The road to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame was one fraught with many changes. Marvel Studios originally announced the films in 2014 as Avengers: Infinity War Part I and Avengers: Infinity War Part II. However, in 2016, the studio renamed the second film and kept the title under wraps for two years. Although Endgame is arguably the perfect subheading for a movie that concludes several MCU storylines, Joe and Anthony Russo recently revealed that this wasn’t always their first choice.
While appearing on the HappySadConfused podcast, the Russo brothers were asked if they mulled over other titles before settling on Endgame. According to Joe, the film was actually called Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet “for quite a long time.”
Jim Starlin, George Perez, and Ron Lim’s The Infinity Gauntlet was published in 1991. It was the first big comic event to feature Thanos using the Infinity Gems to achieve his nihilistic goals. It was followed in 1992 by The Infinity War, while The Infinity Crusade closed out that trilogy in 1993
When it came to revealing Endgame’s title, the brothers Russos to throw fans off the trail by insisting that the follow-up’s name wasn’t spoken in Infinity War. This obviously turned out to be a lie. But unfortunately, the tease posed some difficulties with international versions of the film.
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“When we went to Korea to promote this movie, the representatives from Disney there came up to us and said, ‘Um, there’s something we need to tell you,’” said Anthony. “‘In the translation of Infinity War here in Korea, when Dr. Strange says to Tony ‘We’re in the Endgame now,’ the way we translated that here was ‘No hope.’”
“‘So in Korea is this movie called Avengers: No Hope?’” joked Anthony Russo.
The brothers also commented on whether Endgame’s three-hour runtime led them to discuss splitting it into two separate films.
“We used to joke about it all the time,” said Joe Russo. “Because Alan Horn at Disney had overseen Lord of the Rings and he used to joke about it all the time with us. He’d be like, ‘three hour movie, just cut it in half.’ I don’t know that it would have achieved this kind of success had we split it up.”
Do you think Marvel and the Russo brothers chose the right title for Avengers: Endgame? Should the movie have been split into two entries? Let us know in the comment section below!
