Marvel Boss Kevin Feige: Secretive ‘Avengers 4’ Title Backfired

Withholding the title of Avengers 4 was meant to keep Avengers: Infinity War in the spotlight, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige tells IGN, but the secrecy around its name “backfired.”

Feige and company “haven’t decided exactly” when to reveal the title of Avengers 4, but the commotion around its name has “gotten entirely out of hand,” IGN quotes him as saying.

“And now will have no chance to live up to any expectations of what it’s gonna be,” Feige explains. “And it sort of backfired, if I’m honest with you, because the notion was to not talk about it so the focus was to be on [Infinity War].”

It will still be “quite some time” before the title is unveiled, according to directors Anthony and Joe Russo, but the decision to hold off ties back to Marvel Studios’ announcement of the Phase 3 slate in late 2014.

Announcing the back-to-back Avengers films — alongside future blockbusters Captain America: Civil War and Black Panther — robbed some of the hype from the then soon-to-be-released Avengers sequel, Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, which wouldn’t drop for another six months in May 2015.

“Ultron hadn’t come out at that point and I felt a tiny little sense of, ‘Well, gosh, we’ve gotta talk about the movies we have coming out next because that’s what we’ve been working so hard on and that’s what’s next available for our audience to see,’” Feige says, “but when we talk that far ahead, that took a lot of attention out.”

The Infinity War sequel won’t bear a “Part 2” subtitle, as was originally announced, but the pair of films are “absolutely directly connected, as many of our movies are but more so than many of our other movies,” Feige says. “People will want to know what happens next immediately at the end of [Infinity War].”

ComicBook.com revealed Monday that fans should brace themselves for a The Walking Dead-inspired cliffhanger, but both films will offer two whole films instead of one half now, one half a year later.

“The mission was to not make one long movie and get out the scissors and cut it in half,” says Anthony Russo. “Because that’s never been the most fulfilling cinematic expression. So for us, the commitment was to try and put a beginning, middle, and end to this, and a beginning, middle, and end to that.”

Avengers: Infinity War opens Thursday, April 26th, with a full release on Friday, April 27th.