Avengers: Endgame - 10 Secrets We Just Learned From The Writers At Comic-Con

6. How The Living Tribunal Would've Been Introduced

Thanos Captain America
Marvel Comics

Back when Endgame first came out, Markus and McFeely revealed that they tried to include The Living Tribunal in Infinity War's Titan battle scene. The character - one of the most powerful cosmic beings in Marvel Comics - has never been adapted into a live-action setting, and he obviously didn't make the cut here either.

Now, the writing duo have expanded on how exactly they would've introduced the character, stating that Thanos would've been sent to him and judged guilty.

"It was partly inspired by Kevin Feige... he came into the conference room in Atlanta, where we were trapped for years, and he had brought a bunch of comics panels with him... and he wanted to make sure we didn't lose the psychedelic nature of the [Jim] Starlin universe... and so we stuck the Living Tribunal in the movie. So, as Thanos and Doctor Strange came to blows, Doctor Strange blew Thanos' mind and sent him through the mindscape."
"In the end, he would have been dumped in front of the Living Tribunal, who judged him guilty."

A neat idea, but this scene would've been an unwelcome distraction during what is supposed to be a tense, propulsive and focused fight sequence. Imagine The Living Tribunal just showing up randomly. Instead of being invested in the rest of the movie, general audiences would be thinking "hold up. What was that? Explain!"

On the plus side, the character is still free to be introduced in a movie further down the road.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.