Ever since the final Harry Potter movies made big bucks by splitting the story into two parts, Hollywood has been trying to duplicate that success with other franchises. It hasn’t worked. Not only have the movies employing this tactic made increasingly less money, but in most cases they were criticized for either padded out with filler to make the double running time, or have the first film completely feeling like nothing but the first part of an unfinished story (looking at you, Hunger Games). And it seems that Marvel is not willing to repeat those mistakes.
In a press release issued over the weekend, the comic book film studio have revealed that the upcoming third Avengers movie is now officially titled Avengers: Infinity War. If you’re sitting there thinking, “But isn’t that what it’s always been called?”, then notice the lack of Part I in that title. And what was supposed to the Part II in this saga, has now officially been given the incredibly unexciting moniker of Untitled Avengers.
This all lines up perfectly with what directors Joe and Anthony Russo hinted at earlier in the year, when they explained that “the movies are two very different movies,” and not just two parts of one story as the “misleading” previous names implied. From what we know about the story though, it should still be pretty epic in scope meaning that the chances are good that two films will still be dealing with one single arc – in this case Thanos acquiring the Infinity Stones and the Avengers trying to stop them – but now the two films can function as standalone franchise entries.
As an aside, DC Comics/Warner Bros. quietly seemed to do the same thing with their Justice League movies recently, also stripping away the Part I and Part II subtitles. It seems at least these two franchises are paying attention to audiences’ complaints.
Avengers: Infinity War and Untitled Avengers are still being released on the dates as previously reported, respectively on May 4th, 2018 and May 3rd, 2019.
Last Updated: August 1, 2016
Admiral Chief - Check
August 1, 2016 at 12:14
Bah, just man up, check your bladder, and watch a 3-4 hour movie!
miaau
August 1, 2016 at 12:39
Christmas Eve, many years ago. Mother says let us go watch Titantic. Well now. I was working, albeit part-time, 12 hours a day at a retail shop (4 hours overtime EVERY DAY for at least a week before Christmas). So, tired. Watch the 20:00 show. Bugger. That was long. And none of us knew how long it was before we went in.
Bladder check indeed!
Snowlock2.0
August 1, 2016 at 12:47
Cinema in my area did a Lord of the Rings marathon, now that sure was long.
miaau
August 1, 2016 at 12:49
extended cut? Bloody hell. Not sure I could make it, just patience wise.
Kervyn Cloete
August 1, 2016 at 13:39
A few buddies and I marathoned the extended cut of the entire trilogy a couple yrs back. Was pretty epic.
Blogvader
August 1, 2016 at 12:56
I went to the LOTR marathon in my town. I enjoyed it very much.
VampyreSquirrel
August 1, 2016 at 12:19
*Shrug* Wouldn’t be the first time I sat through an exceedingly long movie
Blogvader
August 1, 2016 at 12:56
Good.
I hated the decision to jack people for two tickets, and for some of these stories (Hunger Games: Mockingjay was a great example) there just wasn’t enough story for 5 hours of film.