MCU: 10 Fascinating Facts Behind Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

9. Cap Almost Didn't Show Up Until MUCH Later

Originally, the film-makers planned to make us wait to see Captain America's delightful beard in action.

Though his part in the Edinburgh sequence and the confirmation of the Secret Avengers is one of the best parts of the film's first act, it almost didn't happen. The Russos originally wanted to keep his entrance into the action as late into the film as they could. In fact, he wouldn't have appeared until Thanos had landed in Wakanda.

The plan obviously came with a caveat: Cap's story in Endgame will be much bigger, which is why he would have been largely a spectator in Infinity War. In an interview with io9, Infinity War co-writer Stephen McFeely actually admitted that Cap didn't really get enough to do in the first movie:

“When I was talking about [Infinity War], I very often said that sometimes we gave ourselves permission to tell more story for a character in Endgame than in Infinity War,” McFeely said. “Cap’s a great example. People counted Cap’s lines [in Infinity War] and he had like 20.

“So Cap steps forward, as you can probably tell, pretty dramatically in Endgame. And that’s because we knew some people had more interesting stories after [the Snap] than before it. Cap and Natasha are good examples of that. So I wouldn’t say we shortchange anybody [in Endgame], but part of the reason there are only [13] people on that poster was to go deeper with fewer.”