One Of Captain America's Best Lines Was Added During Avengers: Endgame's Reshoots

Captain America looks intense in Avengers: Endgame

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Chris Evans hands off Captain America's shield in Avengers: Endgame, but not before having some classic last lines. From "Avengers, assemble" to "I can do this all day," Steve Rogers definitely made his mark in Endgame before dancing away with Peggy Carter.

One of Captain America's best lines "capped" off the great "America's Ass" quote by Paul Rudd's Scott Lang/Ant-Man. Turns out, "That is America's ass" was added in reshoots to get another "ass" in the movie and allow Steve Rogers in on the self-referential Cap joke.

Avengers: Endgame co-writer Christopher Markus gave Syfy Wire a little more info on how that America's Ass joke came about. He said it started just as a quip from Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark...

It sort of grew on its own. The first thing that was there was Tony looking at Cap's terrible Avengers outfit and going, 'that suit does nothing for your ass.' That stood on its own for a while, and then Ant-Man was added to the scene, and he said, 'I think that's America's ass.' And that was the joke for a while.

Co-writer Stephen McFeely said it was actually much later in Avengers: Endgame's reshoots that they decided to add Chris Evans' Captain America to the joke.

We redid the Cap on Cap fight, the ending of it, and that helped us tremendously. And then we needed to get out of that scene a little differently, and there [2012 Cap] was, slumped on the ground with his butt in the air.

At that point, Christopher Markus said they asked themselves "Can we put another ass in the movie?" -- which is another conversation I wish I could've shrunk down to Ant-Man size to observe in the room. This is how the sausage is made, kids!

They obviously went with yes to another ass, and had modern Cap stare down at his younger ass and say "That is America's ass."

That is Americas ass - YouTube That is Americas ass - YouTube
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The writers said Chris Evans was happy with the joke because it's rare for Captain America to do little quips and smart remarks, so he was glad to have something funny to say that was in Cap's own wheelhouse.

Avengers: Endgame's Stephen McFeely previously noted the origin of the America's Ass joke started by being a meta reference to Chris Evans' own costume:

It's a little meta. Chris Evans has never been comfortable with that outfit from the first Avengers movie. And so in the rearview, it's a little way to wink at how that was then, and this is now. And then it sort of just built from there. By the time we got to the fight scene where he defeated himself, his butt is on the ground and he was just sitting there for a callback.

When Chris Evans was asked to pick a favorite scene from Avengers: Endgame, it was no surprise to see he named Cap's fight with the younger version of himself. He could do this all day and I could watch that all day.

It's amazing to think how much we're still learning about how Avengers: Endgame came together. The writers recently made the rounds again to share more behind-the-scenes details. From the many ideas chopped at the script phase (like Rhodey as veep, and Hulk and the Soul Stone), to things cut during filming, to things like this added during reshoots, to more things cut during editing (like "insane" takes of Iron Man's final scene) -- I personally find it all fascinating.

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Since Avengers: Endgame is currently the highest-grossing movie of all time, it's kind of a mini blockbuster film school for future creators. It clearly takes an entire village of ass-centric people to craft these Avengers movies, and Marvel has already said we shouldn't expect more like this for probably another decade.

Gina Carbone

Gina grew up in Massachusetts and California in her own version of The Parent Trap. She went to three different middle schools, four high schools, and three universities -- including half a year in Perth, Western Australia. She currently lives in a small town in Maine, the kind Stephen King regularly sets terrible things in, so this may be the last you hear from her.