Disclaimer: This post contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.

Yes, Avengers: Infinity War ended on a bummer tone. However, as Marvel Studios has proven to us in the past, they are not afraid to follow up an exceedingly dark moment with a punchline. Just because Infinity War ended as it did didn’t necessarily mean that Avengers: Endgame would be as serious as it was being marketed. Thank goodness Marvel Studios actually allowed it to be as dark and human as we hoped.

The first hour of the movie is especially dark. Following the execution of Thanos, the heroes spend five years in a post-“snapped” existence. By the time we see them again, they are exhausted and have virtually given up on things ever going back to the way they were. It was a risky choice — especially coming from a studio that is always quick to go for the punchline…but did writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely actually think it was risky? Here’s what the pair said to the New York Times.

MARKUS It felt less risky once I saw the reaction to “Infinity War.” You never know how you’re going to hit people, emotionally. We’ve been sitting with these events for years. We no longer have an emotional reaction. And then you see people crying in the theater. We’ve got to honor that or it’s going to feel like we’re just jerking them around.

McFEELY It was the part in test screenings where people were most uncomfortable. Because you are wallowing to a degree. There doesn’t seem to be any hope. In the end of Act II for most superhero movies, maybe they lose for five minutes. Here it’s for five years. That seemed important.

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Indeed these five years helped make us realize for how long the universe has been coping and suffering with the terrible aftermath. It helped make the stakes seem that much higher for me, and allowed the heroes to feel that much more human.

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SOURCE: NY Times