How Avengers: Endgame Was Almost Completely Different
7. There Was Almost A New Character Introduced
Endgame was definitely full of surprises, from Professor Hulk's fully-formed appearance to Thor's own, er, full appearance, but everything that came as a shock was through years of development in the other numerous films of the franchise. We've had years of solidifying well-known character traits that were then played with to great effect - so how would Endgame have looked if they'd included a whole new character nobody has ever seen before?
Interestingly titled 'The Living Tribunal', this was a comic book hero that Markus and McFeely wanted to include during the runtime of Infinity War and Endgame, originating as a cosmic entity that maintains the balance between the Marvel multiverse as a pillar of judgement.
Considering we're getting a hell of a lot of messing around with the universe as we know it as well as the timelines that construct its existence, it makes sense that such a character could fit into the MCU here. At least, if you ignore that no-one knows who the hell he is, what he does, and why on earth he would have taken this long to appear in the film franchise.
Of course those were the reasons cited back to the screenwriters when they chucked him into the battle on Titan, with The Living Tribunal's complicated inclusion not sitting well with the rest of the narrative. Whilst it would have been a great nod for those that have been fans of the physical works for some time, this wasn't his moment to pop up.
That being said - he is still being floating around by big Kevin Feige for other projects, so this isn't the last of him just yet.