'Avengers: Endgame' Directors Reveal Probable Runtime

Clocking in just shy of two hours and 30 minutes, Avengers: Infinity War is the longest film so far in the first decade of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It might be beat next year when the long-awaited sequel Avengers: Endgame premieres.

According to co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo, one of the most recent edits sits over three hours long. And judging by their recent comments to Empire Magazine, we're not expecting the finished runtime to be much shorter.

After all, it is the culmination of every film in Marvel Studios' history thus far.

"There's a high probability that this movie will clock in at around three hours," Joe Russo said. "It's a big movie with a lot of story."

When asked if fans should bring tissues to brace themselves for emotional moments or possible character deaths, Anthony Russo attempted to deflect.

"I will be bringing one," Anthony said with a laugh.

The directors have spoken at length about their time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, saying that they've made the film they always wanted to make when they first accepted the job of making a two-part Avengers project.

"When Joe and I got hired to direct Winter Soldier, that movie was many multiples larger than anything we'd ever done before as filmmakers," Anthony explained to Business Insider. "But the way we work as filmmakers is we have to satisfy ourselves first and foremost. If we're making a movie that excites us, that's the best we can do. We can't predict if people are going to like it, we just know whether we like it. That's how we've made every one of our Marvel movies and it's how we're making this one. For all of the anticipation and anxiety about it, nothing serves Joe and I better than staying focused on the story we're trying to tell and telling it the best way we can."

But ever since they first started working on Captain America: Winter Soldier, a lot of their time has been dedicated to the MCU. And while they're keen to work on future MCU projects, they're also looking forward to their own projects.

"We love Marvel, we've had an incredible experience with them," Joe Russo said. "It's why we've made four movies in six years with them. They're like family to us. I think they do a great job of separating "church and state," where we're focused on the projects we're focused on, and someone else will focus on those other projects. We'd work with them in any capacity moving forward, and we value as much as anything in our work life the quality of the people we're around and quality of the life that we have when we're working with those people, and that's A++ when you're working with Marvel."

Avengers: Endgame premieres in theaters on April 26, 2019.

[h/t CBM]