Edwin Jarvis, who appears at around 1 hour 45 minutes into the film, became the first character introduced in a Marvel TV series to appear in a theatrical film, played by James D'Arcy. Jarvis, who first appeared in the 'Now Is Not the End' episode of Agent Carter in 2015, was a regular on the series. This was also the first time the original Jarvis appeared in a film, since in previous productions his place had been taken by the artificial intelligence J.A.R.V.I.S., voiced by Paul Bettany.
When Frigga catches Thor from behind and makes her presence felt, both of them flinch at the same time. Rene Russo's reaction was entirely improvised; she did not expect Chris Hemsworth to shout so loudly and jump back.
Anthony Mackie was surprised when he learned Falcon's fate, and by a twist of fate he heard the news from Chris Evans himself. In an interview he recounted: 'We were at his house and Chris said, "Are you excited?" I said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "You don't know?!" and jumped up, ran out of the room and came back with the script. We cried. We drank. We laughed. I'm so happy I got to share that moment with Chris; he didn't just pass the shield to me, he also told me it was going to happen.'
Robert Downey Jr. hid his own personal snacks all over the set. All the scenes in which he ate snacks and offered them to his co-stars were improvised.
Robert Downey Jr. officially surpassed Hugh Jackman's record for playing the same superhero the most times, with ten films. He broke the record in only 11 years, while Jackman had achieved it in 17. Jackman would go on to tie the record by appearing for the tenth time with his role in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024).
This film was Chadwick Boseman's final live-action appearance as Black Panther, as he died of colon cancer on August 28, 2020. Before his death, he had completed his voice recordings for the first season of the animated series What If...?.
At around 44 minutes, the older version of Scott Lang was played by Lee Moore. This was his final film, and he passed away before the film was released.
Although Captain Marvel (2019) was released a month before this film, Brie Larson shot her scenes for this film first. The scene at Avengers Headquarters was Brie Larson's first day on set as Carol Danvers. Captain Marvel's co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck were present on set during the shooting of her scenes to ensure the character's consistency. In an interview with CinemaBlend, Fleck said, 'To be clear, we were actually shooting simultaneously. The Russos shared the script with us, we shared ours with them, and we gave each other feedback, so it was a fairly fluid approach to the character.' Boden added: 'They shot with her before and after she shot with us. But her introduction into this world was really beautiful because the Russo brothers had been working with Marvel for many years and had made some of our favorite Marvel films at that point. We were on set on Brie's first day of shooting in Atlanta. We saw her try on the Captain Marvel costume for the first time. It was really exciting to feel the energy of bringing this new, really important character into that world and to get a sense of where she was going and how important she would be before we made our film.'
Director Joe Russo's daughters, Ava Russo and Lia Russo, played Hawkeye's daughter Lila Barton and one of the Professor Hulk fans asking for an autograph and a selfie, respectively.
Robert Redford briefly returned to his role as Alexander Pierce from Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), but this scene takes place in 2012, before the events of that film. This was the only time in his career that he played the same character twice. It was also his last film to be released after he retired in 2018, although the last film he shot was The Old Man & the Gun (2018), which was released earlier.
Chris Evans's mother cried when she saw him as the older version of his character, because of his resemblance to his father.
At around 21 minutes, Thanos's creator appears as a member of a support group: a bald man with glasses and a goatee.
At around 51 minutes, Korg (Taika Waititi) is wearing the same Hawaiian/pineapple-patterned shirt that Waititi wore at San Diego Comic-Con and in some interviews while promoting Thor: Ragnarok (2017).
When Tony tells Nebula that he beat her at the 'flick it football' game, Nebula is visibly surprised. This is because a large part of her identity has been defined by constantly losing in fights against her sister Gamora. This is perhaps the only contest she has ever won.
With this film, following his roles in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Tom Holland took over from Tobey Maguire the record for playing Spider-Man the most times in live-action films.
Robert Downey Jr. shared his thoughts with Chris Evans about their endings in the MCU in the fall issue of Disney twenty-three magazine. "We had to get off. We opted to, and knew that getting off the bus was part of the deal while the bus went elsewhere," he explained. "There's something very sobering about it. I'm glad he and I will be there to greet others as they retire their jerseys." Downey Jr. added that he "doesn't like" talking about his "legacy" and leaving a mark, especially compared to Evans and Mark Ruffalo. "I really don't need to look beyond my castmates. Mark Ruffalo is an activist, Chris Evans is an American true to his core and a defender of real democracy," he said. "I don't have the courage, the skill set, the ambition or the humility those two have." Downey Jr.'s impact on the MCU was recognized on August 23, 2019, when he was named a Disney Legend at D23 Expo. On that occasion, he told a funny story about being arrested on his first visit to Disneyland.
In roughly 2 hours and 40 minutes, Vin Diesel says "I am Groot" only once in this film; in the scene where Thor and Star-Lord argue over who will lead the Guardians of the Galaxy. The rest of the Guardians suggested a knife fight. Groot's only line meant "I like knives."
At C2E2 2020 in Chicago, Mark Ruffalo was asked who gave the best superhero performance. After some banter from the moderator (Clare Kramer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Ruffalo admitted that Robert Downey Jr. was his hero and that Iron Man's death devastated him too. "Robert. Robert is my hero. His Iron Man is definitive and he started all of this," Ruffalo said. "Working with him, I always admire him, so... He did it for the longest time and with the greatest class, grace and generosity, so yes, I'd say Robert, and when he died it devastated me." Of course, Ruffalo joked that he didn't know right away that Iron Man would die. "We thought he was getting married," Ruffalo quipped. "That's what was in my script."
Mark Ruffalo said that playing Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe can sometimes be very embarrassing, because his castmates often mocked his unusual appearance on set. In a video with GQ looking back at his most iconic roles, the actor, who has played the green giant since 2012, joked that he had to wear tight tights because the role required so much motion capture. "It was very humiliating," he laughed, describing his "team-canceling" look in the video. "All the actors, whenever I came out, would start laughing at me because they were in cool superhero costumes and I was wearing ridiculous pajamas that looked like a Chinese checkers board." The 52-year-old actor recalled a specific scene in The Avengers (2012) where the Hulk catches Robert Downey Jr.'s character Iron Man in midair after he falls through a wormhole while trying to save New York. "Hulk catches Downey... and puts him down, right?" Ruffalo notes. "In my little tights, I decided to do this Hulk roar over him. His eyes were closed and he just opened one and said, 'Really, Ruffalo? Is that what you're going with?' It was always like that! On the last film he came up to me and said, 'I feel so sorry for you. I see how hard it is for you to stand in that costume all day.'"
Throughout Spider-Man's five appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Peter Parker frequently makes pop culture references to "old" films like "Emperor" or "Creature." It turns out Tom Holland was also unaware of these projects, including one from a distant galaxy. The Russo Brothers recently discussed why this personality quirk is great. As Anthony Russo explained, "I should tell you, I was really excited when he said he hadn't seen it, because the idea felt so new and unexpected to me. I thought, 'This is great.' Tom is a man whose sensibilities we truly admire and value, and we can access his sensibilities, and they haven't been influenced by Star Wars."
Mantis swaying during the funeral scene is a nod to the real behavior of praying mantises; this detail is hidden for careful eyes in the roughly 2-hour-38-minute film.
The Russo brothers are referring to a scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Rogers tells Natasha that if she stays in the moral gray area, he can't trust her. This is a key moment for his character; he gives up and suggests moving on, but Natasha persuades him to stay on the heroic path and find an answer. Thus Rogers discovers his willingness to sacrifice himself to restore a "family."
In an interview with IGN, Hayley Atwell considered whether Chris Evans's Steve Rogers would tell Sharon Carter that he kissed her: "Probably, in a very weird way, that would lead to a domestic problem. Words would be said, voices would be raised. Wouldn't that be so funny? If they had a real argument and he slammed that door and went fishing for the weekend..." she laughs. Atwell thinks that in the 40s atmosphere, this could have the tone of a nice, healthy screwball comedy rather than a soap opera: "Let's write it now, let's do it."
Scarlett Johansson spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about Black Widow's heartbreaking death: 'It was sad that her ending was sorrowful, but I was excited for her to die with honor. It suited the character; her sacrificing herself not for humanity, but actually for her friends, the people she loved.' Johansson had learned her fate before filming Avengers: Infinity War: 'It was bittersweet.'
Chris Evans admitted that the prosthetic makeup that turned Steve Rogers into an old man made him look strikingly like President Joe Biden.
Jeremy Renner had to leave Mission: Impossible - Fallout in order to reprise the role of Hawkeye in this film.
Five years later, Black Widow has a new hairstyle: red roots and blonde tips. After the events of Captain America: Civil War, she had dyed her natural red hair blonde to avoid being recognized. The red roots and blonde tips suggest that after Infinity War she felt it was no longer necessary to maintain the blonde, but that as the de facto director of the Avengers she did not dye her hair red again while doing everything she could.
Although Gwyneth Paltrow appeared in the same films as Samuel L. Jackson, she did not realize he was in the Marvel productions until she shot a scene with him in this film. Kevin Feige told Empire magazine live on air that the scene in which nearly every character comes together for the main character's funeral was shot in October 2017, before Infinity War was released, and that many actors were unaware that other A-listers had signed on to appear in future films. 'Tom Holland was coming up to me saying, 'Is that Michelle Pfeiffer? What's going on?'' Feige said. 'Gwyneth Paltrow was asking why Sam Jackson was there, and other actors were jumping in saying, 'What are you talking about? He's Nick Fury! You've been in movies with him.' But it was really something special.'
Black Panther's sister Shuri plays a major role in bringing the Avengers back together thanks to her advanced technological knowledge. It is because of the communication device Shuri created for her brother's trip to Korea in Black Panther that Sam Wilson is able to say the line 'On your left' to Cap before joining the battle with the rest of the un-snapped team. According to Shuri, the device has 'unlimited range'; this explains how Falcon could communicate with Cap from such a distance before leaping through a portal from Wakanda to the ruined Avengers headquarters in upstate New York.
The line 'You can rest now' that Pepper Potts says to the dying Tony Stark was improvised by Gwyneth Paltrow.
The cast, including small roles, features eleven Oscar winners (Robert Downey Jr., Brie Larson, Zoe Saldaña, Tilda Swinton, Natalie Portman, Marisa Tomei, Taika Waititi, Michael Douglas, William Hurt, Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Redford) and twelve Oscar nominees (Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Sebastian Stan, Angela Bassett, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bradley Cooper, Josh Brolin and Samuel L. Jackson).
The actor who appears as a security guard when Scott Lang returns to his van in a storage facility (at around the 23rd minute) had previously worked with the Russo brothers on the series Community.
Visual Effects Producer Jen Underdahl detailed their approach to Josh Brolin's Thanos: 'For us it wasn't just a technical exploration, it was also a character exploration for Josh, Joe and Anthony. We had imagined Thanos as a big, rough, exaggerated character, but Josh's portrayal of him was beautiful. His performance was threatening but subtle; terrifying but with small twitches. At that moment, we realized we needed a company that could capture all of that and carry his performance through the prosthetics. So that when you look at Thanos, you have to feel that dread inside you along with the character.'
Tom Holland, known for frequently leaking details of his films, accidentally revealed at one of the premieres that he was alive in Endgame. Before the film began, he took the stage and shouted 'I'm alive!' He did this because he thought the film was over and everyone had finished watching it.
The actor who appears at around the 20th minute as a support group member talking about going on a first date after losing his male partner represents the first moment an openly gay character appears in the MCU. He had previously cameoed in a scene deleted from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.
With a runtime of about 15 minutes, Brie Larson (Carol Danvers) has the least screen time among the remaining Avengers cast; she was absent from nearly 90% of the film.
The credits list fifty-four actors in total; fifty-two of them appeared in more than one film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's 'Infinity Saga' storyline. Hiroyuki Sanada and James D'Arcy are the two names with only one MCU film credit; D'Arcy, however, had previously appeared in the Agent Carter series. Including post-credits and mid-credits scenes (excluding MCU productions after Spider-Man: Far from Home): Angela Bassett, Linda Cardellini, Brie Larson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert Redford, Tilda Swinton, Tessa Thompson, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor and Taika Waititi appeared in two films; Michael Douglas, Winston Duke, Frank Grillo, Danai Gurira, Pom Klementieff, Evangeline Lilly, Natalie Portman, Rene Russo, Benedict Wong and Letitia Wright in three films; Jacob Batalon, Dave Bautista, Chadwick Boseman, Josh Brolin, Bradley Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Vin Diesel, Karen Gillan, Sean Gunn, Maximiliano Hernández, William Hurt, Chris Pratt, Paul Rudd, Zoe Saldaña, John Slattery and Marisa Tomei in four films; Hayley Atwell, Tom Holland, Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner in five films; Jon Favreau, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Mackie and Cobie Smulders in six films; Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Ruffalo and Sebastian Stan in seven films; Chris Hemsworth in eight films; Scarlett Johansson in nine films; and Robert Downey Jr. in ten films. Chris Evans and Samuel L. Jackson share the record for the most appearances in the MCU, with eleven films each.
The woman in the military base elevator asks Cap, 'Are you new here?' The Russo brothers had previously worked with Brown on the series Community.
Three actors who have played Sherlock Holmes appear in this film: Robert Downey Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch and James D'Arcy.
Lee Moore, who plays the 93-year-old Scott Lang during the time travel test, died in 2018, eight months before the film's release.
ESPN's fantasy football expert plays one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who encounters Tony Stark in the New York scene — roughly 1 hour and 20 minutes in.
This is Hiroyuki Sanada's second appearance in Marvel comic book films; the first was as Shingen in The Wolverine (2013).
Thor lost his eye to Hela in Ragnarok; in Infinity War he wore an eye patch and received a new eye from Rocket Raccoon. Although he appears with the eye patch in Endgame concept work, he appears in the film with an eye of a different color. The concepts belong to artist Wesley Burt, who also worked on Black Panther and Doctor Strange as well as Infinity War and Endgame; Burt is also involved in The Eternals and the Loki series.
Lou Ferrigno criticized Mark Ruffalo and Disney over the portrayal of Hulk in Endgame: 'Hulk should be disgusting, a creature. But in the film you see Mark Ruffalo; they took that beauty and quality away from Hulk.' Ferrigno said the 'spaceships, weapons, space' in the film went too far, and that good stories and messages are needed. While he found Ruffalo a 'great actor,' he stated that he could not take the character seriously enough: 'Bill Bixby had that intensity; Marvel and Disney went in a different direction.'
The romantic tension between Bruce Banner and Natasha left over from Age of Ultron is never mentioned in Endgame.
Robert Downey Jr. appeared as Tony Stark in films from five different studios: Paramount (Iron Man 1-2), Marvel Studios (Iron Man 3), Sony/Columbia (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Universal (The Incredible Hulk) and Disney (Avengers: Endgame).
It is the 10th film for Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Chris Pratt to surpass 100 million dollars domestically; for Hemsworth and Renner, it is the 11th film including cameos.
Michael Douglas's hairstyle, clothes and his distinctive stride while running are immediately recognizable to older generations who remember him from his role in The Streets of San Francisco (1972).
This was Robert Redford's last Marvel film before his death.
It reunites Robert Redford (Alexander Pierce) and Michelle Pfeiffer (Janet Van Dyne) after Up Close & Personal (1996); however, they do not appear in the same scene.
Thanos telling Wanda 'I don't even know who you are' in the final battle makes sense: this is Thanos from 2014, while Wanda joined the Avengers in 2015.
Although the Avengers go to Asgard in 2013 and to New York in 2012, there is no scene with Odin (Anthony Hopkins) or Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg).
The shot of young Hank Pym running away from the camera in a long overcoat looks familiar to fans of The Streets of San Francisco: in the series, a young Michael Douglas would run with the same charging stride. The series began 49 years before the events of the film, and Douglas's character was the same age as Pym.
This was Evangeline Lilly's last Avengers film before she retired from acting in 2024.
It is the third collaboration between Chris Pratt and Chris Evans, after What's Your Number? (2011) and Infinity War (2018).