Marvel

There's no way Mark Ruffalo was allowed to say the actual Avengers 4 secret title on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, right?

When Ruffalo, who plays the Hulk, appeared on the show Friday, he said something, which was bleeped out. But Anton Volkov, who runs the film trailer and movie news site Trailer Track, set to work editing out the bleep using Adobe Audition digital-audio software, and thinks he heard a pretty clear title. (Possible spoiler ahead.)

Bit more editing to make it a bit clearer pic.twitter.com/P5u3aZZSBa — Anton Volkov (@antovolk) October 7, 2018

Yep, it definitely sounds like Ruffalo said the movie was The Last Avenger. Which fits in the sense that Captain America (Chris Evans) has been called The First Avenger, and his death is rumored to happen in this film. Evans seems to have already bid farewell to the role and moved on.

But don't go out and get a T-shirt made with that title on it. Volkov noted that fans don't believe The Last Avenger is really the Avengers 4 title, even if that is what Ruffalo said.

It's just too easy a reveal, plus Volkov notes people who attended the Tonight Show taping reported that Ruffalo admitted he was joking.

"I did mention in my initial tweets that The Last Avenger is probably not the real title and it wouldn't even really make sense as one for an Avengers film," Volkov told me. "So if anything, it's a fascinating curiosity and cool to know what Ruffalo actually said for posterity purposes more than anything. I was just surprised how many seem to be seriously considering it as a title for the film bearing all that in mind."

The name would be odd for a few reasons. Since the movie title will likely begin with "Avengers," that makes "Avengers: The Last Avenger" a name straight out of the Department of Redundancy Department. And since these films are giant group projects, calling out one single person as the last Avenger doesn't seem to fit, either. This isn't Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but an enormous entourage movie. No way all the Avengers are gone for good.

Marvel isn't commenting on the film's title, of course. But fans continue to suggest possibilities, including everything from Avengers: Fallen Heroes to Avengers: End Game. A recent favorite is Avengers: Annihilation, based in part on a mysterious black and white photo shared by the film's directors, Joe and Anthony Russo.

The Ruffalo Tonight Show segment did exactly what it was intended to do: keep people talking about a film that won't hit theaters until May 3, 2019 in the US and April 26 in the UK (no Australia release date is known yet).

Maybe it should be called Avengers: The Last Marketing Genius.

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