive?” debate. Here, we see Gamora looking on before deciding to leave just as all the heroes started to kneel down and pay their respects. While deleted scenes aren’t technically canon, it’s safe to assume that the screenwriters and filmmakers had no intention of killing off alternate Gamora.
You can check out this deleted scene among others when Avengers: Endgame releases on digital HD and Blu-ray/DVD on 13 August 2019.
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