The Russos say Avengers: Endgame is still at the three-hour mark

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

While we all liked to say AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR was the culmination of 10 years of filmmaking, the reality is AVENGERS: ENDGAME is truly the big finale. There’s a ton that has to be wrapped up and answered for in this one, especially that intense conclusion of INFINITY WAR, so it’s completely understandable if the story needs a long runtime to bring everything to a satisfying end. Turns out that we may be in for one long epic indeed, as directors Joe and Anthony Russo revealed the current length still clocks in at about three hours.

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The brothers were speaking with Collider recently while talking about the movie’s VFX (which were nominated for an Oscar) when they were asked about the current runtime of the movie, and if there had been any changes since the last report. Last April the directors said the movie could be easily longer than INFINITY WAR (2 hours and 40 minutes), and it seems that’s still the case with Joe saying, “We’re still at the three-hour mark.”

While that may seem like it’s pushing it for mainstream audiences, what with full bladders and Twitters to check, Disney is apparently 100 percent on board with however long the filmmakers need to go to tell this story right.

“I think the studio is down with what the best story is. Right now, we think the movie is playing well and we’ve had great responses from our test audiences and we’re feeling very good about where it is. We’re still doing work to it. We’re not done with it. Again, this is a culmination film of 22 movies, it’s a lot of storytelling to work into it. Emotion is an intrinsic part of that to us. When you have to tell a really complicated story and you want strong emotional moments with the characters, it just requires a certain amount of real estate. This one, in particular, feels like three hours worth of real estate.”

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It's also worth wondering if there’s any chance of bringing back an old-school intermission to let people stretch their legs, but according to Anthony that doesn’t seem to be necessary.

We have screened the movie four times for audiences now. For the first three screenings, not a single person got up to go to the bathroom.”

Honestly, I’m down with a four-hour movie. Hell, make it six. The amazing thing about INFINITY WAR is that at over 2 hours and 30 minutes it feels like a breeze. Never does it overstay its welcome and I could’ve watched for twice the runtime. These movies are so grand in scale and are filled with so many rich characters you could take it in so many directions and for so long that three-hours seems like a perfect runtime. Though there may be some cuts in the next two-plus months before release, we could be in for Marvel’s longest movie yet.

AVENGERS: ENDGAME is in theaters April 26.