Why They Cut This Endgame Character From The Movie

The struggle against Thanos might have gone very differently if screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely had gotten their way. In an interview with The New York Times, the pair reveal that they almost introduced a decades-old Marvel character in Avengers: Infinity War, one with vast cosmic powers.

In fact, that might even be understating the case. The character in question is the multi-dimensional entity known as the Living Tribunal, and the scope of its powers over the multiverse are really quite tremendous. Unlike nearly every other character in Marvel lore, the Living Tribunal is a singular entity, with no alternate counterparts in different universes. Instead, it has dominion over the entire Multiverse. No matter how you slice it, this entity is kind of a big deal.

The Living Tribunal is usually depicted as a giant, golden, humanoid figure with three faces, each one representing a different aspect of the being: Equity, Necessity, and Vengeance. The Living Tribunal seeks to maintain balance and order throughout the entire Multiverse, and all three of its faces must agree that an action is necessary before intervening in the affairs of mere mortals. However, once it does decide an intervention is in order, its authority is absolute.

It's all pretty heady stuff, but it's easy to see why Markus and McFeely toyed with the idea of throwing such a fascinating character into the mix for Infinity War. But seeing as the film and Avengers: Endgame are already stuffed with plenty of characters, it's also easy to see why Marvel Studios ultimately nixed the idea. Intriguingly, Markus and McFeely suggested that head honcho Kevin Feige might have another reason for omitting the character from the action: Namely, he wants to save it for a future film.

Asked if there were any characters the duo wanted for Infinity War and Endgame that they couldn't have, Markus told The New York Times:

"We wrote a scene in which [the Living Tribunal] appeared during the Titan fight. And everyone was like, what?"

McFeely continued:

"He's got three heads. It would indicate a whole different level of architecture to the universe and I think that was too much to just throw in."

The fight on Titan was quite eventful enough, and the sudden appearance of an as-yet-unseen golden god with three faces might have totally thrown moviegoers for a loop.

However, Markus went on to say:

"The idea's still in Kevin [Feige]'s court."

McFeely says then openly worried that they'd just spoiled a big surprise. And that's when Markus suggested that the Living Tribunal could have his very own streaming show. McFeely even proposed the show would be similar to Judge Judy. But really, that's just silly.

Perhaps Markus and McFeely did blab a bit too freely, because we can think of a perfect vehicle for the Living Tribunal to receive a proper introduction to the MCU: The Eternals deals with a race of immortal, superpowered beings created millions of years ago by the Celestials and tasked with defending the Earth from their evil counterparts, the Deviants. Think about it: an appearance by the Living Tribunal in The Eternals wouldn't feel out of place at all, where it could've been a little jarring if this entity just popped in to Infinity War to assist the good guys. Even if they could've used the help...

At any rate, Markus and McFeely clearly have so many ideas, they couldn't possibly have all been covered in Infinity War and Endgame, even though they're two of the biggest event films of all time. Here's hoping Endgame isn't their MCU swan song. After all, the six films they've written so far, all three Captain America movies, Thor: The Dark World, Infinity War, and Endgame, add up to more than a quarter of the MCU's entire output. And all those films pretty much landed right on the money, no?

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