Avengers: Endgame clocked in at just over three hours at the cinema, but there was still more of the film that was left on the cutting room floor.

The spoiler ban on the film has now officially lifted, so directors Joe and Anthony Russo and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have been speaking about what did and didn’t make it in.

It won’t surprise anyone to learn that the final epic battle scene, in which the Avengers and their allies fight against Thanos’ army, was even longer than it currently is. 

There were also some characters who would have swapped storylines: Markus and McFeely told the New York Times that the plan was for Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to originally go on a revenge killing spree, a plot line that was given to Hawkeye/Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) in the final film. Hawkeye was also the subject of another change: in an early draft, he was going to be the one to sacrifice himself to get the Soul Stone, but in the final version Black Widow/Natasha (Scarlett Johanssen) dies (Hawkeye should have died, but that’s just this writer’s opinion).

But there’s one surprising scene that didn’t make it into the final cut of Avengers: Endgame.

In the final scene between Thor and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Thor decides not to remain in New Asgard, telling Valkyrie that she’s already the ruler. But there was more to the scene that was cut at the last minute, according to the Russos.

Speaking to Sirius XM, Anthony Russo revealed that Thor “had this beat with Valkyrie where after he sort of turns over the kingdom to her, she puts her arm on his shoulder and he sort of starts to lean in for a kiss”.

Valkyrie’s reaction to this come on is to ask Thor “what are you doing?”, to which he responded “oh, I thought the touch…”.

In response, Valkyrie says: “Yeah, it’s a goodbye tap I’m giving you.”

Anthony Russo described the moment as a “really funny beat”, and although we can see the humour in it, we’re glad it didn’t make it into the final cut.

Marvel, well aware that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been lacking when it comes to gender equality, has been doing some course correcting recently. We finally got our first female-led superhero film from the franchise with this year’s Captain Marvel, and Avengers: Endgame featured an empowering scene in which its female characters banded together to help Captain Marvel move the Infinity Gauntlet through the final battle.

We can see that the moment between Valkyrie and Thor would have been funny, and Valkyrie’s reaction clearly marked out that she had no interest in being Thor’s new girlfriend. But we’re really happy the scene didn’t make it in at all - regardless of how Valkyrie reacted, the scene would have placed her in the realm of love interest, and she’s definitely so much more than that.

But we would still like to see all the other footage from the cutting room floor please.

Image: Disney/Marvel Studios