Marvel is quietly sending us to film school on Avengers: Doomsday, and the syllabus is Avengers: Endgame. The extended Endgame Encore re-release lands in cinemas on September 25 with an official 185 minute runtime, up from the original 181, and that four-minute pocket is aimed straight at the Doctor Doom of it all.
Four minutes does not sound like a movie. It does sound like a new post-credits tag, a new scene, and enough breadcrumbs to send fans back to the theatre for a second look. Which is exactly what Marvel needs 12 weeks out from Doomsday.
What is inside the Avengers Endgame Encore extra footage?
Joe Russo has not spoiled the exact scene, but he did give Deadline the clearest description yet. “We’ll be re-releasing the film with footage that is set in the Doomsday story that we have added,” Russo said, calling Endgame Encore “a critical companion story” that creates “a bridge from Endgame to Doomsday in a very unique way.”
That word “bridge” is doing a lot of work. It could mean a new coda after Tony Stark’s funeral. It could mean a new scene inside the Time Heist that recontextualises where Doom came from. It could be Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, given how heavily she has been featured in the Doomsday marketing.
The one thing we know for sure is that it is set in the Doomsday timeline. Which means it slots after Endgame, not inside it.
Why is Marvel bothering with an Avengers Endgame Encore at all?
Because Doomsday has to land, and Marvel knows a chunk of the audience has cooled since 2019. The Multiverse Saga has been received politely rather than lovingly, and RDJ playing Doom is a swing that only pays off if casual viewers care. Endgame Encore is emotional VIP boarding for the finale.
It is also, frankly, easy money. Endgame made $858 million in the US the first time. Even a modest re-release adds tens of millions to the year-end total, and Disney gets to run a full Doomsday trailer in front of every ticket, in every format, on the biggest holdover audience of the season.
How does this play with the Doomsday marketing calendar?
September 25 lands right before the New York Comic Con Marvel Television panel on October 8, which is when Puck says Marvel plans to reveal several new Disney+ shows. Then VisionQuest hits Disney+ in October, then the big Doomsday trailer 2 lands, then the December premiere.
In other words, Endgame Encore is the opening beat of a 12-week theatrical drum roll. Marvel has not run a rollout this dense since 2019. And they are running it around the same director, the same movie, the same emotional grammar. That is the tell.
Should Avengers: Endgame really be the road map to Doomsday?
It is a bold choice. Endgame is a full stop. Everything the Infinity Saga was building sits in that runtime. Grafting Doomsday setup into it is either the most elegant trick Marvel has ever pulled, or fan service that Ret-cons the goodbye we all had with Tony Stark.
The Russos have earned the benefit of the doubt on Endgame once. They are asking for it again. And with 12 weeks to go, they need every casual viewer they can pull back into the fold before our complete Avengers: Doomsday guide becomes a checklist rather than a preview.
What happens next
Marvel will drop the Endgame Encore trailer in early September, almost certainly attached to it. That trailer is where the “four new minutes” leak or reveal happens. And whatever is in those four minutes will define the second-biggest MCU conversation of the autumn, right behind VisionQuest.
Keep an eye on the full MCU release calendar for date shifts, and tell us in the comments: what do you actually want those four extra minutes to be?
Sources: GamesRadar, The Direct, Hollywood Life, TBreak. Image: Marvel Studios.
