Avengers: Endgame – Captain America’s Ending Made No Sense Until Joe Russo Explained Its Reality
The directors and writers of Avengers: Endgame have to be given the maximum credit for what they have done with the finale of the MCU. They left us with eternal satisfaction, but the good thing is that they also left us with quite a lot of questions. Especially at the end of the film, they did a major fan service but they also had us confused at one thing which almost became a major plot hole for us. But we shouldn’t forget, they are the ones designed the film, so it is upon them to explain it all.
Years of thinking and hard work went into telling this elaborate yet immensely awesome story. This is the world’s most expensive TV Show ever made, so things have to make sense. Captain America’s ending turned out to be a potential plot hole for many of us as it did not make any sense. It broke the rules that Marvel had themselves established. But writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and directors Joe & Anthony Russo are not fools. They know what they’ve put in the film.
As Hulk explained time travel in the film, going back to the past and changing something there will not affect the current timeline as what’s happened has already happened. It has already become the past, and changing it will create another branch in the timeline different from the current one. So when Captain America went back to return all the Infinity Stones and Mjolnir to where they were taken from, he decided to stay back and live the life with Peggy that he never really could.
That was a choice he made thinking he had earned it after giving his life away to fulfill his duty towards his nation, and ultimately towards the entire universe. He was finally at rest, but doing so he created an alternate timeline where he slow danced until he got old. But then we see him sitting on a bench, telling Sam about the peaceful life he’s had.
This is where people start to lose their minds because he went back and created an alternate reality, so how is he present in this current/prime reality/universe. Well, the Russos have confirmed the fact that we are right to ask this question, and perhaps there may be an answer to it in the future. Joe Russo told something to EW.com which does hint at a future Captain America movie. He said:
“If Cap were to go back into the past and live there, he would create a branched reality. The question then becomes, how is he back in this reality to give the shield away? Interesting question, right? Maybe there’s a story there. There’s a lot of layers built into this movie and we spent three years thinking through it, so it’s fun to talk about it and hopefully fill in holes for people so they understand what we’re thinking. Especially when he says goodbye, he says, ‘I’ll miss you.’ Clearly, he knows something. Sam doesn’t know something.”
So, JR did confirm the fact that Cap lived a life in an alternate timeline. He has come back to the current timeline somehow in order to finally say the Goodbye that he didn’t in that alternate Universe. JR also took part in a Q&A in China and there he answered a few key questions that we all wanted answers to.
Here are the Questions that he was asked, along with their answers:
“Peggy Carter was probably already married and in her mid-40s in 1970, in that case, what year was it that Captain America went back to dance with her?
JR: We can’t answer it, for now, this is a story that happened in an alternate reality. Maybe it will be revealed in the future.
Did Captain America’s action at the end affect the timeline? Does that mean there was a time where two Captain Americas existed in the same universe?
JR: To me, Captain America’s action, in the end, wasn’t the fact he wanted to change anything, it’s more like me has made a choice. He chose to go back to the past and lived with the one he loved for the rest of his life. The time travel in this movie created an alternate reality. He lived a completely different life in that world. We don’t know how exactly his life turned out, but I’d like to believe he still helped many others when they were needed in that world. Yes, there were two Captain Americas in that reality, it’s just like what Hulk said, what happened in the past has already happened. If you go back to the past, you simply created a new reality. The characters in this movie created a new timeline when they went back to the past, but it had no effect on the prime universe. What happened in the past 22 movies was still canon.”
It’s clear now that Cap’s story from that alternate timeline is totally different and there is perhaps a chance that Chris Evans is not done with the Marvel Cinematic Universe afterall. We know that he will be voicing in upcoming Disney+ animated show “What if.” Joe Russo has said it in the past that Chris Evans is probably not done with the MCU, even though his contract is expired.
A whole movie can be made upon how Cap travelled back in time, put the Mjolnir and the other stones back to where they were taken from. Let’s see what happens. To conclude, here’s another interesting fact that Joe Russo revealed about Old Captain America:
“Was old Cap played Evans using makeup? Or it was also post-production CG?
JR: 95% CG, 5% make up. But the voice was 100% Evans, no modification for that.”
Avengers: Endgame is currently running in the theatres. Go watch the heck out of it!
