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Joe Russo Reveals 'Avengers: Endgame' Scene That Made Him Cry

By Ryan Carroll

Los Angeles World Premiere Of Marvel Studios' "Avengers: Endgame"
Los Angeles World Premiere Of Marvel Studios' "Avengers: Endgame" / Alberto E. Rodriguez

Avengers: Endgame has soared to critical and commercial success since its release in April, garnering acclaim from audiences and earning over $2 billion at the box office (so far). This positive reception is due in no small part to its powerful emotional content, which has helped give closure to the past 11 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, the film has been touching even for its creators--including co-director Joe Russo, who this week revealed the scene in Endgame that made him cry.

According to ComicBook.com, Russo admitted in an interview on the Empire Film podcast that the film’s opening scene, which features the deaths of Hawkeye's (Jeremy Renner) family, was among the hardest for him to make. “It's one of the few scenes in the movie that actually makes me tear up when I watch it, because I think about my own family,” he said. “And then you think about what would happen to you, as a father. You'd become very self-destructive.”

This scene was originally meant to occur at the conclusion to Avengers: Infinity War, but was subsequently shifted for the sake of clarity.

“Thanos snaps his fingers, it goes to black, and suddenly it comes up on this very idyllic scene where Clint is interacting with his family,” Russo told ComicBook.com previously. And you go 'Where am I? Why is this happening?' And then his family starts to disappear and you realize 'Oh crap, it's happening.'” However, he added that the scene was shifted because it was “confusing,” and that in Endgame, “It sets the tone, it re-reminds you of where you are, [where] the story was that you felt [a] year ago, it makes you feel it again.”

Though we don’t know exactly how well the scene would have felt if it were in Infinity War, we can say for sure that it hit us like a truck when we watched it in Endgame. It’s nice to know that the creators of Avengers: Endgame were just as emotionally involved in the film as we were--it makes us feel just a little more justified in getting so teary when we watched.