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Star Trek Already Did Avengers: Endgame's Signature Credits Years Ago
Avengers: Endgame's closing credits featured a fitting tribute with the original six Avengers actors signing their names on the screen, which is the exact same thing Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country did back in 1991. Like Endgame, Star Trek VI was the cinematic final bow for the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series led by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Both Avengers: Endgame and Star Trek VI passed the torch to the next generation and the actors' signatures honored their achievements and stamped their everlasting legends onto the screen.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country not only wrapped up the Star Trek movie saga that began in 1979 but it also definitively concluded the voyages of Captain James T. Kirk's Starship Enterprise which began in 1966. Thanks to its enduring popularity in syndication, Star Trek survived cancelation in 1969 and was rebirthed as a movie franchise that revitalized the franchise and spawned decades of spinoff series starting with Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. The Star Trek movies were, by and large, hits with audiences that brought new fans to the franchise and the films created indelible moments that Star Trek still references and homages to this day. At the end of Star Trek VI, Kirk and his crew saved the galaxy one last time but were faced with orders that the Enterprise was to be decommissioned. Instead, Captain Kirk ordered the Enterprise to fly to the "second star to the right and straight on 'til morning." After the Enterprise warped into the final frontier, each legendary Star Trek actor wrote their names onto the stars.
Like Star Trek VI, Avengers: Endgame was the touchstone that capped off the monumental achievement of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Starting with Iron Man in 2008, Marvel Studios' 22 movies that concluded with Endgame became the most successful movie franchise of all-time, and the fourth Avengers movie checks in as the highest-grossing film of all-time. Endgame wrapped up the Infinity Saga involving Thanos (Josh Brolin), and it delivered heartwarming endings to the stories of Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans). Endgame also saw the tragic death of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), who sacrificed her life for the Soul Stone. In the end, the original six Avengers led the fight to save the universe before saying their goodbyes and the film's massive closing credits listed every Marvel actor who appeared in the film. But it saved the best for last: the original six Avengers actors each signed their names over images of their heroic counterparts accompanied by Alan Silvestri's iconic Avengers theme.
Of course, Avengers: Endgame isn't the last fans will see of most of the actors. Scarlett Johansson will headline the long-awaited Black Widow movie and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) will become the first Avenger to get a fourth solo film with Thor: Love and Thunder. In addition, Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye will get a Disney Plus spinoff series and Mark Ruffalo's Hulk may join the announced She-Hulk Disney Plus show as well. There is also the possibility that Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans may one day return as Iron Man and Captain America, respectively. But, at least for now, Avengers: Endgame was the last time the original six heroes who started it all will appear together in the same film.
Similarly, Star Trek VI proved to be the final time the original cast ever appeared together. Later, Shatner, James Doohan, and Walter Koenig cameoed in Star Trek Generations, George Takei appeared on Star Trek: Voyager, and Leonard Nimoy reprised Spock for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness but the TOS cast was true to their word that Star Trek VI was to be their collective swansong. By resisting any full reunions, Star Trek's original actors were very careful not to sully the perfect ending of Star Trek VI, which they all literally signed off on.
However, the original idea for the signatures over Star Trek VI's end credits was that it was supposed to be the characters signing their names as if they were signing off on the final log of the Enterprise. Instead, it was changed so that the actors signed their names across the stars to honor their status as Star Trek icons. Avengers: Endgame adopting the same idea for its closing credits was a fitting way to illustrate that the original Avengers actors are every bit the legends to the superhero genre as Star Trek's actors are to sci-fi.
