Avengers: Endgame was a bladder-burstingly long film that could’ve very well been even longer had the directors decided to go with some of the crazier ideas they had in mind.
The directors still ended up shooting a bunch of stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor and now USA Today has released one of these deleted scenes out into the open.
It takes place immediately after Tony Stark‘s death following his use of the Infinity Stones to snap away Thanos and his minions. It’s basically an extension of the scene we eventually got as we see all the surviving Avengers pay their respects to the billionaire by taking a knee.
The scene is clearly going for a big emotional moment, but it simply doesn’t land. It’s more heavy-handed than the Hulk, adds unneeded extra minutes to Endgame‘s runtime to the detriment of everyone’s bladder and kinda ruins Tony’s ending by unnecessarily padding out the moment. The same sentiment is carried across far better during Tony’s big funeral anyway so it’s pretty clear why the scene was cut.
That being said, the scene did clear the air on what exactly happened to 2014-Gamora, who disappeared following the battle and was presumed by some to have gone up in dust. While everyone else were kneeling, she simply shrugs and wanders off.
But the Gamora reveal ultimately wasn’t needed either as Endgame‘s ending shows Peter Quill searching for her on his ship’s computer, rendering the scene a little moot. Granted that her fate is pretty damn vague but let’s be honest, there was no way Marvel would kill off Gamora (again).
Something needs to propel the story in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 after all and having Starlord and his group of A-holes going on a wild goose after their green-skinned comrade seems like a pretty good place to start.