Avengers: Endgame Writers Reveal the Struggle with Killing Black Widow

It broke fans' hearts to see Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) sacrifice herself for the sake of the Soul Stone on Vormir in Avengers: Endgame. Unwilling to let her best friend sacrifice himself, Natasha gave up her life for the sake of the team.

Speaking in an interview with Vanity Fair to discuss various topics about Endgame, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have opened up about the various choices they've made writing the comic book movie.

During the discussion the Endgame writing duo touched upon their decision to kill off Black Widow, admitting that it had been hard for them both to let Natasha go.

"Not without some controversy. We certainly thought long and hard about it," McFeely began. "We knew we were killing the first female hero of the Marvel Universe. We stupidly came up with these rules in the first movie—someone's going over that cliff. So we had to decide. By the way, you had to easily love the person next to you, so we couldn't send Steve Rogers and Hulk. So it's a puzzle of our own making, but it felt like it was the resolution of her arc, that if she could sacrifice herself for her new family and for half the universe, that was worth it to her."

For those who don't really know, Endgame actually had an alternate sequence where Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) was the one who jumped off the cliff instead of Natasha. Markus and McFeely wanted the sequence to be Black Widow's final test together with a character that she's always been so close to.

However, reactions to Black Widow's sacrifice changed their minds.

"A number of women on the crew, when we said, "Hey, we're thinking maybe Hawkeye goes over," the writer said, "Don't you do that! Don't rob her of this!" And then it choked me up because I think we would have a much different conversation if Hawkeye had pushed her aside."

The sacrifice was one of Natasha's biggest moments in the film. In the sequence, we get to see Black Widow giving her life for her friend when he needed her the most.

While Natasha will never come back from the dead, fans are going to get to see her again in a prequel film when Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe arrives.

Black Widow premieres May 1, 2020.

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