The Hero MCU Fans Wish Had More Screen Time In Avengers: Endgame
By any measure, Marvel Studios' "Avengers: Endgame" was a massive achievement. When it comes to storytelling, the film served as the largest big-screen crossover event in cinematic history, with the movie pulling together characters from nine individual franchises — the Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Ant Man, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, and Doctor Strange — to wrap with a final, climactic battle for the fate of the universe. As far as critical reception, "Endgame" is Certified Fresh on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with a 94% critics score. And, at one point, the final installment in the Infinity Saga was the highest-grossing film in history, worldwide, before "Avatar" took the box office record from "Endgame," courtesy of a re-release in China.
The battle for the Infinity Stones served as an effective narrative for the culmination of Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with so many new characters introduced and a few seemingly gone for good. OG Avengers Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America were killed and retired, respectfully. Following the tragic death of actor Chadwick Boseman, the role of King T'Challa of Wakanda will remain vacant, with the mantle of Black Panther seemingly destined for another character in the future. When the Infinity Stones were effectively nerfed in the first season of the "Loki" series on Disney+, the MCU needed a new premise or threat to serve as the overarching schema for Phase 4 and beyond, which we got in the multiverse. "Loki" planted the seeds for the multiverse and it's already been explored in "Spider-Man: No Way Home" — courtesy of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) — and will be the topic for the good doctor's second solo feature, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."
While the MCU is already geared up for the next big thing, some fans had hoped for one character to get more screen time in "Avengers: Endgame."
Fans wish Doctor Strange had gotten to do more in the climactic battle
Reddit user TheGalagaGuy posed a question to fellow MCU fans in the Marvel Studios subreddit, asking fellow users which character they wish could have gotten more screen time in the big battle during "Avengers: Endgame," and which abilities would they have liked to seen showcased. User Acrobatic-Manner chimed in to respond, saying "I just wish Dr. Strange did more than open portals and hold some water back," which became the highest upvoted top-level comment to address the question in full. One user wished for Doctor Strange to have a magic battle with Ebony Maw (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor), a member of the Black Order, though the character had died in "Avenger: Infinity War" after torturing him aboard the Q ship.
User ericbkillmonger offered a narrative explanation for the lack of proper utilization of Doctor Strange's vast abilities: "Had to nerf him to let original six and Tony save the day by using that 1 in 14 million plot convenience." It's true that the final battle originally started as a conflict in which Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) took on Thanos (Josh Brolin), wherein fans were delighted to see Steve Rogers wield Thor's hammer Mjolnir, having proven himself worthy. Given their respective actors pending departures from their characters, it makes a sort of narrative sense to have them play vital roles in the final battle, with Iron Man offering the immortal line that launched the MCU — "I am Iron Man" — to Thanos before snapping him and his army out of existence.
Other users pointed out that Strange got a satisfying battle with Thanos in the previous film on his home world of Titan. " Strange vs Thanos is my favourite part of Infinity War, I think he got his due time in that movie," user thegaffer95 said.