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Avengers: Endgame Directors Explain Why They Needed A Spoiler Ban

If you thought the 2016 presidential election tore apart families, then maybe you've seen how potentially spoiling movies and TV shows can incite just as much outrage. Really, in the days leading to Avengers: Endgame's theatrical release, I witnessed a fair amount of people on social media posting blanket threats of unfriending anyone who spilled beans - or even promises of physical violence. As much as I love my superheroes, come on, it's just a movie.

Avengers: Endgame

If you thought the 2016 presidential election tore apart families, then maybe you’ve seen how potentially spoiling movies and TV shows can incite just as much outrage. Really, in the days leading to Avengers: Endgame‘s theatrical release, I witnessed a fair amount of people on social media posting blanket threats of unfriending anyone who spilled beans – or even promises of physical violence. As much as I love my superheroes, come on, it’s just a movie.

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To much less extreme extent, directors Joe and Anthony Russo had more altruistic reasons for the unofficial embargo. I’m sure you all still remember “#DontSpoilTheEndgame,” which was something those two gentlemen really pushed.

While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Joe handily explained his motivation:

“This is the environment we live in now. We can’t control the internet. It’s its own monster. Whether there’s malicious intent or compulsive intent to reveal story points of pop culture content, we wanted to make sure that we asked for a level of decorum in how all of that was dealt with.”

Though he’s certainly got a point there, it’s entirely possible to abstain from social media – unless, of course, you really need to find out which pop culture character the latest data-mining app will identify you as (odds are you’re a Harley Quinn/Sansa Stark hybrid like everyone else).

In fact, I think Anthony pretty much took the words out of my mouth when he weighed in on the matter:

“We certainly respect the idea that when you see a film, you want to discuss it, you want to talk about it, you want to share your experience. And that’s a really important part of the process. But it’s trying to establish a window where people are given the opportunity to see the film.”

As you may remember, the Russos permitted for the cat to be let out of bag on the Monday following Avengers: Endgame‘s second weekend in theaters. Considering that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s season finale of sorts had already amassed a boatload of cash by then, it stands to reason that everyone and their mother had already seen it. Regardless, the directors deserve some credit for keeping the body count to a minimum.