Russo Brothers Tell Why ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Will Be A Three-Hour Show

Anthony and Joe Russo have explained why “Avengers: Endgame” will run for three hours and two minutes.

The brothers spoke about this in an interview with Box Office Pro, in which Joe Russo said that a three-hour runtime has been a constant throughout the addition and subtraction portion of their editing process.

“We’re still looking at a similar time [approximately three hours]. This one’s been very specific in its run time. It really hasn’t changed since we executed the first cut of the film,” he said. “Even though we’ve shot a lot of footage between now and then, we’ve swapped things out and the water keeps rising to the same level because the story’s so dense. We have so many characters that we’re working with again that require that kind of run time.”

He added that he and his brother were determined to allow Endgame the opportunity to “breathe emotionally” since the film carries such a sizable emotional weight with its remaining characters, and details how their respective stories end or continue from here.

“My brother [Anthony Russo] and I are really committed to emotional stakes, and emotion requires story real estate,” he said. “When you have a sprawling plot with a lot of characters and emotional stakes, it requires time to breathe emotionally. On the scale, you’re just going to wind up at a certain run time. We’ve been really hard on the film. We don’t like excessive run times; it’s just very difficult wrapping up 10 years of storytelling.”

And fans are superexcited.

Avengers: Endgame comes out on April 26.