Avengers: Endgame is back in cinemas, and Marvel hasn’t simply dusted off the 2019 blockbuster for another victory lap. Endgame Encore adds new footage connecting its ending directly to Avengers: Doomsday, bringing Loki, Doctor Doom, Hulk and the TVA into the equation.
SPOILER WARNING: Major spoilers for Avengers: Endgame Encore and Spider-Man: Brand New Day follow.
Joe Russo previously called Endgame Encore “required viewing” for Doomsday, saying it would connect the stories of the two films. Now we know what he meant.
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The new material was filmed during production of Doomsday, rather than being made up of old Endgame deleted scenes. There are four additions in total, although reports indicate that the TVA sequence is limited to select premium-format screenings in some markets. If you’re wondering what Marvel’s new premium cinema branding actually means, we’ve also broken down Infinity Vision here.
So, what actually happens, and what does Marvel appear to be setting up?
1. Loki Comes Knocking on Steve and Peggy’s Door
Marvel starts by messing with one of Endgame‘s most definitive endings.
Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) has returned the Infinity Stones and chosen to remain in the past with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). We once left them dancing together. Encore keeps that moment going, with a knock at the door interrupting their quiet life.
Steve moves out of sight as Peggy answers it and finds Loki (Tom Hiddleston), dressed in his TVA-era clothing. When Peggy asks if she can help him, Loki replies: “No, but I can help you. Both of you.” Steve then steps into view, confirming Loki already knows exactly who’s inside.
Exactly when this takes place from Loki’s perspective isn’t confirmed, but his TVA connection immediately drags Steve’s supposedly settled ending back into the MCU’s multiverse story.
More importantly, Anthony Russo has confirmed just how significant the moment is. Speaking at a New York Q&A attended by GamesRadar+, Russo said the filmmakers decided to go “one beat past” Steve’s original ending with Peggy, adding: “in that moment, that’s where Doomsday is born.”
That’s a big statement, but it doesn’t mean Steve caused the coming disaster, and Russo doesn’t explain precisely what Loki wants from him. What it does tell us is that Steve’s life with Peggy matters to whatever happens next. Marvel had already put Steve back at the centre of the mystery with the Doomsday teaser focused on his return, and Encore now adds another piece.
Seven years later, that happy ending suddenly has an asterisk.
2. Doctor Doom Comes to Collect Bruce Banner
The next addition catches up with Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) following the events of Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Banner has put himself into containment inside a military facility deep underground following his first Hulk incident in more than a decade. Recording a video diary, he explains that he’s been experimenting with a gamma-suppression serum and getting promising results.
Then something gets inside.
The equipment glitches and the room changes around him. Banner demands to know who’s there, and Doctor Doom answers: “Dr. Banner, I’m here to collect you.”
Banner begins transforming, Hulk can be heard roaring, and when we next see the room, both men are gone. Glowing green markings have been left behind.
Why Doom wants Banner isn’t explained. He could need Hulk, Bruce’s scientific knowledge or something else entirely, but the scene doesn’t tell us. Claims that Doom is stealing Hulk’s powers or recruiting him remain theories.
What is clear is much more interesting anyway: Doctor Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr., is already making moves, and Bruce Banner is one of his targets.
3. The TVA Watches the Multiverse Fall Apart
The next scene takes things considerably bigger.
At the TVA, Mobius (Owen Wilson), Ouroboros (Ke Huy Quan) and Casey (Eugene Cordero) discover an incursion involving Earth-10005 and Earth-1127. Earth-10005 is the reality associated with the Fox X-Men films, while Earth-1127 remains unidentified for now.
The two worlds are approaching one another and appear to be firing missiles back and forth. Before the TVA can properly deal with that crisis, more alerts begin arriving as universes start colliding and disappearing. The number of affected realities quickly climbs into the thousands.
O.B. eventually delivers the bad news: “The multiverse is collapsing.”
Incursions, catastrophic collisions between universes, were previously introduced to MCU audiences in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Encore shows the problem escalating on an enormous scale.
And it raises an obvious question for Doomsday: are these incursions how Marvel brings characters from different realities into the same crisis, including the returning X-Men?
What the scene doesn’t reveal is why any of this is happening. It confirms the multiverse is falling apart, but it doesn’t confirm who started it, whether Doom is responsible, or how Steve and Loki fit into the chain of events.
For now, Marvel isn’t giving us those answers.
4. Doctor Doom Takes Over Tony Stark’s Final Sound
The final addition is brief, but Marvel knows exactly what it’s doing with it.
The original Endgame famously skipped a conventional post-credits scene. Instead, audiences heard metal being hammered, echoing Tony Stark building his first Iron Man armour back in 2008.
Encore brings that sound back and pairs it with new imagery tied to Doctor Doom, including his mask being forged. Considering Downey now plays Victor von Doom after spending more than a decade as Tony Stark, the parallel isn’t subtle.
Tony forged the armour that launched the MCU. Now Doom is forging a mask of his own.
But that’s where the confirmed information ends. The scene does not establish that Doom is a Tony Stark variant, that he’s secretly Tony, or why the two characters have the same face.
Marvel clearly wants audiences thinking about the connection. It’s just not giving us the answer yet.
Taken together, the new footage leaves Doomsday with a pretty wild starting position. Loki has found Steve Rogers, Doom has taken Bruce Banner, the TVA is watching universes collapse, and Downey’s new villain has been deliberately placed alongside imagery once synonymous with Tony Stark.
We still don’t know exactly how those pieces connect, but Endgame‘s ending suddenly looks a lot less final.
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