Spoilers ahead for “Avengers Endgame: Encore.”
The countdown is officially upon us for “Avengers: Doomsday,” which will be the first “Avengers” movie in seven years, dating back to 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame.” To help hype up the forthcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe event, Disney and Marvel Studios have re-released “Endgame” in theaters with all new footage. Indeed, “Avengers Endgame: Encore” features a new ending and post-credits scenes, all of which makes one important thing very clear.
In the new ending attached to “Encore,” Loki (Tom Hiddleston) shows up at Steve (Chris Evans) and Peggy’s (Hayley Atwell) door mere moments after the original ending as we knew it in “Avengers: Endgame.” Loki says that he can help “both” of them, acknowledging that Steve stayed in the past to live his life with Peggy after returning the Infinity Stones. More importantly, this firmly establishes the timeline for “Doomsday,” making it crystal clear that it’s going to function as a very direct sequel to “Endgame.”
The Multiverse Saga was officially named as Marvel’s follow-up to the Infinity Saga. It’s been a bumpy ride, with high highs like “Deadpool & Wolverine” and low lows like “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” The point being, the MCU is no longer the automatic, unquestioned king of the pop cultural landscape. That’s hugely important when examining the established timeline here.
Directors Joe and Anthony Russo directed both “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Endgame.” They’re now returning to helm both “Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars,” which will conclude the Multiverse Saga as we know it. In returning to the MCU, they’re also bringing audiences right back to “Endgame” and the characters they know and love with “Encore.” It’s an apparent hook to try and lure in audiences who may have fallen off at some point during the last handful of years.
Avengers: Doomsday is a very direct sequel to Avengers: Endgame
Marvel’s 2025 box office proved the MCU has fallen from grace, with “Captain America: Brave New World” ($415 million) and “Thunderbolts*” ($382 million) falling well short of expectations. Even “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” ($521 million) merely did okay by Marvel standards. This matters when it comes to analyzing the narrative approach to “Avengers: Doomsday” in light of the now firmly established timeline.
The fact is that the MCU was never more important to people around the world than it was when “Avengers: Endgame” felt like a proper goodbye at the end of all things. It was the conclusion to a decade’s worth of interconnected storytelling that totally stuck the landing. Marvel Studios, for various reasons, has struggled to recapture that magic in the years since. Thus, it makes every bit of sense for the studio to, both thematically and on the overall MCU timeline, go back to that place in an attempt to recapture the magic.
There are narrative reasons for it, too. The Russo Brothers once said that Captain America’s ending in “Endgame” created a branch reality in the MCU. That would certainly explain Loki showing up at Steve and Peggy’s doorstep. It might also explain how that movie could logically build a bridge to the Multiverse Saga and everything else that has happened over the last several years.
“Endgame” wasn’t about the multiverse, but it dealt a lot with the Quantum Realm, time travel, and other elements that paved the way for the multiverse. Using this movie as a way to connect all of the heroes and events from the Infinity Saga to the Multiverse Saga as it all comes to a close makes sense.
Avengers: Doomsday is leaning on Endgame to reshape the Marvel multiverse
That’s certainly not to say that this was always the intention. Marvel had huge plans for Kang that were scrapped after actor Jonathan Majors became embroiled in controversy. “Avengers: Doomsday” was originally going to be titled “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,” which would have led into “Secret Wars.” Pivoting to Doctor Doom and bringing back Robert Downey Jr. at the 11th hour was very much a hail mary.
Setting that aside, the Russo Brothers and Marvel Studios found a way to make lemonade, it seems. There’s a reason why “Endgame” is the one Marvel movie that’s required viewing ahead of “Doomsday,” per its directors. These two massive events are inseparably connected to one another. This is, in a lot of ways, very different from the Infinity Saga’s conclusion. What once felt like a definitive ending is, in actuality, just the beginning of a much larger story.
Marvel Studios is probably eager to move away from the Multiverse Saga, as it’s been an uneven experiment. But it still needs to bring this plane in for a landing. To do that, it’s going to springboard off of “Endgame” to help reshape the Marvel multiverse. What lies beyond the Multiverse Saga? That’s still fuzzy, but it’s crystal clear that “Doomsday” and “Secret Wars” are going to be billed as a “one last ride” for characters that have occupied the screen for the better part of 20 years now.
“Avengers: Secret Wars” is the only Marvel movie premiering in 2027. That speaks volumes about its importance. Marvel Studios needs people to be excited for it in a way they’ve rarely been excited for superhero movies lately. Leveraging “Endgame” is one way to ensure that happens.
“Avengers: Doomsday” hits theaters on December 18, 2026.
