SPOILER ALERT: This contains ‘Avengers: Endgame’ SPOILERS, so proceed with caution or turn back now, if you still haven’t seen it.
Last October, it was revealed that Katherine Langford (’13 Reasons Why’, ‘Love, Simon’) had filmed an undisclosed role for ‘Avengers: Endgame’, but now that the picture is out, Langford is nowhere to be seen. What gives? It turns out her role was cut, but what was it?
The immediate assumption was that Langford portrayed a young hero, representing the rise of the next generation, with some guessing that she was either playing Scott Lang’s daughter Cassie, or a new Hawkeye, either Kate Bishop or Clint Barton’s daughter, Lila. Well, Emma Fuhrmann had already been announced as playing Cassie last April, so some folks just weren’t paying attention. Meanwhile, Lila Barton was portrayed by Ava Russo, daughter of co-director Joe. (Joe, of course, made a cameo as a grieving member of Cap’s post-snap support group, and his other daughter Lia also made a cameo.)
But those guesses are on the right path. While Langford’s character might also become a hero in the future, she didn’t originate in the comics. She would have played Morgan Stark, Tony and Pepper’s daughter, who appeared only as a young girl in ‘Endgame’ and was played by Lexi Rabe.
And that is for the best.
The Russo Brothers discussed a cut scene that would have echoed one from ‘Infinity War’. Remember after Thanos’ snap, how he wound up inside the Soul Stone and had a brief exchange with little Gamora? The ‘Endgame’ scene would have been like that, except with Tony Stark.
The directors discussed it on MTV’s Happy Sad Confused podcast:
Joe Russo: “There was an idea that we had that Tony was going to go into the metaphysical way station that Thanos goes in when he snapped his fingers. And that there was going to be a future version of his daughter in that way station.”
Anthony Russo: “What we realized about it was we didn’t feel an emotional association with the adult version of his daughter. So it wasn’t ringing to us and resonating with us on an emotional level.”
Joe Russo: “The intention was that his future daughter, because these films are dealing with magic, his future daughter forgave him and sort of gave him peace to go. And the idea felt resonant. But it was just too many ideas in an overly complicated movie.”
It appears that the Russos showed the scene to a few people and they either didn’t get it or just didn’t like it. After all, Tony Stark’s death was powerful enough. First, there was Spider-Man’s frantic goodbye, in which he apologized again, for failing Stark. Then Pepper, in essence, gave Tony the same permission to pass on that would have come via the teenage Morgan. I don’t think tacking on that extra “dream sequence” or whatever you want to call it, would have added anything.
What do you think? Would that extra scene have added to the impact of Tony’s death? Would you like to at least see it on the Blu-Ray extras?
