Avengers: Endgame's Directors Fought For Months To Make The Final Battle's Iconic Portals Moment Happen As We Saw It

The iconic portals scene in Avengers: Endgame became one of the best scenes in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it turns out there was a lot of debate happening behind the scenes on how to execute it. By May 2025, it will have been more than half a decade since Avengers: Endgame gave an epic conclusion to The Infinity Saga in the MCU timeline. With fans still celebrating some of the biggest moments of the film in pop culture, it turns out one of those scenes was a lot more complicated than some may realize.

In the latest issue of Empire, Anthony and Joe Russo, who helmed Avengers: Infinity Wars and Avengers: Endgame, along with screenwriter Stephen McFeely, looked back at the Phase 3 finale and some of the scenes that helped make the film become such a standout conclusion to The Infinity Saga. According to the Russos and McFeely, creating the moment where all of the portals opened up with the heroes who got snapped took a lot to bring to fruition, as they revealed the following:

Joe Russo: There was probably some debate regarding the most famous moment, I think, of all the Marvel films, which is the portals opening at the end of Avengers: Endgame. The original concept was that the camera rotated around Steve Rogers and everybody was collected behind him. It didn’t have these individual entrances for the characters, and that actually was a big debate. I remember fighting that one for months in the edit room. I’m not going to say who was on what side, but that was a grinder. I remember Anth and I going, “F*** it, we’re going to shoot it during reshoots.”

Stephen McFeely: Yeah, I’ll go under the bus because I wasn’t alone. I thought the first cut worked pretty well. I thought it was cool. But Joe is right because Joe has ten percent P.T. Barnum. Right? One of the lessons I’ve learned over the course of working with these guys and working with Marvel is emotional-logic trumps logic-logic. It’s not a cop-out. It’s what the movie wants. It’s what your audience wants.

Anthony Russo: What you see in this conversation is the level of the collaboration we have together. We’ve been very involved in their process as writers, they’ve been very involved in our process, to the point where we’re all collectively invested in the edit together, figuring out what version of the movie that becomes. That’s been the great joy of this foursome.

What The Avengers: Endgame Directors’ Portals Scene Comments Mean

Given the mᴀssive ending to Avengers: Infinity War, it was evident that they would have to raise the stakes and execution for Avengers: Endgame in several respects. After having built it up since 2008, The Infinity Saga deserved to have a huge sendoff, especially when it came to the final war and showdown against Thanos. Having all of the portals open up in one of the most dire parts of the Avengers: Endgame climax was also done perfectly because of the emotional timing.

To hear that there were a lot of discussions back and forth before the final cut of Avengers: Endgame about this matter shows that it was something that those involved didn’t take lightly. In the end, the portals scene has become a standout scene in all of superhero cinema, as it did set up something that will never be forgotten in the franchise. That is why it is exciting that all three of them are back for the story of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, as they will hopefully be able to create new iconic scenes as they wrap up The Multiverse Saga.

Our Take On The Avengers: Endgame Directors’ Portals Scene Comments

Thanos watching the Avengers on the battlefield in Avengers Endgame

Everything the Russo brothers and McFeely revealed about the making of the portals sequence in Avengers: Endgame makes the scene better by showing the effort that went into ensuring it was perfect. Time will tell how the Russos will be able to top it in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, as there is a lot of anticipation for their return in Phase 6. But until then, fans can always relive Avengers: Endgame, along with the entire Infinity Saga, through streaming and on Blu-ray/DVD.