Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War was the result of 10 years of movie continuity. It was the payoff to a buildup that had been unfolding for 18 movies. As the threat of Thanos loomed on the entire universe, and Earth more specifically, all of the main Marvel superheroes assembled to stop the Mad Titan. From Iron Man and Spider-Man to Doctor Strange, Black Panther and the Guardians of the Galaxy, there wasn’t a single character left on the Marvel Cinematic Universe bench. Well… almost.
If you were one of the fans who watched Infinity War and wondered where everyone’s favorite walking, talking, anthropomorphic duck was, know that you weren’t alone. Better still, know that you almost got your wish of seeing Howard the Duck in Marvel’s biggest movie.
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During an interview with FANDOM, directors Joe and Anthony Russo revealed that the feathered character was supposed to make an encore appearance in Infinity War. And on top of that, he wouldn’t have come alone. “Howard the Duck was in one draft of the script,” Anthony revealed. “Howard the Duck actually had a really good scene… we were going to cameo with Ken Jeong, with Howard the Duck. That was a much-beloved scene by us but it just didn’t end up fitting at all.”
“Yeah, it was [Peter] Quill trying to track down some information from Howard the Duck on some outlier planet and interrupting him during a poker game,” Joe explained — a poker game that would have likely featured Ken Jeong in some capacity.
An appearance by Jeong, star of The Hangover trilogy as well as the NBC sitcom Community, would have made this the third MCU cameo by a star of the comedy series. The Russo brothers served as executive producers and directors on Community, and they brought in star Danny Pudi for a cameo in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as well as Jim Rash in Captain America: Civil War.
Howard The Duck made his MCU debut in Guardians of the Galaxy, where he was briefly seen as one of the prisoners of The Collector’s extensive exhibit. The character made an encore appearance in the after-credits scene of the film, before making another brief cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, where he could be seen on the planet Contraxia.
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Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Infinity War stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Bettany, Anthony Mackie, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Tom Hiddleston and Josh Brolin. The film arrives Aug. 14 on DVD and Blu-ray.