‘Avengers: Infinity War’ is almost here. That is exciting enough by itself, but the looming release of the movie also means we’re that much closer to getting answers to some of the many questions that have been deliberately left dangling regarding ‘Avengers 4’. Among those, unusually, is the title, which co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo have implied could tip their hands as storytellers, if not outright spoil ‘Infinity War’. With that being the case, many have speculated that the title of the film would be revealed on the heels of the release of ‘Infinity War’, perhaps even in that film’s closing credits.
Not so, says Joe Russo, who tells Yahoo! Movies that it will be “quite a long while” before the title is revealed, adding that people need to “see this movie, digest this movie” before learning what the next story is going to be.
Russo also offered some clarification regarding the title’s history. Originally announced as ‘Infinity War Part II’, the film currently known only as ‘Avengers 4’ was re-titled during production as it became clear just how different it would be to its immediate predecessor. The director is also quick to explain that while the story that begins in ‘Infinity War‘ continues in ‘Avengers 4’, fans won’t be facing a year-long cliffhanger.
“It’s a complete story. It’s got a beginning, middle, and an end and the next movie has a beginning, middle, and an end, in the same way that ‘Civil War’ handed off to ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Infinity War’ will hand off to the next movie. It’s serialized storytelling without question so there is going to be a correlation, narratively, but we really wanted to make two distinct movies. We weren’t interested in making one long film and getting out the scissors and cutting the scissors and cutting it in half. We don’t find that a satisfying cinematic experience so this is a complete story, that’s a complete story, and they’re very different movies.”
In addition to representing the culmination of everything the Marvel movies have spent a decade building toward, the ‘Infinity War’ duology (specifically ‘Avengers 4’) also marks the end of Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Further cementing the status of their ‘Avengers’ films as turning points for the MCU, the brothers promise that Phase 4 will be drastically different. Says Joe Russo:
“I think massively different. I think that this is if Marvel has been writing a book for ten years, it’s the end of the book and someone is going to write a new book. Who knows what that new book will be, but this is an ending and that’ll be a new beginning.”
While Marvel has yet to announce a firm release slate for Phase 4, but following the release of ‘Avengers 4’, the new era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems likely to kick off with either ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ or the sequel to ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’.
Directed by the Russo brothers from a script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ marks the culmination of a decade-long effort by Marvel Studios and sees the Avengers team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy to take on Thanos. The film counts Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Holland, Karen Gillan, Paul Rudd, Chadwick Boseman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olson, Sebastian Stan, and three gentlemen named “Chris” among its gargantuan cast. The long-awaited movie is set to arrive in theaters on April 27, 2018.
