Avengers: Endgame Encore: How The 4 New Scenes Set Up Doomsday

Avengers: Endgame Encore adds four crucial scenes that connect the 2019 movie to the events of Avengers: Doomsday, from Loki’s shocking return to Doctor Doom’s sinister plans for the multiverse.

IMAGE: Robert Downey Jr in Avengers: Doomsday.

There is a new Avengers movie playing in theatres near you as you read this.

We are kidding.

There is an old Avengers movie playing in theatres near you, armed with some new footage. Just another reason for you to chuck more money at your Disney overlords as they exploit your nostalgia and Marvel FOMO.

Avengers: Endgame Encore, which hit theatres on September 25, is the re-release of Marvel’s 2019 mega-blockbuster, the film that culminated three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into one epic showdown.

Back in 2019, applause echoed through theatre halls when a hammer was picked or when you heard ‘On your left’, hearts genuinely broke when an arc reactor finally went out, and audiences stood up to cheer when Robert Downey Jr’s name appeared last in the end-credits.

Now seven years later, Marvel wants to revisit that experience again on the big screen with a few new treats.

The original movie famously lacked post-credit scenes (first ever since the origin of the MCU), save for the faint sound of metal clanging, a clear callback to Tony Stark forging his first Iron Man suit in 2008. We will get back to that shortly.

Now, with Avengers: Endgame Encore, the movie gets three brand-new additional scenes.

Actually, there are four additional scenes, but the extra sequence can only be witnessed by fans who coughed up premium prices for IMAX or Infinity Vision tickets. Chalk up another ‘Marvel’-lous point for Disney capitalism.

These scenes were added to the re-release specifically to serve as a bridge to Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel’s biggest movie since, well, Endgame, dropping this December.

Anthony and Joe Russo maintain that Doomsday acts as a direct sequel to Endgame with the director duo having helmed both the films.

That does not mean you have to completely ignore all the movies that came in between. Except maybe Eternals or Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. Who is Kang? Where is Harry Styles? Marvel seems to have forgotten them, and honestly, so should you.

Sure, they could have just released these new scenes as teaser clips on YouTube. In fact, one of them, featuring Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, suspiciously feels like a post-credit scene originally meant for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, hastily shifted here just so fans do not feel ‘value for money’ cheated.

But how crucial are these new scenes for the upcoming crossover?

They are quite important. They establish compelling plotlines and confirm the presence of characters the studio previously kept under wraps.

Sreeju Sudhakaran breaks down the four end-credit scenes of Avengers: Endgame Encore and explains exactly why they matter for Avengers: Doomsday. Naturally, MAJOR SPOILERS lie ahead, so read with extreme caution if you plan to watch the re-release.

 

‘Here To Help You. Both Of You’

IMAGE: Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell in Avengers: Endgame.

The first scene is not actually a post-credit tag, but rather the ending of Avengers: Endgame, altered and extended to shift its context for the upcoming events.

The original Endgame concluded with Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) travelling back in time to return the Infinity Stones to their rightful places. He then decides to be ‘selfish’ for once, settling down in the past, presumably the 1950s, with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell).

The film famously ended with them slow-dancing to Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn’s It’s Been a Long, Long Time before sharing a kiss. The clear implication was that Steve would live out a full life with his original love, only returning to the present timeline as an old man to pass his shield and legacy to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie).

Well, in Avengers: Endgame Encore, just as they kiss, the doorbell to Peggy’s house rings. Steve immediately hides in the next room, listening closely to whoever has disturbed their quiet rendezvous. Peggy opens the door and we see her ask the stranger, ‘Can I help you?’

Since the events of The Avengers have not happened yet, Peggy clearly has no clue who the man standing in her doorway is. We do not see the visitor initially. We only hear his familiar voice when he replies to her question.

‘No, I am here to help you…’ he responds.

He steps into the house, and we finally see him: Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in his TVA uniform. He glances directly towards where Steve is hiding and calmly finishes his sentence: ‘…Both of you.’

Realising there is zero point in hiding, Steve steps out, visibly stunned to see Loki standing there.

Remember, for this timeline’s Steve, Loki is still a villain, and very much dead.

So what does this mean for Avengers: Doomsday? The reveal that Steve Rogers was returning for Doomsday came as a big surprise to fans, at least those not hopelessly hooked on Internet leaks.

The first teaser revealed his presence as an everyday suburban dad raising a baby boy. Loki’s sudden entry into his home firmly confirms that Steve travelling back in time to seek his happy ending with Peggy may have caused some sort of multiversal turbulence, which the TVA is supposed to police.

Loki, not the anti-hero who died in Infinity War, but the morally shifted variant from the Disney+ series, could help him fix that. In fact, the Doomsday trailer features a quick shot of Loki at a house, which we now know is Peggy’s, and someone inspecting a TVA card, whom we can now safely presume is Steve.

A direct continuation of this scene will likely play out in Avengers: Doomsday, possibly even opening the film.

(Note: Loki’s situation deserves a bit more explanation, which I will cover in a later scene breakdown.)

‘Mr Banner, I’m Here To Collect You’

IMAGE: Tom Holland and Mark Ruffalo in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Remember what happened to Bruce Banner when Jean Grey’s (Sadie Sink) mind-control shenanigans forced him to Hulk out in Spider-Man: Brand New Day? The last time we saw him, paramedics were taking away an injured Banner, who kept worryingly asking if he had hurt anyone.

A background news forecast later confirmed he had been locked away with no immediate sign of release. This particular post-credit scene easily could have been attached to Brand New Day, as it perfectly bridges the gap between his arrest and his role in Avengers: Doomsday.

In the new scene, we find Bruce locked away in a highly secure, subterranean military vault on his own will, for the safety of others. He is busy vlogging and actively working on a new gamma radiation inhibitor to permanently suppress the Hulk persona.

While sitting in front of his computers and talking to his vlog camera, the lights and screens flicker, leaving him visibly panicked. At that exact moment, someone appears in his room, offscreen, shocking Banner, who demands to know who it is.

We never see the intruder, but we hear Doctor Doom’s (Robert Downey Jr) heavily accented voice offscreen: ‘Mr Banner, I am here to collect you.’

The camera is rudely knocked down. We see green flashes and hear chaotic sounds, culminating in a ferocious Hulk roar before ending in silence. The scene ends with Banner’s fallen camera focusing on glowing green runes etched into the ground, presumably Latverian magic.

What does this scene mean?

Neither Mark Ruffalo nor the Hulk was officially confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday, so this sequence definitively assures their presence. It is important to note that Doom came to ‘collect’ him, and Banner had clearly Hulked out just before being abducted.

Doom wants the Hulk, not Banner. This strongly implies Doom will force the Hulk to work for him as his personal muscle, a dynamic straight out of the comics, which is terrible news for the Avengers.

It also raises a terrifying question: who else has Doom ‘collected’ for his army? Remember, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) are older Avengers whose whereabouts remain entirely unknown and who are not confirmed for Doomsday. (Wanda is presumed dead after Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, but did you actually see a body?)

Are they also part of Doom’s unwilling collection?

PS: Also note, the timestamp on Bruce’s camera footage confirms the events of Avengers: Doomsday is happening in 2029.

‘The Multiverse Is Collapsing’

IMAGE: Ke Huy Quan, Wunmi Mosaku, Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson in Loki Season 2.

Okay, if you did not buy an IMAX ticket in India for Avengers: Endgame Encore, you may have been completely robbed of this scene. Also, if you have not watched the Loki series (bro, it is on you to do your huge Marvel homework), you will be totally clueless about who these characters are and what is happening.

This scene is set within the TVA headquarters at a time (am using the term broadly, since Time does not function normally in the TVA), before Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) went rogue, and well before Loki became the Living God of Stories.

In fact, Loki’s picture proudly hangs as ‘Employee of the Month’ while Miss Minutes casually reads the daily announcements. Mobius (Owen Wilson) walks in for what is supposedly a normal day at work. Unfortunately for him and the wider multiverse, it is not. The sequence also features other Loki regulars like Casey (Eugene Cordero) and Ouroboros, aka OB (Ke Huy Quan).

Mobius grows concerned when he sees two distinct Earths about to collide, actively firing massive weapons at each other. He wonders aloud why this catastrophic event was missing from his daily reports.

What he does not know is that this is just the beginning of a total multiversal shitstorm, which immediately implodes right in front of them. Various TVA agents fearfully announce the sudden, violent deaths of universes, the numbers rapidly rising until the last count we hear hits ‘3000’. (Could that be a twisted nod to Stark’s famous line to his daughter: ‘I love you, 3000’?)

OB somberly looks at the rest of his panicked team and ominously declares, ‘The multiverse is about to collapse.’

The Avengers: Doomsday trailers heavily hinted at multiversal collapses and universal incursions, and this scene absolutely confirms it.

It is interesting to note the two Earths firing missiles, desperately trying to destroy each other for survival. One of them is officially Fox’s X-Men universe, which explains why Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), Cyclops (James Marsden), Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), and Beast (Kelsey Grammer) might come into play in Doomsday.

As for the Earth they are firing at? There is a very strong theory floating around that it could be the universe housing Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire).

As for the rest of the collapsing universes, it feels like a twisted, meta way for the MCU to violently purge all the old Marvel franchises that were never officially part of the MCU. Say goodbye to the Fantastic Four universes, both the 2005 and 2015 versions, the Blade universe, and so on.

MCU honcho Kevin Feige has mentioned that after Avengers: Secret Wars, the MCU will ditch multiversal shenanigans, strictly aligning all future movies to a single, unified timeline. Basically, the MCU is finally doing exactly what He Who Remains wanted to do in Loki season one: maintain just one Sacred Timeline. And Doctor Doom might be the man directly responsible for making that happen.

‘New Mask. Same Task’

IMAGE: Robert Downey Jr in Avengers: Doomsday.

Just as the original Avengers: Endgame finished with the metallic sound of someone hammering during its final credits, Avengers: Endgame Encore finishes in the same manner. Except with a major twist.

This time, we do not just hear the hammering; we actually get a visual. It is now set up that the sound was not exactly a callback to Tony Stark building his first Iron Man suit in an Afghan cave.

Instead, it is Victor Von Doom forging his iconic iron mask. We see it in a quick flash, followed by a shot of him finally wearing it. This revised sequence perfectly aligns with what Robert Downey Jr famously declared when Marvel announced his shocking return at SDCC 2024: ‘New mask, same task.’

Basically, Marvel is implicitly telling fans to forget Iron Man and prepare for a brand-new RDJ ready to terrorise a whole bunch of superheroes.

At the same time, the scene also hints that Victor Von Doom could be a variant of Tony Stark, a man sharing the same face and the exact same burning ambition to save his world, but willing to violently destroy every other world to achieve it.

Avengers: Doomsday releases in theatres on December 18.

Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff