To celebrate the one-year anniversary of “Avengers: Endgame,” directors Joe and Anthony Russo shared several behind-the-scenes videos and tidbits.
The Marvel directors hosted a virtual watch-along with fans Monday night, reminiscing on the superhero blockbuster and highest-grossing film of all time. They also went live on their Instagram Story to talk with Robert Downey Jr., who finished his run as Tony Stark in “Endgame.”
Downey Jr. remembered shooting his final scene, years ago at this point, and the chemistry he had with his Avengers cast. He revealed that his line “I love you 3,000” was originally something his son would say to him in real life.
The Russos shared a video of Downey Jr.’s final day on set, along with one of Chris Evans wrapping his role as Captain America.
One of the most exciting parts of “Endgame” was when Captain America picks up Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) magical hammer for the first time, shocking everyone in the audience and on screen. The Russos said they told Evans of the heroic moment early in the film’s development.
“Needless to say he was psyched. The crew on these films are filled with comic book lovers, so you can guess how excited everyone was the day we filmed this,” they said.
They also floated an idea around for Cap to embody the Soul Stone in the movie, rather than have it reside on the planet Vormir. However, “that idea fell away rather quickly,” they said.
After the time jump in the film, Thor put on weight turning to video games and alcohol, and the directors revealed a deleted scene with him.
“There was once a scene of Thor peeing off of a balcony in New Asgard to show how depraved he was… we realized he was already pretty depraved,” they said.
One of the most challenging scenes to shoot was when Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) was learning the rules of time travel from the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton). The Russos said it was “because of the time travel exposition. Exposition is harder to shoot than behavior.”
Several cameos from the Russo brothers’ children also made it into the film. The three kids who ask Hulk for a selfie in a restaurant are all their family members. Ken Jeong and Yvette Nicole Brown, who worked on “Community” with the Russos, have cameos, in addition to “Extraction” director Sam Hargrave.
The Russos posted other behind-the-scenes videos, like Brie Larson’s first day on set as Captain Marvel and Chris Evans running around in his old-man makeup from the ending.