We Finally Know Who Katherine Langford Played In Avengers: Endgame — & Why She Was Cut

If you think about it, not one brand new character is introduced in Avengers: Endgame. The story solely revolves around Marvel characters we’ve come to know and love over the last ten years and 22 movies, which means that even during the movie’s three hour run time, there isn’t space to cram in anyone else, no matter how important they are to the story.

With all that being said, there reportedly supposed to be someone new added into the mix, but by the time the movie hit theaters their part was nowhere to be found. Back in October 2018, there was numerous reports about 13 Reasons Why and Love, Simon star Katherine Langford snagging a role in Avengers: Endgame. But she’s not actually in Endgame. And finally, the reason Langford's role in Endgame was cut has been revealed.

In a new interview on the podcast Happy Sad Confused, directors Joe and Anthony Russo addressed the unseen cameo and revealed who Langford played in Endgame: Morgan Stark , Tony Stark's (Robert Downey, Jr.) daughter. While to Langford fans, leaving that footage on the cutting room floor seems cruel and unusual, there is actually a very sound reason for it, and it all had to do with explaining Iron Man's death.

"There was an idea that Tony was going to go into the metaphysical way station that Thanos goes in when he snapped his fingers, and there was going to be a future version of his daughter in that way station," Joe Russo told the pod. Unfortunately, however, test audiences didn't really get what the directors were attempting to do with the scene. "We didn't feel an emotional association with the adult version of his daughter. It wasn't ringing to us. It wasn't resonating to us on an emotional level is why we moved away from it," confirmed Anthony Russo.

Still, the scene did somewhat make sense — but there was a runtime issue on the line, too. "His future daughter forgave him and gave him peace to go," explained Joe.

What remains to be seen, of course, is why the duo would have cast an actress with such a massive following for such a small role that ultimately got cut. But this might not be the end for Langford. Fans are already speculating that the young Morgan could be the next Iron Man in the new MCU — after all, she shares her father's love of cheeseburgers and high tech gadgets in the film.

Of course, this news does put to bed all the theories that fans had brewing when she first disappeared from the film.

While Disney and Marvel have remained completely mum about her involvement in the film, the day before release, a fan asked Langford about Avengers: Endgame on Instagram, “what is your character in Avengers [sic] Endgame.” And on the day before Avengers even hit theaters, Langford responded with “...” which can be taken a few different ways. Maybe she just didn’t want to spoil her character early — or maybe it’s because she knew she had been cut and the questions made for an awkward situation. The fact that she responded at all though adds some intrigue to the whole situation.

So what the heck happened? If she was, in fact, supposed to play a role that didn't make it into the final cut, there are a few characters that would make sense, knowing what we do now, post-Endgame.

In early 2019, Langford posted a picture to her Instagram with red hair. Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is the only one who also has vibrant, red hair in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so it’s entirely possible that Langford was going to play a younger version of the character. There's also a perfect couple of spots for her to have appeared.

If you recall, as Thanos (Josh Brolin) was collecting the stones in Infinity War, he often flashed back to a younger version of Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who he used to sacrifice for the Soul Stone. After he snapped his fingers, he’s greeted with a vision of her actually in the Soul Stone. Perhaps Langford was meant to have appeared in the stone, greeting Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) after his snap? Or Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), after his?

There also might have been some sort of Black Widow flashback that was cut, considering the sudden name drop by the Red Skull, who names the father she never knew as Ivan. And, when Black Widow is running things on her own at Avengers HQ after the five-year jump, shortly after she’s finished talking to everyone via hologram, a pair of her old pointe shoes can be spotted on one of the chairs next to the table. She was clearly revisiting her past at some point during Endgame, and maybe we were originally going to see more of it.

Let's also consider that according to The Hollywood Reporter, the supposed Black Widow movie is reportedly a prequel — it would make a lot of sense to get an actor as well-recognized as Langford to carry the role of young Black Widow in her big screen solo outing. Unfortunately, we won't know anything for certain until Marvel officially confirms the dang thing (in fact, despite Downey, Jr. supposing that the Black Widow movie is confirmed in a recent Entertainment Weekly roundtable, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige rebutted with "We haven't announced anything.")

The new Hawkeye in the Marvel comics, Kate Bishop, is reportedly coming to the MCU. According to i09, The Hawkeye series on Disney+ is going to revolve around Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye training a new generation, and Bishop is reportedly part of that. While we saw him teaching his daughter how to shoot in Endgame, Bishop is actually someone else entirely. If this is Langford's character, it would make a lot of sense to cut her from the three-hour film — there's not really a lot of bandwidth for earmarking characters who are going to be important later, post-Thanos.

Though Endgame doesn’t mark the end of Phase Three (that honor goes to Spider-Man: Far From Home), Marvel is known for always laying groundwork for what comes next in the MCU, generally with a post-credits scene. Langford could have been cast to showcase what’s coming, but ultimately, there is no Endgame end credit scene, which is a major break from tradition. Perhaps that was the plan all along and there is no ex-scene on the cutting room floor, but it's also not entirely unheard for behind-the-scenes factors, whatever they may be, to get a post-credits scene cut at the last minute.

There’s still no confirmation Langford was officially cast or cut from the movie, so this could all be for naught or we could still see her show up in some sort of behind-the-scenes and bonus features on the DVD later on down the road. But until we get a glimpse of something, Langford's mystery Endgame role will have to remain just that.