AVENGERS: ENDGAME Writers Open Up About That Female Hero "Fan Service" Scene
During the final epic battle between the Marvel heroes and Thanos’ army in Avengers: Endgame there was a scene where most of the woman heroes in the MCU gathered together to help Captain Marvel get through the battle to protect the Infinity Gauntlet and get it to Ant-Man’s van. It ultimately ends up in the hands of Tony Stark.
There were a couple different reactions from the fans during this scene. A lot of fan cheered and were excited to see all these empowered women characters fighting along side each other, while others rolled their eyes at the moment and didn’t feel it was necessary to the story. After all, Captain Marvel didn’t really need anyone’s help, she just plowed through a Thanos’s giant war ship! Ultimately it was a fan service scene, and for the most part, it worked.
During a recently interview with Variety, co-writer Christopher Markus opened up this scene in the film saying:
"These movies would be nonexistent without the fans. So, you know, a movie that is made to frustrate fans seems a little suicidal. People say 'fan service' like you are pandering to some niche. I mean, we’ve all seen the numbers that these movies make. The fans are the majority at this point. Fan service is simply honoring the stories that have come before. It’s not like we’re pulling out a tiny Easter egg that only three people are going to get. It’s just tying up the threads; it’s picking up the nuances that have been dropped earlier. I don’t see it as any kind of niche writing."
Co-writer Stephen McFeely went on to say that all of the women from the production office and the crew showed up to the set of the film the day they filmed that scene. He also explained why they ultimately decided to include the scene in the film:
"They were pumped. There was a lot of pumped circumstances around it. We certainly thought long and hard about whether it had been earned. We really wanted most of these moments to be earned and not just a delightful piece of fan candy. Honestly, it made me nervous and sometimes, we would bring it up: 'Do we keep it? Do we not keep it?' And pretty much we all said, even me, 'God. I’d rather see it. I’d rather it be in there and make a big conversation and some people won’t think we earned it.' Everyone wanted to leave it in the movie."
If you go online, you’ll see plenty of people criticizing the scene, but there are also a lot of fans out there that loved seeing these female heroes come together like they did. I have two little girls who were super excited when it happened!
I imagine the this was just a tease for what is to come in the MCU. I think it’s safe to say that we are going to see an all-female A-Force-type Marvel movie at some point in the next five years. I’ll be surprised if we don’t.