Avengers: Endgame writers planned for Hawkeye to die until Marvel employees protested

Avengers: Endgame co-writer Stephen McFeely has revealed the surprising way the Soul Stone sacrifice was chosen. "Because it's not a small thing to kill off a principal female character in the MCU, we tried a version of Hawkeye [dying]," McFeely said of the moment on the planet Vormir between Hawkeye and Black Widow at an Avengers: Endgame Encore Q&A event (via Forbes). But a back-and-forth was just beginning. With the writers undecided on whether to kill off Hawkeye or Black Widow, those at Marvel HQ helped make the writers' choice for them.