There’s no denying that this summer’s Captain America: Civil War was an overwhelming success, both critically and at the box office. That doesn’t mean that fans were without questions after seeing the film. For example, one of the most hotly debated elements of the movie was the fact that none of the Avengers were killed during the conflict. This came as a surprise to many fans, because many expected Captain America to be killed off at the end of the film. This was a sound theory, especially given that Steve Rogers is famously killed by longtime foe Crossbones at the end of the events of Civil War in the comics. As we all know, this didn’t end up happening. The directors did have discussions about killing off Rogers, however. In a recent interview, Anthony Russo talked about the discussions they had regarding Steve Rogers’ possible death:

” I think the thing to remember is, we do talk about every possible scenario over and over and over again for months and months and months. We talked about it. But it never made its way into a realistic outline.”

Before the release, still others thought that Rhodey, AKA War Machine, would be killed during the conflict, especially after seeing the second trailer. Rhodes survived the fall after all, but many thought that his paralysis downplayed the seriousness of the conflict and didn’t adequately raise the stakes of the film enough to satisfy them. Granted, King T’Chaka, Crossbones, and Peggy Carter all died during the events of the film in one way or another, but they were all supporting characters. When asked about their choice to keep all of the Avengers alive, Joe Russo explained the logic behind the decision to let all of the Avengers walk away in one piece:

“We talked about lots of potential characters dying at the end of the movie. And we thought that it would undercut what is really the rich tension of the movie, which is this is Kramer vs Kramer. It’s about a divorce. If somebody dies, it would create empathy, which would change and allow for repair, and we didn’t want to do that.”

Does this change your opinion of the decision? Let us know in the comments below!

Captain America: Civil War is available now on Blu Ray and Digital HD.

Source: HitFix