Should Avengers: Endgame have an intermission if it hits a three-hour runtime?

Avengers: Endgame faces a possible three-hour runtime. Is the film long enough to warrant an intermission?

Joe and Anthony Russo, directors of Avengers: Endgame, have shared the film’s runtime will likely be around three hours. This would be the longest runtime of any Marvel film so far — Avengers: Infinity War comes in at two hours and 40 minutes.

Overall, fans are pretty thrilled since Endgame will have lots of characters to feature and a lot of loose ends to address. Sure, there won’t be as many characters as Infinity War (or maybe there will be, depending on which snapped heroes come back to life) but this movie could be the swan song for major characters like Captain America and Tony Stark. If so, we’re gonna need to see plenty of them before their time is up. Most fans want to see this story given its due and would rather the film be longer than shorter and risk having to cut important information.

One question about this long runtime, however, is should Endgame have an intermission? Three hours is a pretty long time to be seated for a film.

Most plays and musicals have intermissions when their show is going to last three or more hours. An intermission would be a great trend to get started for longer movies, and Marvel and Disney definitely have the ability to make that call and start a new precedent.

Then again, other long movies, such as Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (which was three hours and 20 minutes long) have not had intermissions.

We asked what people would prefer, and the final results of our poll revealed most of you would be fine without an intermission — hardcore fans, we like it!

If an intermission were to happen, fans should definitely plan ahead on how they are going to make it through without having to take a bathroom or snack break. This being Endgame and all — there will be so many moments you won’t want to miss out on. That may just mean opting out of an extra-large soda so stressful moments aren’t complicated with a full bladder.

But, in the end, even if you end up a little uncomfortable, most MCU fans won’t complain about the Russos telling the story the right way.

In an interview with Collider, Joe Russo said:

"I think the studio is down with what the best story is. Right now, we think the movie is playing well and we’ve had great responses from our test audiences and we’re feeling very good about where it is."

He also noted that the film is not completely finished, and they still have some editing to do.

"Again, this is a culmination film of 22 movies, it’s a lot of storytelling to work into it. Emotion is an intrinsic part of that to us. When you have to tell a really complicated story and you want strong emotional moments with the characters, it just requires a certain amount of real estate. This one, in particular, feels like three hours worth of real estate."

We are definitely here for giving characters the time they need for character development and allowing those emotional moments. It’s been a characteristic of MCU films for so long, and easily is a reason so many of the franchise’s characters are relatable and beloved by fans.

What do you think of the long runtime? Would you like an intermission? Let us know in the comments!