Thumbnail Image by freelodigital → If Avengers: Endgame co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo had stuck to their original plans for the film, The Avengers would have encountered another past version of Captain America, and it would have been plenty unpleasant for him. In a SDCC chat with Entertainment Weekly at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, the directing duo said they wanted Endgame to include Josh Brolin's Thanos decapitating Chris Evans' Captain America in 2014 to send a message to the Avengers in the future.
After slaughtering the entire Avengers roster in the past, the Mad Titan would have time-traveled to the Avengers' present day in 2023, where some of Earth's Mightiest Heroes were trying to undo the Decimation that killed half of all life in the universe. Thanos would have tossed Cap's severed head at the still-alive team's feet. The Russos said they were almost married to the idea.
Joe Russo said at Comic Con that the idea became so deeply set in their minds that they had a hard time figuring out how to end the movie.
Ultimately, though, the Russos dropped the idea and went back to the drawing board to see how the events of the second act could more naturally flow into the third, which culminated with the massive battle between 2014 Thanos and his army of alien Chitauri against the Avengers, who were reunited with their snapped superhero comrades.
Avengers: Endgame screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely also discussed the intended Captain America decapitation when they spoke with Backstory Magazine's Jeff Goldsmith at the "Writing Avengers: Endgame" panel on Friday, July 19.
According to Yahoo, Markus commented:
"We were working on different ways to bring Thanos into the present day because we had killed the present-day Thanos but we had activated the past-Thanos. He, being Thanos, [knew] it would take Nebula some time to rejigger the time machine. He went down to his present-day Earth, which would be 2014, and wiped it out and killed the Avengers. And then, Nebula would turn on the time machine, [and] he would walk through with the Avenger he had killed and go, 'I killed you, again, what are you gonna do about it?'"
That beheaded Avenger was, we now know, going to be Captain America.
If America's head had rolled in Avengers: Endgame, Marvel fans would very likely have been horrified at the sight of their beloved Cap's noggin tumbling around on the ground like a soccer ball. For our part, we're glad we didn't have to bear witness to that specific brand of nightmare fuel, though we can understand where the Russo Brothers were coming from in wanting to explain in no uncertain terms that Thanos is the most vicious big bad the Avengers have ever encountered. For their part, both directors brushed off the idea that the beheading would have taken Avengers: Endgame to too dark a place.
This twist is but one of many scenes fans never got to see in Avengers: Endgame. Lucky for them, the home release of the superhero epic is fast-approaching - with the digital version coming Tuesday, July 30 and the Blu-ray edition arriving on Tuesday, August 13. Both versions include special featurettes, a gag reel, and, of course, plenty of deleted scenes.
Since the Russo Brothers never actually went through with the idea of Thanos lobbing off Captain America's head in Avengers: Endgame, that particular sequence won't be available to watch now or ever, and it's probably for the best. Fans already had enough reasons to cry during Endgame; the last thing they need is to see Cap's A-emblazoned head at his teammates' feet.
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