‘Avengers: Endgame Encore’ and NEW Post-Credit Scenes Review
Over seven years after its original debut, Avengers: Endgame returned to theaters this past weekend for what has been dubbed as the Avengers: Endgame Encore. The encore screenings of Endgame were revealed months ago to be coming to theaters to give audiences a soft launch into the next installment of the Avengers saga known as Avengers: Doomsday.
The Russo Brothers have made it clear over the past few months that, in a surprising move, Avengers: Doomsday would actually be a direct follow-up to the final events of Avengers: Endgame. So far (in terms of public knowledge), the only known connection to Endgame that Doomsday has is the sudden return of Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers.
Many people in the general audience are still not quite sure how or why Steve Rogers is appearing; it’s something that the Russo Brothers have clearly held close to the vest for the duration of production.
Endgame Encore provided the audiences with a platter of new scenes added to the end of the movie that made the direction heading into Doomsday slightly clearer.
[Warning: Potential spoilers for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are below]
Loki makes a return to the MCU in the new ending for Avengers: Endgame Encore
The first new scene added to the end of Avengers: Endgame is solely centered around Loki, Steve Rogers, and Peggy Carter. We finally learn what happens after Steve and Peggy get their first dance together in the final scene of Endgame.
Just as the scene culminates, Loki delivers a knock at the door, to which he claims he’s here to help both Steve and Peggy. Beyond that, we’re given no other context or clues as to what he could be helping with.
The quote “You mess with time, it tends to mess back” from Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame comes to mind when thinking of the decisions Steve makes at the end of Endgame. As we learned early in the Loki television series, messing with timelines can have dire consequences.
Obviously something has gone wrong or is going to go wrong in terms of the decisions Steve made, we just don’t know exactly what they are yet. It’s probably safe to say incursions will be part of the consequence of Steve’s choices.
Many people will also be asking, “How is Loki even there? Isn’t he supposed to be holding the timelines together?” There’s certainly a few theories that could be true or false when it comes to this scenario.
We learned in season two of Loki that Loki has gained the ability to timeslip forward and backwards through raw time to prevent certain scenarios from happening to the multiverse. Another possibility is that this could be an earlier version of Loki, perhaps from Loki season one or season two. Regardless, we will have to wait until Avengers: Doomsday to find out the real answer.
Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner makes a surprising return in the post-credit scene
The addition of the scene involving Bruce Banner being “collected” by Doctor Doom is, in my opinion, the weakest scene added to Avengers: Endgame. It delivers a sort of screenlife-esque scene, reminiscent of something out of War of the Worlds (2025) with Ice Cube.
While it could mean a great many things for both Avengers: Doomsday and even Avengers: Secret Wars, the scene itself felt cheap and somewhat rushed. Compared to how polished the following post-credit scene in the TVA is, it is quite evident that this scene was filmed rather recently. Mark Ruffalo is clearly sporting the facial hair his character dons in the HBO series Task, which just so happens to be currently filming for the past few months.
The largest complaint I have about the scene is the fact that Doctor Doom makes an appearance that is entirely off the screen. The glitching computer monitor and flashing lights when Doom “appears” felt less like a horror movie and more like a cheap gimmick.
I believe that if we’re going to get scenes that set up Doctor Doom’s storyline, he deserves to be on screen. Screen presence is almost certainly going to be one of the defining features of Doctor Doom in both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, and it does a disservice to the scene to have the audience view his presence through a computer monitor while he speaks off screen.
Beyond the critiques, the scene itself does set up some interesting implications for the future. The big question is, Why does Doctor Doom need Bruce Banner? Does he need Bruce or the Hulk? The term “I’ve come to collect you” is also intriguing phrasing from Doom. What exactly would Doom be collecting people for?
Over the course of the past few days, there have been some interesting theories going around on social media. Some people believe perhaps Bruce becomes another one of these so-called “witches” or “Followers of Doom” that we’ve seen teased for the past few months. While it’s a fun theory, it ultimately feels unrealistic as Bruce possesses no known magical abilities.
One theory that makes the most sense and could also be considered a massive spoiler to both the Time Runs Out comic series as well as Avengers: Doomsday is that Doctor Doom could be collecting his potential Barons for Battleworld before the end of the multiverse occurs.
The TVA sees the multiverse collapse in Avengers: Endgame Encore’s best new scene
The final new addition to Avengers: Endgame Encore is, in my opinion, one of the greatest MCU post-credit scenes we’ve ever received from a Marvel movie. The scene features the return of Loki fan favorites Mobius, OB, and Casey. Fans have waited for years for specific multiversal topics like incursions and the collapse of the multiverse to be mentioned.
One of the most infamous comic book storylines, Avengers, New Avengers, Time Runs Out, and Secret Wars from popular writer Jonathan Hickman, sees the gradual collapse of the multiverse due to the multiversal phenomenon called incursions. Over the past few years, since Avengers: Secret Wars was announced at SDCC 2022, fans, along with myself, have eagerly awaited this storyline’s adaptation on the big screen.
The original storyline that the MCU was going to follow with Avengers: Kang Dynasty definitely seemed to be following an alternate path, which in my opinion would have been a huge mistake. While it may be a controversial opinion, the course correction back to Avengers: Doomsday, which will be doing a faithful adaptation of Time Runs Out, is by far the better move for Marvel.
This final credit scene sees the beginning of the end for the current Marvel Cinematic Multiverse, as we see Mobius, OB, and Casey witness over 3000 incursions occur at once. OB exclaims that “the multiverse is collapsing” as the TVA monitor behind him shows only three timelines remaining.
This sets up the storyline of the final incursion, something that Doomsday appears to be adapting between the current MCU Earth-616, the Fantastic Four universe Earth-828, and the Fox X-Men universe Earth-10005.
The beautiful set design mixed with Alan Silvestri’s iconic Avengers motif sets the scene for both Owen Wilson and Ke Huy Quan to absolutely steal this scene. Ke Huy Quan’s infectious energy is always a pleasure to watch on screen, and we can only hope there’s a place for him somewhere in the MCU after Secret Wars.
Many fans would also agree that Owen Wilson’s Mobius is one of Marvel’s finest additions to the Cinematic Universe post-Endgame. The visualization of the iconic imagery of incursions on the TVA monitors is something I have waited quite a long time to see as well.
For a long time, it almost felt as if Marvel Studios was allergic to using the word “incursion,” and we can only hope now, after two trailers, Marvel will finally let incursions be referenced in the third Avengers: Doomsday trailer.
Overall, Avengers: Endgame Encore adequately sets up Avengers: Doomsday from both the scene with Loki appearing at Steve and Peggy’s door and the TVA scene showcasing the collapse of the multiverse. I do wish the Loki series touched on incursions more, but better late than never in the MCU at least.
If you enjoyed Avengers: Endgame when it first released and want to relive that in theaters while also getting a few small, but fun, teases for Avengers: Doomsday, then I would recommend checking out Avengers: Endgame Encore while it’s still in theaters.
