In June of last year, a rumor emerged that the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War sequel would be titled “Avengers: Endgame.” The hearsay largely stemmed from a personal filmography shared by cinematographer Trent Opaloch, which listed this exact title until people caught wind of its inclusion.
But while the rumor managed to get some traction for a short period, the name was ultimately dismissed based on an interview with Uproxx, in which co-director Joe Russo claimed that the official title wouldn’t be taken from any Infinity War dialogue. Of course, six months later, with the release of the film’s first trailer, it was revealed that “Avengers: Endgame” was indeed the name of Marvel’s Phase 3 finale, suggesting that the Russo Brothers hadn’t been entirely honest previously.
In an interview with /Film, Anthony and Joe Russo were asked point blank if they were lying when they said that the title didn’t feature in Infinity War, to which Anthony jokingly responded:
“No one ever said ‘Avengers: Endgame’ [in the movie.]”
Well, he’s got us there, but if this answer doesn’t leave you satisfied, Joe Russo then offered a lengthier explanation:
“That was a year before the movie gets released, and we are constantly changing things and these are iterative and creative processes. It is impossible to commit to anything with any kind of clarity a year before you’re about to release some content. ‘Cause who knows your DP could accidentally put the title on his resume and then we throw it out. You know, like there are a million reasons why that may or may not be a title for the movie. And until we sit in a room and we watch a trailer with the title on it, then we all look at each other and say, we running with this title. That’s usually when the title sticks to a movie.”
Joe continued:
“So when people are asking us questions a year before release… And look, they have the right and that’s their job but we also have the right and it’s our job to protect the creative integrity of our choices. And you don’t want to be trapped into, and pressured into choices in the same way that a writer wants to feel like they’re getting accurate answers out of us – There are no accurate answers a year out!”
If this is all true, then you could probably argue that the Russo Brothers could’ve simply told the press that they weren’t 100% on the title yet, as opposed to outright lying. But regardless, that’s all ancient history now, as the film is just fifteen days away from release.
In the meantime, Marvel is continuing to share new footage from the movie, though the Russos have been pretty open about the fact that some of the trailer scenes have been altered to avoid spoilers. With that in mind, we’ll find out what else they’ve been hiding from us when Avengers: Endgame hits theaters on April 26th.
