**SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS: ENDGAME BELOW**
*IF YOU’RE THE PERSON WHO HASN’T SEEN IT YET, JUST TURN AROUND**
Okay, AVENGERS: ENDGAME meant the end of the road for some major characters, including Black Widow and Iron Man/Tony Stark both of whom gave their lives to the cause of stopping Thanos. One character who lived but had a sweet sendoff was Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), who got a heartfelt final moment that, for all its perfect tenderness, is actually a little confusing. Luckily, directors Joe and Anthony Russo are here to explain things as much as they can.
First, a recap. So, after the team bids farewell to Stark at his cabin, characters Hulk/Bruce Banner, Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes prepare to send Rogers back to the other timeline to give back the Infinity Stones they took (along with Thor’s hammer Mjolnir, to bring back to past Thor), thus preserving the realities as the Ancient One warned Banner about. However, when Banner tries to bring him back, he’s a no show. While Wilson is understandably troubled, Barnes seems to know what was going to happen all along. Soon, Barnes notices Old Cap sitting by the lake, and urges Wilson to go speak with him, where we learn he went back to have “some of that life” he never got to have, mainly with Peggy Carter. In the end, he gives Wilson his old shield, thus passing on the Captain America mantle.
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However, the question remained to many viewers, did Cap simply go back in time to the Prime timeline they all live in or did he go to an alternate timeline to live out his days with Carter? According to an interview the directors gave EW, they said it’s actually the latter.
“If Cap were to go back into the past and live there, he would create a branched reality,” Joe explained. “The question then becomes, how is he back in this reality to give the shield away?”
While that may just make things more confusing, the brothers gave a smile and seem to tease more mystery yet to unfold.
“Interesting question, right?” Joe said. “Maybe there’s a story there. There’s a lot of layers built into this movie and we spent three years thinking through it, so it’s fun to talk about it and hopefully fill in holes for people so they understand what we’re thinking.”
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The brothers continue, saying some of the mystery lies in how Bucky sends Cap off. “He says, ‘I’ll miss you,’” Joe explains. “Clearly he knows something.”
The conceit is that perhaps Bucky knows much more than we let on, which may even involve having had an interaction with Old Cap before this moment took place. At the very least, Wilson seems to have no clue what’s going on, with Joe saying, “Sam doesn’t know something.”
There a myriad of scenarios that we could think about, and indeed EW writer Anthony Breznican goes into them, but the fact of the matter is there’s more to the story of Cap, Sam and Bucky beyond just the perfect conclusion where Cap finally gets his dance with Peggy. Getting to do so meant possible repercussions, and what makes ENDGAME such a rousing conclusion that also opened up the doors for so much more it that there are even more mysteries and possibilities than ever to think about as we move into the grander new MCU Phase.
AVENGERS: ENDGAME is in theaters now, and if you haven't seen it then shame on you for getting this far down.