AVENGERS: ENDGAME Writer & Director Disagree Over Time Travel

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WARNING: This article will go into heavy spoilers for the ending of Avengers: Endgame!!!

In case you somehow missed it, Avengers: Endgame has been in theaters for two weekends now and has already usurped James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic as the second highest grossing film of all-time and is well on its way to usurping the decade long champion Avatar for the top seat. As the Russo Brothers and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige promised fans, the film represented a culmination of the story that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been building up for the past eleven years and saw several core members of the original lineup of the Avengers off and set the stage for the next decade of films. However it would seem that at least one of the film’s co-writers and one of its co-directors have different interpretations on how Steve Rogers’ story came to a close.

In the final moments of Avengers: Endgame, audiences discover that Rogers opted not to immediately return to the present day after returning all of the Infinity Stones to their correct moments in time and instead chose to finally pursue a normal life with his beloved Peggy Carter in 1948, ultimately returning to the present as an old man and passing on the shield and role of Captain America to Sam Wilson. With time travel playing a role here, needless to say audiences have been debating over the exact way in which Rogers’ life played out.

In an interview with Fandango, co-writer Christopher Markus explained, “That is our theory. We are not experts on time travel, but the Ancient One specifically states that when you take an Infinity Stone out of a timeline it creates a new timeline. So Steve going back and just being there would not create a new timeline. So I reject the “Steve is in an alternate reality” theory. I do believe that there is simply a period in world history from about ’48 to now where there are two Steve Rogers. And anyway, for a large chunk of that one of them is frozen in ice. So it’s not like they’d be running into each other.”

Meanwhile in a Q&A with Chinese tech company Tencent QQ, co-director Joe Russo offered a different and contradicting interpretation. He stated, “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.”

Personally I tend to interpret the film’s ending in the same manner as Markus, but I’m curious to see what all of you think on this matter! Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section below!

SOURCES: Fandango.com, Tencent QQ via Comicbook.com