Avengers Endgame: Encore, in theaters now, is exactly what it sounds like—the exact same movie that opened back in 2019 with the addition of four new scenes and a pre-movie intro. It hit No. 1 at the box office this weekend regardless, which means it might surpass Avatar for the highest box office gross of all time.
Disney is pitching Encore as a must-watch before Avengers: Doomsday (it isn't) and its extra scenes as necessary backstory and context (they aren't). It largely feels like a cash grab, and an inconvenient one at that.
Consider: The only way to see all four extra scenes is to watch the movie in Infinity Vision (Disney's new screening format) or IMAX. If you see it in standard screening, you'll only get two of the four extra scenes. That means in the best circumstances, you're paying a premium feature price for less than four minutes of footage.
We watched Avengers Endgame: Encore this weekend; here are all the new scenes you missed. We recommend you stay home and watch the original Avengers: Endgame on Disney Plus instead. And don't forget to mark your calendars for Avengers: Doomsday, which opens on December 18.
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New introduction
Before the movie begins, we get an introduction from Chris Evans (Steve Rogers) and Robert Downey, Jr. (Tony Stark), thanking us for watching the movie and reminding us to see Avengers: Doomsday when it opens on December 18.
Downey wears a green jacket with patches, most of which are parody references to Marvel characters. Reed's Repairs, for example, refers to Reed Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic), and Xtreme Energy is a reference to X-Men. There's even a patch for Kirby's, a reference to famed comic book artist Jack Kirby, who co-created most of Marvel's most popular heroes.
Steve and Peggy, Extended
Just like in Avengers: Endgame, the movie ends with Steve and Peggy in the past, dancing and kissing to "It's Been a Long Long Time." But instead of cutting to black and the credits, a doorbell rings and interrupts the dance; when Peggy answers, it’s Loki, who says he’s there to help them both.
At the end of Loki: Season 2, Loki replaces He Who Remains as the guardian of the multiverse and the Sacred Timeline. And so it's not a good sign that he's come calling. By choosing to remain in the past, Steve has violated the Time Variance Authority's rules. Is Loki's self-professed "help" to turn them into the TVA? Or will he help them by sending them to another universe for their safety?
It also begs the question: what does old man Steve Rogers know? He still meets with Sam and Bucky in the present, which means that whatever Loki did, Steve managed to survive and thrive afterward.
Hulk Bunker
During the mid-credits, we see Bruce Banner in an underground vault after the events of Spider-Man: Brand New Day; he's in isolation after Jean Grey brought The Hulk out to attack Spider-Man and the DODC. Banner is keeping a video diary about his efforts to create a better gamma inhibitor when, all of a sudden, we hear Dr. Doom's voice; he's there to "collect" Banner.
We then hear Hulk's roar and sounds of a struggle, and the camera shows green burn marks. These are Latverian runes, symbolizing Doom's home country. In the comics, Doom is a sorcerer, and these symbols seem to confirm it.
Yet again, a bad guy will be exploiting Hulk's power to his own ends. Banner just can't catch a break.
Incursion Alert!
Later, in the mid-credits, we see the TVA headquarters and agents Mobius, Ouroboros, and Casey; apparently, Mobius has stepped back from his planned retirement and is back in charge. Suddenly, numerous incursions light up the boards, and the TVA detects that the different Earths are firing upon one another.
In Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we learn that an incursion is what happens when two destabilized realities collide, resulting in the destruction of one or both.
One of those realities is Earth-10005, commonly known as the 20th Century Fox X-Men continuity. Since we've seen Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in the Doomsday trailers, this makes sense.
Hammering Sounds
Lastly, after all the credits, we hear the familiar sound of a hammer hitting metal. We first heard this sound cue in Iron Man (2008), when Tony Stark is building the Mark I. But this time, we see it’s not Tony, but Dr. Doom, hammering out his metal mask.
Perhaps, this is foreshadowing a popular theory—that Doom is a Stark variant from another reality, which would make sense, since Robert Downey, Jr. plays both characters. Or maybe it's just a cute callback. We'll know for sure come December.
