What would've happened if Captain America snapped instead of Iron Man?

Following the release of Avengers: Endgame in 2019, fans of Marvel have been thinking up hypothetical scenarios that could change the original ending we saw.

And now, fans are left drawing up alternative ends to the record-breaking blockbuster hit, imagining if things could have been better had it not been Iron Man aka Tony Stark to give up his life to kill Thanos, but instead Captain America.

While Doctor Steven Strange made it quite clear that in order to come out triumphant out of the third-act battle, it was Stark’s snap that could save them all, as experienced by him in Avengers: Infinity War, with the 14,000,605 futures he foresaw.

However, if there was a 14,000,606th ending imagined by Strange, with Steve Rogers snapping away the mega-villain, here’s what would have happened:

Captain America, unlike Iron Man, had not been shielded by a nanotech body armour that could have reproduced the Infinity Gauntlet for him. Therefore, the only way forward for Cap would be to keep the Gauntlet away from Thanos and snapping him and his army away from existence himself.

But would he have survived the lethal snap? Absolutely not. The two things that need to be taken into consideration are Rogers’ superhuman metabolism and the energy consumed by the use of the Stones.

It is also pertinent to take into account, that Thanos and Hulk’s respective snaps had affected the entire universe, whereas this one just took down the opposing side from the Avengers Compound, therefore proving that the effect would not be as definite.

That being said, Cap would most definitely not have survived and would have died instantly, even more promptly than Iron Man, who got a few extra minutes to say his final goodbyes, all thanks to his nanotech suit.

However, if that alternate ending were to pan out, does that mean Stark could’ve elongated his storyline in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? That too, seems quite unlikely, as he along with Pepper Potts had been adamant about hanging up his Iron Man suit and living happily ever after with their daughter Morgan.

It has been speculated that he could’ve still had a background presence, especially after the events of Spider-Man: Far from Home, where we see many of his antagonists having access to the Stark tech and using it against him for pure evil. This could have quite possibly somehow led a path for Iron Man’s return, had the story actually rolled out in that direction.

While this could have somewhat given Stark’s story a happier ending, Captain America’s would have been ten times worse than the tragic end we saw of Iron Man. From his emaciated teenage days till the final battle with the Mad Titan, Rogers is recognized as the most selfless character in the MCU. This is why, his somewhat tranquil and exultant end with Peggy Carter, makes the real finale much more satisfying than any other imagined alternatives.