Last week, Avengers: Endgame co-directors Anthony and Joe Russo finally confirmed the runtime of their upcoming flick to be a hefty 3 hours and 58 seconds. And while that length may prove punishing on the bladder, the filmmakers stand by their decision not to include an intermission.
In an interview with ComicBook.com, Joe Russo explained that the considerable length of the Avengers: Infinity War sequel was more or less decided in the writing stage.
“[Fitting everything into the run time] was very much worked out on the script level with [Christopher] Markus and [Stephen] McFeely,” Russo said. “We spent a long time with them exploring all the possibilities and honing down on what the essential storytelling was. That’s such a complex question. You can’t really be dealing with that once you get to production. That’s definitely a script issue.”
Anthony Russo then elaborated a little by arguing that three hours was simply the right length for the expansive story they were looking to tell.
“Yeah, focus and discipline is what it comes down to,” the director added. “We like to keep the stories propulsive. It was painful for us to come in at three hours, but we just couldn’t get the story down from that.”
As for the possibility of an intermission, despite the recent rumor that the Russos were considering the idea, the pair now claim that they never saw it as a serious option.
“We joked about it,” Joe Russo said. “We would joke about that.”
After Anthony Russo reaffirmed that they only “discussed it in jest,” Joe offered some advice to filmgoers.
“We’re telling everybody to prep as if they’re going into surgery,” Russo said. “Don’t have any water or anything to drink post-midnight the day before the film, and you’ll be fine.”
While we’re still a couple of weeks away from finding out how the Russos have chosen to fill their 3-hour runtime, the brothers have already reported an exceptionally strong response from test viewers (most of whom apparently didn’t feel the need to go to the bathroom). Meanwhile, if the movie’s record-breaking pre-sales are anything to go by, then the fans are more than happy to give 181 minutes of their time to Avengers: Endgame.
