By Lauren Rearick

As fans continue to pour over every detail of Avengers: Endgame and begin theorizing what the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe may hold for everyone’s favorite record-breaking heroes, the film’s directors addressed the absence of one character in the film. Despite previous confirmation that Katherine Langford of 13 Reasons Why had been cast for the movie, she never ended up appearing on screen, and fans finally know why.

For those hoping to avoid spoilers, you’ll want to quit reading now. During a podcast interview on Josh Horowitz's HappySadConfused, the film’s directors, Anthony and Joe Russo, confirmed that Langford had been cast to play Tony Stark’s daughter in the future.

In Avengers: Endgame, viewers are initially introduced to Tony’s younger daughter, Morgan. However, the directors had planned for a scene that would have allowed Iron Man to see a future, adult version of his daughter. The scene was intended to occur just after Tony secures the Infinity Stones and snaps his fingers.

As Joe Russo explained to HappySadConfused, "There was an idea that we had that Tony was gonna go into the metaphysical way station that Thanos goes into [in Infinity War]. There was going to be a future version of [Stark’s] daughter in that way station."

According to the directors, Langford’s character would have provided Tony with a sense of peace and forgiveness. Anthony Russo likened the interaction between father and daughter to a previous scene featuring Thanos and a younger Gamora that occured in Avengers: Infinity War.

Although Langford’s scene was shot and included in a test version of the film, the directors felt it "was too many ideas in an overly complicated movie." Additionally, Joe Russo revealed that viewers reacted negatively to the clip, saying, “We showed it to a test audience and it was really confusing for them. What we realized about it was we didn’t feel an emotional association with the adult version of his daughter."

The Russos didn’t reveal whether fans might eventually see the meeting between Tony and his daughter, but with the movie clocking in at a little over 3 hours, even without an end credits sequence, perhaps there’s hope for some extra goodies when the film arrives on DVD. In the meantime, we’ll keep our fingers crossed that Morgan finds her way to another Marvel project in the future.