If you thought both seasons of Loki and Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange sequel delivered multiversal mayhem to last a lifetime, just wait until you get a load of Avengers: Doomsday.
Fans got a taste of what’s in store via four bonus scenes included with the encore re-release of Avengers: Endgame.
“Everything is premeditated,” Doomsday co-director Joe Russo told Empire magazine while breaking down the new sequences. “Every inch of footage that you see has some relevance in some way. There are clues in every piece of that new footage, that can lead you to a greater story in Doomsday.”
The penultimate stinger returns us to the Time Variance Authority operations center where Mobius (Owen Wilson), Casey (Eugene Cordero) and O.B. (Ke Huy Quan) witness the total collapse of the multiverse. Hundreds of Incursions begin to take place, with entire worlds desperately opting for mutually assured destruction by launching missiles at one another before they can collide.
Russo Brothers Address “Most Profound” MCU Moment Ahead of Doomsday
“It’s the most profound thing that’s ever happened to the MCU. It is the perceived end of times,” Joe explained. “Everything the TVA was set up to do is to protect the timelines from collapsing, and now they’re in a catastrophic collapse. And so, that scene, I would argue, yes, has a great level of importance. I wouldn’t say that it is more important than another scene. But it is certainly critical to the storytelling of Doomsday.”
Joe’s brother and fellow co-director Anthony Russo described the scene as “the unifying principle” that brings together the main MCU (a.k.a. Earth-616) with the 20th Century Fox X-Men and The Fantastic Four: First Steps realities.
“That,” teased Anthony, “is at the heart of the collision of these universes.”
The sibling filmmakers remained a little more cagey on the scene in which Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) shows up to “collect” Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who has retreated to a fortified underground bunker—”what he thinks is perhaps the most secure place on the planet,” noted Joe—following his rampage as the Hulk in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Doom’s seemingly magical arrival has prompted a theory that the Latverian baddie may be putting together the Illuminati, a version of which we saw in Multiverse of Madness, with the most brilliant minds from across the multiverse.
Joe further fanned the flames when he teased that Doom’s “interest may extend beyond just Banner.”
“There’s really no way to step around that,” said Anthony. “You know us. We’re just fighting ourselves to save the presents for Christmas morning.”
Avengers: Doomsday is in theaters Friday, Dec. 18. Click here for tickets.
