Like most of our readers, my family and I bid a fond and emotional farewell to many of our MCU friends when we saw Avengers: Endgame in theaters this past May. I was excited to be offered a chance to review the Blu-ray and Digital download, which always offers a number of short extras and featurettes. Most are between five and ten minutes, with the Captain America extra the longest one at about 12 minutes. Today I’m going to share my favorites, which you can see now on the digital download of the movie, or via Blu-ray and DVD starting Tuesday, August 13th.
Be sure to check out GeekMom and GeekDad’s other coverage of Avengers: Endgame:
- 6 (Spoiler-Free) Things Everyone Should Know About Avengers: Endgame
- Top 10 Questions (and a Few Answers) After Seeing Avengers: Endgame [SPOILERS]
- Watching Comics Podcast: Avengers: Endgame – Review
- Be Worthy! Avengers: Endgame Inspired Thor Armor and Cape Craft
Warning: This post contains some mild spoilers, so if you are avoiding them until the Blu-ray comes out, move along, there’s nothing to see here.
Remembering Stan Lee
In a most-touching tribute to the original mind behind the MCU, this featurette stitches together Stan Lee and cast interviews and vignettes about the cameos he had in every single MCU film, including in the 1970-at-Camp-Lehigh scene in Avengers: Endgame. Most of the featurette is lighthearted and cheerful, but the lovely closing might moisten your eyes a bit. It did mine…
Steve and Peggy: One Last Dance
“Steve and Peggy: One Last Dance” is a digital download exclusive. This featurette chronicles the 70+ year relationship and internal conflict between Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter, from in Captain America: The First Avenger (tied with Iron Man as my favorite MCU movie of all the time) all the way to the last dance at the end of Endgame. Interview segments with Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell are threaded throughout.
Bro Thor
You can’t unsee the transformation that Chris Hemsworth went through to become the “five years later” version of Thor, who had descended into a depression after ending Thanos in the first few minutes of Endgame. This extra features interviews with Hemsworth, fellow cast and crew members, as well as the costume and makeup designers explaining how they added 70-80 pounds to Thor and changed his personality to reflect how one Avenger ended up adapting to his new life after “the snap.”
Enjoy this clip from the featurette below:
The Women of The MCU
I absolutely loved this! This featurette has interview clips with the women giving accounts of what it means to be a woman in the MCU, and what it was like to come together in one of the epic battle scenes when the Avengers are attempting to run the Infinity Gauntlet across the battlefield. There is a piece of this scene when the women happen to be all working together, and there has been some consternation among the fans as to whether the scene felt “forced.”
Personally, I will NEVER complain about a group of women kicking butt like that, and I’m sure many parents in the audiences with daughters won’t complain about it either.
Check it out, especially with your daughters! It’s absolutely worth hearing from the actors, such as Brie Larson, Evangeline Lilly, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Danai Gurira, about their experiences
Setting the Tone: Casting Robert Downey, Jr.
Iron Man is my absolute favorite MCU movie, for numerous reasons. I have always really enjoyed Robert Downey, Jr. in film roles (understanding that his off-screen behaviors weren’t morally straight at the time of his casting, which is addressed in the featurette); the story’s connections with the Global War on Terror spoke to me also.
It was a real treat to see scenes from his original screen test in this featurette, titled “Setting the Tone: Casting Robert Downey, Jr.”. Crew members, including with Stan Lee and Jon Favreau, are interviewed, explaining how their brainstorms about Tony Stark’s personality kept leading them to RDJ over and over again. Check out this clip from the featurette below:
I barely put a dent into the 16+ extras, including gag reels, deleted scenes, photo galleries, and a special featurette about the “script security” measures that the Russo Brothers put in place to avoid leaks before the film’s release.
Avengers: Endgame is available now via digital download from outlets such as Apple iTunes and Amazon Video for $19.99. On Tuesday, August 13th, the film, with all of its extras, will be available via 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD.
–there has been some consternation among the fans as to whether the scene felt “forced.”– I don’t care about forced, it was fantastic to see! My complaint is that scene, along with the whole final battle scene, was much too short. After sitting through the set up (which I did love, by the way), I expected a much longer final battle scene. I almost felt like the scenes there were similar to cameos. I wanted more “meat” on that whole final battle!
I agree with you NN. I think there were many of us who wanted more; I know my sons love the battle scenes the most. Thanks for reading!
I loved this movie very much, I am really a fan of the avengers, especially in iron man, he was the hero that got me into this world and now with his death I feel very sad.