The Avengers 4 runtime is reportedly three hours – but don’t expect it to stay that way

Avengers: Endgame has already taken over a good portion of our lives and, if the Avengers 4 runtime holds at its current level, it could very well take up over a third of our day. That’s because, as of current edits, it will be the longest MCU movie ever. Don’t take my word for it, nor the whispers of a sketchy cinema chain – this comes from the directors themselves.

While hosting a Q&A on Instagram (H/T THR) for the opening of his new bar, Duello’s, co-director Joe Russo outlines what the Avengers 4 runtime currently is, with the movie due to release in just under six months: “The running time on Avengers 4 is currently sitting right at three hours, so we'll see if that holds, but it's sitting right at three hours right now.”

Expect something just north of the Avengers: Infinity War runtime of 160 minutes and something that will outstrip the likes of Captain America: Civil War and its 148 minute length. It's got to a point where even the original The Avengers is looking a little dinky compared to its bigger brothers at just 143 minutes.

Of course, the Avengers 4 runtime being cut from 180 minutes to something slightly less chunky wouldn’t be the first case of movies stripping away a lot of the fatty stuff before we finally see it on theatre screens. The elder Russo, though, is keen to point out that there’s a long way to go before the finished version is, well, finished.

“We’re really just scratching the surface on our VFX shots,” Joe Russo says, “There are more than 3,000 VFX shots in the movie; those require a lot of time and thought and energy and effort, and we’re very early in the phase of getting VFX done.”

That’s… a lot of special effects. It all paints a picture, too, of a project that’s not quite complete. So, before you hit the panic button and get a little too antsy about a superhero movie going three hours or, god forbid, three hours not being long enough to end the MCU’s Phase Three (that’s a lot of threes), then please, please, please realise there’s still a long way to go. 

There's still so many Avengers 4-related mysteries to discover. Take the Avengers 4 title, for instance... and what about the cast and crew teasing the Avengers: Endgame ending? The runtime is the least of our worries.