Avengers: Endgame is reaching an endgame for its own runtime. Before we knew for sure that Avengers 4 would get Doctor Strange's Infinity War quote as its title, co-director Joe Russo gave an update from early post-production. Now that a bit more time has passed, he sounds more confident about where the film will land:
There's a high probability that this movie will clock in at around three hours. It's a big movie with a lot of story.
If Joe Russo told Empire Magazine there's a "high probability" that something will happen in his own movie, you can pretty much rest assured that it will happen. Avengers: Endgame will clock in around three hours.
About a month ago, Joe Russo had said Avengers 4 was currently sitting right at three hours, but he added, "We'll see if that holds." Joe and Anthony Russo were busy shooting additional footage after filming Avengers: Endgame back-to-back with Avengers: Infinity War. They planned to be in post-production through early 2019. They said they hoped to be done by March, which is when Captain Marvel -- the first MCU film of 2019 -- comes to theaters.
Avengers: Endgame just revealed its first trailer and official title earlier in December. That's also when it was confirmed that the film would be moving from early May to a release date of April 26, 2019.
If the plan is to be in post-production until March, it's possible some last-minute changes could affect the runtime. But it sounds like the Russos are pretty much set on it being around three hours. Does that mean 3 hours, 5 minutes, or 2 hours 50 minutes? Anything over 2 hours 40 minutes will beat Avengers: Infinity War, which is already the longest MCU movie to date.
You'd expect Avengers: Endgame to be longer, since it's the culmination of this story. As Joe Russo said, it's a big movie with a lot to cover. Someone has to save Tony Stark, not to mention try to save the half of the planet that was snapped by Thanos. Hawkeye has to rejoin the story after his Infinity War absence. Scott Lang's Ant-Man has to tie himself to the Quantum Realm plot. And of course there will be a lot more footage than Marvel doesn't show us in any upcoming trailers.
It's not like Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige would be breathing down the Russos' necks to cut footage for a shorter runtime. They could run this puppy for five hours and fans would show up. Gladly.
The official final Avengers: Endgame runtime won't be announced until much closer to the film's release in spring 2019, but plan for three hours -- plus previews. Plus popcorn time. Plus pre-film trips to the bathroom. You know it's coming April 26, 2019, and here's what else is ahead in the massive 2019 film schedule.
