Avengers 4 Directors Post Cryptic Photo Seemingly Teasing Film's Title

Marvel fans are anxiously awaiting the release of Avengers 4, and will take any information about the movie that they can get until it drops on May 4, 2019. No one knows this better than Joe and Anthony Russo, the co-directors of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4, who recently shared a cryptic photo that seemingly teases the title of Avengers 4. 

The Russo Brothers posted the picture on their joint Twitter and Instagram accounts with the caption, "Look hard." 

Joe Russo is seen in the center of the snap, sitting in a folding chair and tapping away at his laptop's keyboard. Above him is an enormous box light, to the right of the frame is a ladder, and in front of him is a drink cooler. Toward the lefthand side of the photo, one can spot an assortment of items that seem commonplace behind the scenes of a major movie like Avengers 4. 

If the Russos didn't include the caption urging for fans to look for clues, the photo would come across like a run-of-the-mill one depicting the Avengers 4 production process and hinting at the film's impending promotional campaign. People would be excited about it, sure, but they wouldn't think much else of it. But alas, the filmmaking pair had far too much fun with this Avengers 4 tease, and fans have taken the "look hard" direction and run wild with it. 

After dissecting the snap, Twitter user @Jimmy2495 pointed out that there are four As — for Avengers 4 — sprinkled in the photo. This naturally spurred fellow Marvel movie-lovers to theorize that there are other letters camouflaged in the picture, and that the Russo Brothers are teasing that the official Avengers 4 title announcement is coming soon. 

Unfortunately, it looks like no one can come to an agreement on what the letters spell, or what title the photo is potentially hinting at. 

Patrick Smith posited that the word "endgame" is hidden in the picture, implying that Avengers 4 will actually be called Avengers: Endgame. Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange did mention in Avengers: Infinity War that the heroes (and the rest of the world) are "in the endgame now," and considering that the title for Avengers 4 has long been said to be a spoiler for Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame is a solid title suggestion. 

Instagram user @dxwsonlucas theorized that the "A" and the "E" in the photo — seen in the ladder and the box toward the right — stand for Avengers: Eternal. They explained (via IGN), "I think the title will be Avengers: Eternal. A fan asked the Russo Brothers (the directors of Infinity War and Avengers 4) if the title was Avengers Forever. The directors said it isn't but it's actually a really close guess. Forever and Eternal mean the same thing, and you can see A and E in the picture the Russo Brothers posted."

The Russo Brothers are notorious for committing the ol' tweet-and-delete faux pas, having wiped all their social media accounts earlier this year and leaving up only a single post that featured Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet raising his middle finger in response to a tweet from Ryan Reynolds. That said, there stands a chance that the Russos could scrub this hint-riddled picture from their social media profiles after a few days and pretend it never happened. A move like that would only add to the thick cloud of mystery that currently encapsulates Avengers 4, but it would also boost anticipation for and chatter about the film — and Marvel's totally about that life.

Feige once mentioned that Marvel won't announce the title for Avengers 4 until after the studio releases the first footage from Captain Marvel — which it did on Monday, so regardless of what the Russo Brothers' mystifying photo was meant to spell out, fans might learn the definitive truth about the Avengers 4 title sooner than they think.