Russo Brothers Say Avengers 4 Could Be 3 Hours Long

As we creep closer and closer to the release of Joe and Anthony Russo’s Avengers: Infinity War, it’s becoming more and more clear just how absolutely gigantic it’s going to be – in every sense of the word.

Set to be the culmination of the past 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – which consists of 18 movies, for those keeping track – it’s got a lot to juggle, with nearly every MCU character (except maybe Hawkeye?) finding themselves involved in some way and tons of loose, dangling plot threads to tie up.

Of course, it won’t have to shoulder that task alone, as the currently untitled Avengers 4 will pick up wherever Infinity War leaves off. But between the two of them, we’ll finally get a conclusion to a decade’s worth of storylines and character arcs. As such, it’s no surprise that each film is going to be pretty long.

Already, we know that Infinity War will stretch for 149 minutes and 9 seconds. That’s just a shade under 2 and a half hours. While shorter than initial reports, that still makes it the lengthiest entry in the franchise to date, though it’s only two minutes longer than Captain America: Civil War. As for Avengers 4, well, according to Joe Russo, it may be close to 3 hours.

Speaking to Collider in a recent interview, the director teased that it’ll be longer than Infinity War and while he wouldn’t give an exact runtime, he did mention that it could come in at 180 minutes.

“I’ll say it could easily be a three hour film, but I think that, you know, we’re very hard on the material. We like it to play at a certain pace. Uh…I…you know, i’m sure that we’ll squeeze it.  I can’t imagine..We have a whole year of work left on that movie. I do think it will be longer than Avengers 3, but it’s clearly impossible to say”

Whether it’s 3 hours or a bit under, we certainly expect the currently untitled sequel to be a long one. Aside from picking up all the plot threads left dangling in Infinity War, Avengers 4 will also need to wrap up this current Phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and lay the groundwork for what’s to come.

Speaking of which, things are said to get a lot more cosmic once Phase 4 hits, with the studio rumored to be looking at doing an Eternals film, along with several other spaced-based projects (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3). How Avengers 4 will pave the way for all that remains to be seen, but at least it sounds like the Russo brothers will have more than enough time to plant the necessary seeds.