How far would you go to avoid spoilers?

For Anthony and Joe Russo, the brother directors of a little arthouse picture, perhaps you’ve heard of it, called Avengers: Endgame, the best way to keep the movie’s surprises intact is to know as little as possible about it. In fact, the siblings thought about releasing the movie without any fanfare, so that they can preserve “the surprise of the narrative”.

Brothers in arms: Anthony Russo (left), 49, with his brother, Joe, 47, at the 'Avengers: Endgame' press conference yesterday (Apr 15) in Seoul.

Says Joe Russo in Empire: “When I was a kid and saw The Empire Strikes Back at 11am on the day it opened, and sat there until 10pm watching it back to back to back, it profoundly moved me because I didn’t know a damn thing about the story I was going to watch. We’re trying to replicate that experience.”

All you need to know is, how in blue blazes are the remaining Avengers — Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) — going to undo the damages intergalactic tyrant Thanos inflicted in Infinity War?

No publicity? Sounds admirably rad. Then again, does Endgame really need the publicity? Endgame isn’t just another sequel, it's the culmination of 10 years of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)-building, marking the end of an era — and the beginning of another. It's probably the last time we’ll ever see the six original Avengers together and it promises to be an emotional ride.

While the Russos are determined to preserve the movie’s shocks and awes, they’re still game to join the cast on its whirlwind press tour around the world to spread the good word about the 22nd MCU movie. (Maybe this is a good way for them to prevent their actors from spilling the beans.)

On Sunday, 8 DAYS manages to get on the phone with the brothers for 10 minutes during their stopover in Seoul, where they are joined by Robert Downey Jr, Jeremy Renner, and Brie Larson. So how much did the directors reveal? Surprise, surprise: Not much. (Even if they did, do you think we’re allowed to run it?)

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Avengers: Endgame opens in cinemas Apr 24.

Photos: Disney, TPG News/Click Photos

8 DAYS: In a recent panel with her fellow Avengers cast-mates, Scarlett Johansson said she’s terrified of junkets because she’s always worried that she may accidentally reveal a spoiler or two. What’s your experience on junkets like?

JOE RUSSO: I think we put the fear of God into the actors, so they are a bit nervous than we are. Only because we sent them strict rules about what they can say and can’t say. I think they get nervous because there’s a lot of rules. I don’t think they can remember them all. We’d spent three years talking around Infinity War and Endgame, so by the time we talk to the press, we feel we are okay.

So which actor cried the most on their last day of filming?

JOE: We are not going to say one way or the other… It was very emotional because we were wrapping up the story of the six original Avengers and we are family with the actors now. We also spent seven years working with the crew, with Marvel. We are very, very close to all of them. I think it’s heartbreaking for anybody. It’s closure and sometimes closure is difficult.

Do you sense that there’s an emptiness now that you’re done with the movie?

ANTHONY RUSSO: The hardest thing is getting to this moment [speaking to the press]. If we could go to sleep right now and wake up on opening day, we would.

Did you feel that you had more fun working on Avengers: Endgame than you did on your first MCU movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier because back then you were best known for your TV work and untested in the action/superhero genre?

ANTHONY: I would say we enjoyed all the way through. There hasn’t been a moment on any of these movies we didn’t enjoy it. It was certainly hard to shoot Infinity War and Endgame back to back [logistically]. But as far as our emotional state was concerned, every single step of the way, we always felt we were supported by Marvel. We’ve always loved our collaborators and thrilled to have the opportunities to work on these movies. It’s been, all the way through, one of the highlights of our careers.

Thanks to The Winter Soldier, you went from indie filmmakers to international filmmakers. How do you reflect on that transition?

ANTHONY: That [movie] was an incredible opportunity for us. I would never forget the experience we had taking The Winter Soldier around the world and screening it. The Winter Soldier, unlike Infinity War and Endgame, we didn’t need to be secretive about it.

During the rollout of that film, we would actually premiere it as we went around the world. So to encounter audiences all around the globe with a passion for that film was a real inspiration for us.

It really opened our eyes to the idea that there is a global community of fans that was anticipating the movie, experiencing it together and dialoguing about the movie after seeing it. That was an incredible thrill for us to just realise the scope of that.

Post-Endgame, you’re re-teaming with Tom Holland on Cherry, where he plays a PTSD-stricken war vet who becomes a serial bank robber. You’re also looking after the classic films in the MGM library. Would you still stick around to offer advice to filmmakers like Chloe Zhao and Destin Daniel Cretton who’re making their first MCU movie, The Eternals and Shang-Chi, respectively?

JOE: We are always here for them. We field a lot of calls from directors who are going to do their first movie and we would sort of walk them through with the focus and discipline needed to execute movies of this scale. We are always here to support other filmmakers.

Steven Soderbergh was our mentor when we started in the film business [with the 2002 heist flick Welcome to Collinwood] and we now like to mentor other filmmakers the way he did for us. But it’s nothing official. We’re very close to everyone at Marvel. We are always there for spiritual support.

Can you say anything about Stan Lee’s cameo in Endgame?

ANTHONY: We can say that Stan Lee is in Endgame and it’s his final cameo that he ever recorded. I can’t believe he made it to Endgame; he had made it through the first 21 movies of the MCU, so this is an important turning point of the MCU.

The fact that he made it this far was a gift to all of us. Stan, we always love having him on set. The energy he created on set was amazing; everybody would light up.

Everybody from the cast to the crew would gather around the set when he was due to have a scene, to get a glimpse of him, try to get a few words with him. And Stan always brought so much energy to the cameo no matter how small it is.

The thing we always remember about him was, he always wanted us to give him more lines than he had. So we had to improv more lines to get him more screen time. I always love that about him — his enthusiasm. He was always trying to do more. That was something really inspirational to us.

In an essay about The Crying Game’s twist reveal, screenwriter maestro William Goldman joked that the statute of limitations on surprises should be 16 weeks. What’s your statute of limitations on Endgame’s surprises?

ANTHONY: I wish it was 16 weeks, but that was a different age, pre-Internet.

JOE: People should get out to see this movie as soon as humanly possible in a theatre. If they can’t watch it on opening weekend, they should get off the Internet. There are surprises in this movie that are going to be online the minute the movie comes out.