Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame follow below.
If you saw Avengers: Endgame and left the movie wondering who in the world Katherine Langford played, you’re not alone. The 13 Reasons Why actress was cast in a key mystery role last October, but ultimately she doesn’t appear in the finished film. And now we know why.
Speaking with Josh Horowitz on the HappySadConfused podcast (via /Film), directors Joe and Anthony Russo revealed that Langford did have a major scene in Avengers: Endgame, but the scene ended up being cut. Who did she play? None other than the teenaged version of Tony Stark’s daughter, Morgan. Yes indeed, the Russo brothers shot a sequence in which Tony was jolted to the metaphysical world after he snapped the gauntlet, just like Thanos, where he encountered the teenaged version of his daughter. Joe Russo said:
“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.”
Joe Russo went on to say the idea was that Tony received a semblance of solace after his sacrifice, that everything would be OK:
“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.”
Unfortunately, since the scene starred a new actress in the role of Tony’s daughter, test audiences were just confused. Anthony Russo explained:
“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.”
Thus, the whole scene was cut. This does make you wonder if Tony’s final goodbye to Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) was part of reshoots, after the scene with his older daughter was cut. Because that “goodbye” fulfills the same purpose—to let Tony know that everything’s going to be okay once he’s gone, that he can let go.
It’ll be interesting to see if this sequence makes its way onto the home video release, or if it’s just an idea that didn’t work that’ll never see the light of day. Regardless, this is why you test movies. The ending we got, and the goodbye Tony has with Pepper and Peter Parker (Tom Holland), is the perfect emotional beat.
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