Directors Joe and Anthony Russo surprised Marvel fans everywhere when they revealed the current cut of Avengers: Endgame was holding strong at a steady three hours. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says the production house has no issue in release a movie that long, so long as it’s able to tell an adequate story.
Speaking with Collider on the press tour for Captain Marvel, Feige says they’re going to release the movie at the “perfect” running time.
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“We’re gonna release the movie at the exact right running time,” Feige points out. “I’m telling you this, it’s gonna be perfect. It’s gonna be the exact running time that the movie needs to be.
Feige detailed the studio’s thoughts about run time, confirming they’ll give creators however much time they want should the final cut make the most amount sense, story-wise and commercially.
“I think there’s a lot of story in that movie and a lot of characters in that movie,” the producer says of the upcoming blockbuster. “In all seriousness, we don’t look at run times in terms of mandates, or anything like that. Every movie should feel like it’s an hour and 45 minutes. Now, some movies can be 90 minutes and feel like they’re four hours. And some movies can be three and a half hours and feel like 90 minutes.”
“So for us, that’s what it … It’s, “how does it feel?” And every version of Endgame thus far, and the ones that we’re honing in on, feel very good.”
Last month Joe Russo essentially echoed Feige’s sentiment, saying the studio is fine with a longer film should it not end up including scenes and take that end up bloating the final cut.
“I think the studio is down with what the best story is. Right now, we think the movie is playing well and we’ve had great responses from our test audiences and we’re feeling very good about where it is,” the director revealed. “We’re still doing work to it. We’re not done with it. Again, this is a culmination film of 22 movies, it’s a lot of storytelling to work into it. Emotion is an intrinsic part of that to us. When you have to tell a really complicated story and you want strong emotional moments with the characters, it just requires a certain amount of real estate.”
When all is said and done, Avengers: Endgame is set to feature the most characters ever seen in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film before — and with Avengers: Infinity War clocking in around two and a half hours, it’s likely Endgame warrants the three-hour runtime.
Avengers: Endgame hits theaters April 26th. Other upcoming Marvel Studios films include Captain Marvel on March 8th and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.
Are you interested in a three-hour long Avengers flick? How long could the movie be until you start to get worried? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or join the conversation online by hitting me up on Twitter at @AdamBarnhardt!
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