The women of the MCU got their due in Avengers: Endgame, and now one of the film's directors has given a spoiler-filled explanation telling us how and why it happened. At the film's climax, the Avengers faced off against a galactic army brought through a time portal by the past version of Thanos. In an attempt to prevent Thanos from getting the rebuilt Infinity Gauntlet, the team worked to transport the gauntlet across the battlefield to the quantum realm portal in Scott Lang's van. And that's when a force comprised of nearly every female hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe came together to help Captain Marvel make the final push.
Asked by the Los Angeles Times why he considered it to be important for the female heroes to join forces for the scene, co-director Anthony Russo said,
"Looking back on the entire road that the MCU has traveled, it just struck us how many amazing female characters have entered the [franchise]. I think it was really, for us, a moment of celebration and acknowledgment of the intensity and empowerment in that."
Avengers: Endgame screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely also opened up about the all-female scene. McFeely told the New York Times
"There was much conversation. Is that delightful or is it pandering? We went around and around on that. Ultimately we went, we like it too much."
Markus added,
"Part of the fun of the Avengers movies has always been team-ups. Marvel has been amassing this huge roster of characters. You've got crazy aliens. You've got that many badass women. You've got three or four people in Iron Man suits."
The scene certainly felt like a tip of the hat to the MCU's female characters, on an even bigger scale than the team-up between Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, and Okoye against Proxima Midnight in Avengers: Infinity War. But the all-female moment within Avengers: Endgame might have hinted at even more to come.
In late 2017, Thor: Ragnarok actress Tessa Thompson told Comic Book Resources that she and several other Marvel stars had pitched an all-female superhero team-up film to Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige.
"I think in that group was Brie Larson, myself, Zoe Saldana, [and] Scarlett Johansson. [Also] Pom [Klementieff] and Karen [Gillan]…We were just sort of all in a semicircle talking, and it just came up…and wouldn't it be nice if we could all work together?"
"We were sort of speculating on the ways in which it might happen in Infinity War, or might not happen And we thought, 'No, we should just have a whole movie where we know every day we're going to arrive and get to work together.' So we just ran right up to Kevin Feige and started talking about it."
Feige was enthusiastic about the idea, telling Vulture in early 2018 that it was, quote, "all a matter of when and how."
Of course, that doesn't mean it will be any time soon. Fans have been clamoring for a Black Widow film for years, but it won't arrive until 2020, a whole year after the character's tragic sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame. But there is precedent for an all-female team of Avengers: in 2015, Marvel Comics unveiled A-Force, a team led by She-Hulk which included Captain Marvel, Nico Minoru of the Runaways, and Jane Foster during her stint as Thor.
And the project may have gotten a boost from the biggest star in the MCU, as Robert Downey Jr. revealed recently on social media that he had hosted a lunch for all of the MCU women who could attend, with some of them even coming in character!
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