‘Avengers: Endgame’ brought us a massively satisfying end to the first decade of Marvel stories. And while the film solved plenty of mysteries from Infinity War, it also sparked new debates. The time travel aspect of the movie is easily the most controversial one, as it wasn’t immediately clear how alternate timelines work. Some fans said that bringing back the stolen Infinity Stones is enough to collapse all of the additional time branches into the primary reality, something that even Marvel considered doing according to a deleted scene. However, it turns out that every action taken in the past spawns an alternate reality, which means that Steve Rogers going back in time to have that dance with Peggy Carter would create a timeline. By the way, that’s the official Marvel explanation as to what happened. Steve created a different reality for his retirement plan, and that’s where he lived his life with Peggy.
Marvel, however, has additional questions to answer, including major ones that concern the whereabouts of Loki and Gamora. Both of them died in our timeline, but the 2012 Loki created a different timeline when he left with the Space Stone, while 2014 Gamora is stuck in the year 2023 of the main timeline. While we wait for that to happen, we can tell you that Marvel has finally revealed the exact year Captain America went to meet Peggy and explained how old “Old Steve” really is.
We used several of the clues Marvel included in the scene to try to guess where Steve went, like the make and model of the car, the song, and the fact that Peggy lives in what appears to be her own house. We concluded months ago that Steve went back in time towards the end of the 1940s:
The last scene in Endgame doesn’t provide enough details to give us a definitive answer. But if Marvel wants to keep the Agent Carter arc in place, it would be easy to speculate that Cap goes back in time at some point towards the end of the ‘40s. You’d still have the same cars, and the same music, but Agent Carter would have had time to move on from her job in LA and her relationship with Sousa.
It turns out that we were right on the money on that one, and Marvel just confirmed it all. The studio released the official Endgame screenplay ahead of awards season, which reveals that Old Steve is actually 112-years old, per ComicBook.
The transition to Columbia Heights, Washington DC, is accompanied by a title card that says “Washington DC, 1949.” That’s where and when the dance takes place:
INT. RED HOUSE, COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, WASHINGTON DC – DAY
A TEA CUP LIES SHATTERED on the hardwood. We hear Harry James. Move into the living room…past the record player…TO WHERE STEVE DANCES WITH A WOMAN. They rock back and forth barely moving. As they turn, we see…
PEGGY CARTER, tears streaming down her face. He steps on her toe. She laughs. As they turn, we get a good look at…
Steve Rogers, eyes shut, finally getting the life he deserves. THE END.
The script also tells us exactly where Carter lives, and it makes sense to see her back on the East Coast, close to Washington DC. After all, she’ll be the director of SHIELD, and she must live close to that Camp Lehigh.
