There's less than a month to go until
Avengers: Endgame is released, and to say that excitement is at an all-time high feels like a major understatement. Now, Joe Russo has weighed in on what fans should expect and the filmmaker is confident that moviegoers are going to be pleased with what he and brother Anthony have delivered.
"It’s going to be a unique and singular experience in movie history," he says, "and people are going to want to share that experience together—even more than Infinity War, frankly."
As for how this movie differs to
Avengers: Infinity War, Russo added:
"That’s a tricky one to answer without giving anything away, but I will say that the movie is definitely unique in tone. It has its own spirit that’s different than Infinity War, which is why I was keen for us to separate the movies. Of course, we’re handing off narratives and it’s been serialized over 22 movies. But, it’s different tonally than Infinity War and it is told from a different point of view. It was important for us in our minds as film directors to separate those two because we do not want to make the same movie twice, and ways that you can differentiate films are through tone and point of view."
The Russo Brothers have explored a lot of topical themes in their Marvel movies, but after showing us that sometimes the bad guy wins in
Infinity War, he says this one takes things in a different direction.
"In Endgame, it’s exactly what you alluded to. What is the definition of “hero”? All four of those films, when looked at together, ask that question and try to answer that thematic: What does it mean to be a hero and what does it mean to stand up?"
Now, you don't need us to tell you about that rumoured runtime, but Joe went on to explain in detail that they are indeed aiming for 3 hours and, even through reshoots, it's remained the same. He also emphasised the fact this movie is going to be a finale.
"We’re still looking at a similar time [approximately three hours]. This one’s been very specific in its run time. It really hasn’t changed since we executed the first cut of the film. Even though we’ve shot a lot of footage between now and then, we’ve swapped things out and the water keeps rising to the same level because the story’s so dense. We have so many characters that we’re working with again that require that kind of run time. My brother and I are really committed to emotional stakes, and emotion requires story real estate. When you have a sprawling plot with a lot of characters and emotional stakes, it requires time to breathe emotionally. On the scale, you’re just going to wind up at a certain run time. We’ve been really hard on the film. We don’t like excessive run times; it’s just very difficult wrapping up 10 years of storytelling."
The whole interview is well-worth a read, but there's a lot to digest here and it's clear that Avengers: Endgame is in good hands with Joe and Anthony. With any luck, that runtime is going to be confirmed soon as tickets should go on sale early next week if recent rumours are to be believed.
Hit the "View List" button below to check out
some new Avengers: Endgame promo art!