Avengers: Endgame Writer Nearly Gave Hawkeye the Soul Stone Sacrifice Before Marvel Women Stepped In

When Avengers: Endgame delivered its gutting climax onscreen in 2019, few viewers imagined the agonizing behind-the-scenes debate that shaped it. Writer Stephen McFeely has revealed that a scrapped draft of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s finale originally had Hawkeye making the ultimate Soul Stone sacrifice on Vormir — only for a chorus of female Marvel colleagues to convince him that Black Widow’s death was the choice that needed to be made. Speaking during a post-screening Q&A for the film’s Encore re-release in Minnesota this past weekend, McFeely opened up about the “sense of dread” that surrounded the decision and how colleagues grabbed him in the hallway to make their case, as first reported by Forbes.

A Sacrifice That Had to Land

The Soul Stone trial on Vormir demands a permanent price: one loved one must be given up forever to obtain the red gem. For Endgame, the writers knew the emotional weight of the moment required a pairing audiences would feel in their chests. McFeely explained that Black Widow and Hawkeye were the natural fit, having operated as a duo throughout the Avengers’ history.

“There was a sense of dread over the decision,” McFeely recalled. “In the design, we needed to make sure that two people who loved each other went, and [Black Widow and Hawkeye] were the obvious pairing. So, even though it’s a platonic relationship, they’ve been together as a duo in the Avengers the whole time.”

“In our mind, it was always going to be [Black Widow who died] because she was, I would argue, the greater hero in some ways, but selfishly — just as part of what my job is — I want to make you feel the worst you can feel.”

Stephen McFeely, Avengers: Endgame co-writer

Narratively, Black Widow’s death completes a decade-long arc, finally clearing the “red in her ledger” that has haunted her since her 2011 introduction. Hawkeye, meanwhile, has spent the years after the Snap operating as a brutal assassin, yet he still has a wife and children to return to if Thanos’s snap is undone. By sacrificing herself, Natasha Romanov protects the found family she discovered when she first joined the Avengers.

“When she found the Avengers, they were a new family for her,” McFeely continued. “So, this idea that she could save her family, in the greater sense of that, was really important.”

The Hallway Intervention

Even with the narrative logic in place, killing one of the few prominent female heroes in the franchise carried real weight. McFeely said the team briefly tested an alternate version in which Hawkeye perished instead — a choice that drew sharp pushback from within the studio itself.</