'Doctor Strange's Magical Mystery Tour' and The Living Tribunal:
For his appearance in Infinity War, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige didn't want to lose the trippy, Jim Starlin-inspired aspects of Doctor Strange. That led to Markus & McFeely adding a scene unofficially known as Dr. Strange's Magical Mystery Tour.
During the team-up showdown on Titan, Strange hit Thanos in the head, pushing his Astral body through time and space - which would have resembled what the Ancient One did to Strange at the start of his solo film.
During his flight, Thanos witnesses his many crimes throughout his lifetime, and eventually lands in front of The Living Tribunal, a four-faced cosmic entity that keeps balance among all of the Marvel multiverse's realities. The Tribunal judges Thanos guilty, but the Mad Titan eventually figures out it’s all “smoke and mirrors” on the part of Strange and returns to the battle on Titan.
Ultimately the character was cut because, as Markus explained, “If that guy exists, why is Thanos really a problem?” He added, “We were in the middle of a really fast-paced fight, so to stop it for an LSD trip kind of sucked the air out of it.”
Thor's Original Adventure (Which "Sucked Rocks"):
Thor’s mission in Infinity War was originally different and, as McFeely put it, it “sucked rocks.” The writers said this was their biggest moment of panic in their time working for Marvel - at one point in 2016 nobody at the studio was happy with what the writers had for Thor’s character in those early drafts. Thor’s mission would have involved him battling with a giant serpent, but was “much too adventure-related, and insufficiently character-based,” Markus explained.
“It was dark for a long time because we hadn’t done well enough,” McFeely said, adding that any other production company would have fired them at that point. But unlike other studios, they said, Marvel realises first drafts are first drafts, and will work on them with writers. Eventually Markus and McFeely created Thor's journey to create Stormbreaker, and the old journey was jettisoned.
The Birth of Smart Hulk:
Much of Bruce Banner's journey through Infinity War centres around the fact that the Hulk refuses to emerge, but the original draft brought a resolution to that journey. Scenes that saw Bruce and Hulk reach inner peace and become Smart Hulk - who appeared in Endgame - were written and even shot, and included him battling Cull Obsidian.
But it didn't work out. “It was completely the wrong tone for that moment in the movie,” Markus explained, and the scenes were cut. Scenes featuring Smart Hulk in Endgame had already been shot, which meant the story had to be tweaked - the writers found their solution in Endgame's five-year gap, which allowed Bruce and Hulk's resolution to happen offscreen.
Cap and Red Skull Team Up:
While the scene was never written, the writers’ original “manifesto document” for the two movies included a "theory" that saw Cap go into space to recover some of the Infinity Stones. That would have seen him head to Vormir to collect the Soul Stone, where he encountered his old foe Red Skull in his new role as the keeper of the stone.
This would have led to Cap and Red Skull being forced to work together - Red Skull knew more about them, and Cap had the strength to take them. It became a sort of team-up, with Red Skull serving what Markus and McFeely called a 'Gollum role'.
Thanos Kills The Past Avengers:
One early plan for Endgame had Past Thanos emerge from the Avengers' time machine holding the decapitated head of 2012's Captain America! After sending Nebula to tinker with the machine, this version of Thanos didn't bide his time - he went to Earth in 2012, destroyed it, and killed all of its Avengers. Think of it as practice.
The plan included a shot that included the corpse of Giant Man in the background at one point - Markus said they were borrowing a bit from Old Man Logan for that.
Tony Stark Had Far More Last Words:
Markus and McFeely initially wrote a lot more for Tony to say before he died, wrapping up his character's journey more neatly. However, someone didn't agree with that resolution: “Robert did not want to say them”, explained Markus. It was Robert Downey Jr.’s idea to scale his dialogue way, way back and have him not really say anything.
It worked better, the writers explained, because we’ve seen Tony talk and talk for a decade so for him to now be silent was far more impactful. We'd tend to agree.
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One hit from Thor should either make a human explode into a million pieces or send him flying a thousand feet.
