Avengers: Endgame Directors Explain the Need for the Spoiler Ban

Few movies were surrounded with the amount of anticipation that Avengers: Endgame received leading up to its release. But a decade’s worth of buildup in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will do that as the franchise weaves storylines throughout more than 20 films.The frenzy surrounding Avengers: Endgame caused directors Joe and Anthony Russo to make one simple plea with fans across the globe: Don’t Spoil the Endgame.

The phrase became a hashtag, but some people ignored it as fan-recorded clips from screenings managed to leak just weeks before the film’s premiere. But still, the mantra served its purpose as a rallying cry for people online to band together and protect the less diligent from being subject to massive spoilers.

While speaking to the Hollywood Reporter about the current culture of spoilers, the Russo Brothers revealed their reasoning for creating the plea for spoiler warnings.

“This is the environment we live in now,” said Joe Russo. “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.”

Added Anthony Russo, “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.“

Of course, while there can be cases made for and against the spread of spoilers, and that everyone’s enjoyment is different based on what they know before hand, few movies would have an impact after the buildup that Avengers: Endgame received. Knowing the ending would definitely take away from those final scenes, after going through the 3-hour long journey that everyone in theaters experienced.

While everyone knows the heroes would be successful, such an ending would have been soured had it been spoiled before the film actually premiered in theaters. And the directors did what they could to make sure fans wouldn’t be harmed in advance.

Avengers: Endgame is now playing in theaters.