The Final Scene of Avengers: Endgame:
Avengers: Endgame gave Marvel’s two big guns a great ending. Tony Stark rightfully hogged all the spotlight as he went out with the greatest sacrifice. But Captain America got a peaceful retirement. He got to live the life no one ever thought he would. He took a page out of Tony’s book, found stability in his life by going back to the past and actually lived with the love of his life. It was such a happy moment. The directors had to explain the schematics of how he returned as an old man, but we were all happy to see Cap & Peggy together.
Steve & Peggy slow danced until the film ended. It was a very close up shot. We were happy to see them kiss. But now, after so many deleted scenes have made their way to the internet, Marvel has finally released the wide shot of Steve Rogers & Peggy Carter dancing together. Take a look:
Now that we’ve seen this happy shot. Let’s talk about the weird schematics of how Old Man Captain America returned to pass on his Captain America mantle. As we’ve mentioned before, the Russos claim that Captain America created a new timeline when he lived with Peggy Carter, and then when she died in this new timeline, he returned back to the original MCU timeline to finally give the Shield to his friend and protégé, Sam Wilson.
While this makes sense, the writers step in with their own theory. They say that they’ve always intended for Cap & Peggy to be in the same MCU timeline after Cap goes back to live in the past. This totally confuses us all because this contradicts the time travel rules that Avengers: Endgame itself established. The writers say that Cap stayed back with Peggy, didn’t interfere with the outside world at all. He let Bucky fall into the hands of Hydra. He let Hydra infiltrate Shield. He didn’t change anything that had already happened. So, that’s how he ended up in the same timeline.
Well, we can say that the writers are wrong. Cap did create an alternate timeline, but we do have a solution to fix this. Look at things in this way – “The MCU itself is an alternate timeline or a branched reality!” Imagine that there is another timeline exactly like the MCU. The events of that timeline happen exactly as they did in the MCU. But the only difference in that timeline and the MCU is that Steve wasn’t Peggy’s husband in the past.
In that timeline, everything that has happened to date within the MCU happened, but Steve’s decision to go back in time and live with Peggy Carter created the MCU itself! Now in the MCU, there have always been 2 Captain Americas, Steve from the future has been the husband of Peggy the entire time while another version of Steve was in the ice. The most important factor of the MCU is that Steve’s story is now tied in a time loop.
Now in the MCU, Steve Rogers who was found in the ice would wake up and meet old Peggy Carter, who is the wife of his future self. Then he reaches Endgame and goes back to the past to Peggy Carter in order to live with her. And now, he won’t create an alternate timeline because in the MCU, Steve was the husband of Peggy Carter the entire time. The MCU becomes a time loop, and both the writers & directors get what they want. The rules of time travel don’t get broken & the writers get to see their fantasy unravel.
All this could have been very confusing, but read it twice. If there’s still any confusion, and reach out to me with your thoughts either on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
