In case you didn't know, there are some valid reasons why the Defenders, the X-Men or the Fantastic Four didn't show up in Avengers: Endgame. Those have been spelled out by its writers in a new interview.
It goes without saying that Avengers: Endgame has managed to exceed the sky-high expectations most of us had from it. But some fans are a tad disappointed over the movie not including the characters from the Marvel Television-produced Netflix shows and the ones owned by 21st Century Fox until recently.
These issues were brought to the attention of the movie's writers, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, when they recently sat down with The New York Times. And the writing duo, in response, offered explanations that actually make a lot of sense.
We often forget that many of moviegoers who are contributing to the 22nd Marvel Cinematic Universe installment's unprecedented successes at the box office have little to no knowledge about the characters from the MCU's Netflix portion. McFeely pointed it out as a reason why the movie was better off without those characters. In his words:
We would have to introduce these five characters "” or whatever many. We already are assuming people have seen a lot of the movies. Are we really going to assume they have bought a subscription to Netflix and watched those shows enough so that when they see them, they're going to go "yay?"
Markus, then, came up with another reason why the Defenders weren't invited to the party:
It also screws up the timelines. You would have to assume that they all got snapped away, or otherwise they might have shown up earlier. I think the only character who has come from TV to the movies is Jarvis, James D'Arcy [from "Agent Carter"].
As for why Avengers: Endgame couldn't make room for newer incarnations of the X-Men and/or the Fantastic Four, McFeely stated that they were legally not allowed to use those characters. Markus elaborated:
I guess it's done now but it wasn't done then. They still have an "X-Men" movie ["Dark Phoenix," due in June]. You can't reboot them before they're done. "Sorry to completely screw you."
