Avengers: Endgame's "4 Hour" Cut Not Being Released Is A Total Relief

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Avengers: Endgame is the biggest adventure the Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen so far, as it brought together all the active superheroes in the MCU to battle Thanos and his armies. Such a big event left many scenes on the cutting room floor, which could make way for an almost 4-hour director’s cut, but thankfully, that version will never be released. The first three phases of the MCU led to the big events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, in which Thanos finally acquired all the Infinity Stones and the Infinity Gauntlet and fulfilled his plans of wiping out half of life in the universe.

After watching some of the MCU’s most beloved characters turn into dust, such as Spider-Man and Bucky Barnes, Avengers: Endgame saw the surviving heroes joining forces to come up with a plan to undo the snap. The solution was the Time Heist, through which the heroes traveled back in time to get the Infinity Stones before Thanos did, and while they succeeded and were able to undo the snap, they also made it possible for a past version of Thanos to arrive to the present with all of his armies. This made way for the Battle of Earth, the biggest battle in the MCU so far, and it all ended with Iron Man’s final snap and sacrifice.

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Due to the complexity of the Time Heist and the Battle of Earth, as well as the number of characters in the story, Avengers: Endgame was three hours long, and of course, there were many scenes that didn’t make it to the final cut. In an interview with WIRED, Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo revealed that the longest cut they had was 3 hours and 40 minutes long, and as they fully approve of those extra 40 minutes