The final act of Avengers: Endgame was filled with goodbyes. There was, y’know, the big one (that we definitely still aren’t over), but there was also a handful of neat little character beats and farewells between some of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and those they have grown ever-closer to over the years.
One such moment was between Thor and freshly-crowned ruler of New Asgard, Valkyrie. In the movie proper, it was a sweet scene as Thor passed the torch but, as co-director Anthony Russo reveals, it could have been a cringe-fest but an awkward deleted scene from Avengers: Endgame ended up being left on the cutting room floor.
“He sort of starts to lean in for a kiss, and she goes, 'What are you doing?' And he goes, 'Oh, I thought the touch.' She's like, 'Yeah, it's a goodbye touch. A tap I'm giving you.' It was a really funny beat but we cut it.”
Yeesh. Forget the Negative Zone, the God of Thunder almost got a deserved one-way trip to the Friend Zone. I’m pretty glad they cut that, too. Thor was the butt of a LOT of jokes in Avengers: Endgame, he didn’t need to have one more thrust upon him while coming off as super creepy in the process.
Meanwhile, we’re starting to get a fuller picture of the chops and changes made to trim Avengers: Endgame down to a ‘lean’ three hours. There’s already been talk of a longer final battle scene as part of the Avengers: Endgame deleted scenes, as well as drafts involving different hero vs. hero fights instead of the Cap clash. There’s probably a good 20 minutes we’ll never get to see sitting in a vault somewhere. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: Release the Russo cut, you cowards.
