Directors Joe and Anthony Russo have seemingly confirmed the current runtime for Avengers: Doomsday is shorter than Avengers: Endgame.

While speaking to Fandango about the challenge of balancing a large cast with a focused story, Anthony Russo said, “It’s a two and a half hour movie or so, and you’re sitting through it, and it’s a focused propulsive narrative that has like an organizing principle at its center, and everything has to orbit around that.That’s part of the creative challenge for Joe and I – just figuring out how that what that orbit is and how it all smashes together.”

However it comes together, the Russos have confirmed – much like Avengers: Infinity War before it – there will be a shocking finale in store for those watching Doomsday.

“I think people are going to be surprised,” Joe Russo teased. “It’s a very surprising ending. It’s a very surprising movie and that’s all we’ll say about it.”

If the Avengers: Doomsday runtime of around 150 minutes holds, it will pale in comparison to Avengers: Endgame’s three-hour length (not even taking into account Encore added an extra four minutes of bonus scenes).

Doomsday will, however, match up to MCU runtimes such as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (161 minutes), Eternals (156 minutes), and Avengers: Infinity War (149 minutes).

In a separate interview with Empire, the directors confirmed the Endgame Encore bonus scenes wouldn’t be part of Doomsday, meaning you’ll have to watch them in cinemas to get the full context on the road to the next major Avengers crossover.

Avengers: Doomsday hits cinemas on December 16 in the UK and December 18 in the US.

For more, we have a complete guide to upcoming Marvel movies.