Captain America's weird original ending revealed: we're glad this one was changed
Scrapped because it was too expensive.
Captain America is rightly seen as one of the best origin movies in the MCU. It gives us a great glimpse of how Captain American became a super soldier and his life in WW2.
The reason the movie works so well is that, for the most part, it is grounded (if you can overlook the fact he's battling someone with a big red skull for a face) with the superhero antics kept largely to the third act.
Things could have been a lot different though, if the original script had been filmed... as it had a freakin' giant Nazi robot in it.
Speaking about Captain America: The First Avenger which is now 10 years old, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely chatted to Yahoo (via SlashFilm) about the movie and the big changes that were made leading up to it.
“A large chunk of the third act was Cap fighting this robot,” Markus reveals. It was a Nazi super robot under the control of the villainous Red Skull (Hugo Weaver) called Panzer Max.
Now, this isn't a well-known Marvel character but Panzer Max does star in at least one issue of a Marvel Comic - Howling Commandos (2009). This issue follows Sgt. Nick Fury leading the Howling Commandos "on their most dangerous mission ever," according to Marvel and sets up the events of the Jeph Loeb six-part comic Captain America: White.
In the issue, giant Nazi Robot Panzer Max is actually controlled by Baron Strucker who, in the MCU movies, turns up first in Winter Soldier, in a mid-credit scene, and is responsible for creating The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
We're glad the Markus and McFeely decided against the giant robot at the end. While it would have been fun to see Captain America fight it, it was a little on the nose - and the MCU has enough 'robots go bad' storylines in it as it is.
The screenwriters do reveal some more changes to the movie in the interview, which is well worth a watch, including Chris Evans taking some jokes out of the script to make the character a little more stoic and they also bring up the question of Steve Rogers' virginity.
Captain America: The First Avenger was the first Marvel movie to be scripted by Markus and McFeely. They went on to pen Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War and Endgame. Not bad, eh? Their only dud during this time was the tepid Thor: Dark World.