Late last week, millions of Marvel fans were overjoyed when the title for the upcoming fourthAvengersmovie was revealed to beAvengers: Endgame, confirming numerous fans' theories about what the movie would be called. Marvel Studios has been incredibly secretive about what the movie’s name would be, withEndgame’s two directors, Anthony and Joe Russo, teasing the mysterious title at conventions and on social media without ever revealing it. While their teasing was fun and was used as clues by the Marvel fanbase, a look back at some of their antics reveals that theRusso brothersactually lied to the fans about the title on a couple of occasions.
Following the release ofAvengers: Infinity War, Marvel fans went on a mission topredict the mysterious titleof the next movie, with the primary theory being that the movie would be namedAvengers: Endgame, tying in withDoctor Strange’s dialoguetoward the end of the movie. This was immediately the top theory for theAvengers 4title, but only a couple weeks afterInfinity War’s release, the Russo Brothers shot it down.
In an interview with ComicBook.com, the Russo brothers revealed that no one online had guessed the title yet, and that the closest guess to the actual title was “Avengers: Forever.” While it’s possible that they simply hadn’t seen theAvengers: Endgameguess online yet, this seems incredibly unlikely. TheEndgame title theorywas big only a week afterInfinity Warcame out, so it’s incredibly improbable that they hadn’t heard the theory yet.
Not long after, in an interview with Uproxx, the Russo brothers were asked, “Is the title of the fourthAvengersever spoken inInfinity War?,” to which Joe Russo responded, “No.” This immediatelyshot down any chanceof the movie being namedAvengers: Endgame, as “Endgame” was clearly spoken during the third act ofAvengers: Infinity War.
While it’s clear that this deception by the Russo brothers was to keep the details ofAvengers: Endgameaway from the public, the way they did it perhaps wasn’t the best. In the months followingAvengers: Infinity War, the Russo brothers had quite a bit of fun teasing their fans about the title, often leaving clues on their social media that hinted at what the next movie would be called (the most famous of which was an image from the set of the movie, featuring the word “Endgame” abstractly spelled out using props and other items on set). However, all of these clues were essentially wasted, seeing as some of these “clues” were actually blatant lies. The Russo brothers weren’t playing along with us to lead us to the title. Instead, they were just toying with us, having us running around in circles to figure out the title while lying about it from the beginning.
Though this will have no effect on the movie, as that has clearly been the Russo brothers' top priority over the past couple years, the fact that the Russo brothers lied about the title in their interviews withUproxxand Comicbook.com is surely a bit irritating for fans who have been trying to guess the title since April. While it makes sense for Marvel to try to keep the title secret, things would’ve been better had the Russo brothers just not said anything about the title rather than leaving clues and lying about them for seven months.
