Avengers: Endgame Originally Had A Different Title

A rose by any other name may smell as sweet — but the culmination of 11 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by a different title? Would it be as impactful? It's hard to imagine Avengers: Endgame bearing any other title, but it's totally true: the film was originally called something else.

Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo dropped the bombshell during an appearance on MTV News correspondent Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast. They shared that the fourth Avengers film was originally titled Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet, which was its chosen name for "quite a long time." 

So, why did the Russos and the bigwigs over at Marvel Studios swap Infinity Gauntlet for Endgame? Well, the filmmakers didn't say, but we can surmise that the name change may have been motivated by two potentially significant factors. 

The first is that Infinity Gauntlet gives away a lot of what the film ended up being about. We know that Marvel kept the film's title a secret for months on end, as it was a spoiler for Avengers: Infinity War. Perhaps the studio realized that Infinity Gauntlet was too fitting a name for the movie, considering the plot revolves around the heroes who survived Thanos' (Josh Brolin) original Snap in Infinity War collecting the Infinity Stones from various points in the past to power their own Infinity Gauntlet. Endgame, on the other hand, is a much more ambiguous title — and is still technically an Infinity War spoiler, as that film featured Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange uttering the line, "We're in the endgame now." 

Some might argue that switching from Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet to Avengers: Endgame means Marvel could have announced the title much earlier than it did, as Endgame doesn't tease nearly as much information about the plot as Infinity Gauntlet does, but perhaps the decision to change the name was a last-minute one made at the 11th hour. We simply don't know for sure as of now.

A second possible determinant in Marvel's choice to change the title of the fourth Avengers flick is the fact that one Marvel actor actually leaked the original name two years ahead of its theatrical debut. Zoe Saldana, who plays Gamora in the MCU, accidentally mentioned the Gauntlet subtitle when she spoke to the BBC's Lizo Mzimba in late April 2017 during an event for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The actress first referred to Infinity War and Endgame collectively as "Infinity Wars," which is understandable considering the films were originally announced as Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 and Part 2. She continued, "I think that the Guardians just shot their part when it comes to Infinity Wars, like, the first part. And we all have to go back for Gauntlet later this year."

Actors dishing up information they didn't have the clearance to isn't anything new in the world of Marvel movies — just take a look at blabbermouths Tom Holland and Mark Ruffalo, who have spoiled their fair share of MCU entries in the past. However, Marvel may have taken a more serious approach to Saldana's mentioning of the Avengers 4 title given how monumental the movie is and how important it is to the overarching film franchise. 

Contrarily, perhaps none of this factored into Marvel's decision to scrap the Infinity Gauntlet subtitle and stamp the film as Avengers: Endgame. The executives could have set up a meeting with the Russo brothers, or the filmmakers with the studio brass, and had a quick discussion about altering the name on some random day without a lot of forethought. Maybe they just thought it sounded cooler than Infinity Gauntlet or carried a bit more weight. And when all is said and done, no matter what title Avengers: Endgame touted, fans were always going to flock to it in droves. It's just too dang irresistible.