Kevin Feige Reveals When Marvel Knew the Title of ‘Avengers: Endgame’

Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has confirmed exactly when the studio knew what the fourth Avengers film would be called.

On the Golden Globes red carpet, Feige revealed that the title was decided on about the same time that the studio began developing the film.

“It was in place before we started developing the movie,” Feige says. “Or just as we were developing it, yes.”

Keep in mind that Marvel Studios developed and shot Avengers: Endgame and at the same time as Avengers: Infinity War. That means Marvel knew the title of the fourth Avengers movie well in advance of Infinity War‘s release but kept fans in the dark for months.

That also means that Marvel knew exactly what it was doing when it wrote Doctor Strange’s line about entering the “endgame” in Infinity War.

“So Doctor Strange says that line because we knew it was the title,” Feige notes, confirming that bit of foreshadowing.

Marvel revealed the Avengers: Endgame title in the film’s first trailer, released in December. Feige confirmed that fans shouldn’t expect to see too much of the film in marketing beyond the first 15 minutes.

“I’d call it somewhat accurate,” Feige said. “As was the case with a lot of our films, this one in particular, being able to generate a lot of excitement without giving away one of the many, many, many secrets. I think the Disney marketing team is the best in the world and we’ll be able to pull it off.”

Endgame will deal with the fallout of Thanos’ snap, which wiped out half of all life in the universe. The moments was a surprising cliffhanger in Infinity War that fans are still discussing months later. Feige has said that he is quite pleased with how that turned out.

“We did Infinity War and Endgame at the same time, but those have been the longest gestating movies we’ve ever made,” said Feige. “Four years now, almost five years. And it was always about delivering on the promise that we had set up. And the way the world received Infinity War was amazing, it was exactly what we wanted.”

“And that ending, which we had been working on for many years, and I do remember people, on all of the movies we’ve made and I’m sure on many of the movies we’ll make in the future, whenever the good guy wins, which is often — good guy, good woman, good hero wins — they go, ‘Eh, it’s kind of predictable. Good guy wins,’” Feige added. “Well, sometimes that’s fun. But for years I remember thinking, ‘I wonder what they’re going to do when they don’t?’ Because we knew that was coming. And it couldn’t have been better. The reaction was the best. The reaction. Was. The. Best.”

Avengers: Endgame opens in theaters on April 26th.

Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8th, and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.