Image Credit: Marvel Studios
The Rationale Behind the Theatrical Re-Release
All right, It's out. A movie so big they couldn't even do the pyramid formation of characters on the poster. It's a bunch of silver heads now. Let the audience figure it out. The cast is identical to what it was before. But now the cast's out of the bag. Everyone knows what the characters are, how they operate. Point is, Avengers Endgame Encore, we were told this is going to have four minutes of extra footage and then it came out. Well, depending on the version you watch, I don't know about that. I looked up Infinity Vision tickets. I've looked up other tickets. They all have the same runtime, at least in my area. But since I've already done a review of Avengers Endgame, here it is. What a trip down memory lane. Those were the days. I also did a spoiler talk in Avengers Endgame. Spoiler warning for Avengers Endgame. I was a young man then.
Disingenuous Marketing Tactics and the Hidden Truth of Post-Credit Additions
Let's talk about the new stuff in Avengers Endgame Encore to which this should actually be called Avengers Endgame now with postcredit scenes. That's it. That's what it is. I feel that's a little disingenuous of them. When you have this whole Avengers Endgame encore thing being explained as it has 4 minutes of extra footage in it, it's required viewing. You should really watch this cuz it's going to tie Avengers Endgame into Doomsday more than the initial release of Avengers Endgame. When you use all these words that historically means, yeah, we're putting new things in the movie as the film plays out like Star Wars special edition or something, you're trying to describe something that actually has a term without using the term postcredit scene. Could have just said that. I could have been like, "Yeah, we're releasing Avengers Endgame now with mid and postcredit scenes. Also a slightly extended ending," but that's it. I sat through a movie I've already seen a multitude of times to talk about postcredit scenes that didn't exist before. So, let's talk about those because what is a theatrical re-release with 4 minutes of extra footage if YouTubers can't make a video that's longer than the sum total of new footage in the re-release?
Analyzing the Extended Steve-Peggy Sequence and Loki's Surprise Multiverse Theory Connection
So, new scene number one, the ending is a little longer. That last scene when Steve Rogers is dancing with Peggy Carter and there's a knock at the door and they're both like, "Oh, someone's at the door." Steve Rogers gets behind the wall where you can still see the door and Peggy Carter opens the door. There's someone there. Walks in. It's Loki. He's like, "Hello, I can help you, both of you." Done. Don't know what it is. Don't know why. Don't know how, but I had my theory since we saw Loki in the trailer to Doomsday. I thought also spoilers for Loki season 2. I just I mean, there's no other way to talk about my theory. I have to talk about spoilers for Loki season 2. You know, when he's in that time loop of learning stuff so he can save the multiverse. I thought that's when somehow he was going to get plucked out of that, plopped into this doomsday adventure and then from there plopped back in and we'd be none the wiser. But this might go beyond that. I don't know. Also thinking about the fact that when that knock came at the door, both of them, Peggy Carter, Steve Rogers were like, "This could be trouble." Steve Rogers was like, "Okay, woman I love. It could be dangerous. Captain America putting the modern back in midcentury modern.
Bruce Banner's Underground Incident, Gamma Research, and the Terrifying Doctor Doom Threat
Then, and number two and three might be out of order. I don't think they are. Point is, another mid-credit scene is with Bruce Banner. Mark Ruffalo filming himself on what looks like a phone. So, one could say he is literally phoning it in. But, he's telling the camera he had an incident, which would be in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Now, he's in this bunker underground. The Hulk cannot get out of it. But, he's been doing a lot of research on gamma radiation down there. Then off camera, like behind the camera, like if some green light started shining from there off this camera and he's like, "No, who are you?" And you hear what sounds like doom, like I'm here to collect you. The camera tips over and there's a lot of shaking and you hear the Hulk roar and then gone. Camera hits the ground. You see one of those flaming green runes on the ground. So it looks like Doom collects the Hulk. Why? My first thought was he's collecting players for Secret Wars. Or is it possible Dr. Doom is making an army of Hulks? like he did in the '90s. There it is. We remember. Actually, he's too blurry there. Anyhow, what if what if the Russos were like, we thought people forgot about those books. That's what he's doing. I love the smell of books. Anyhow, that's the end of that one.
The Impending MCU and Fox Universe Collision inside the TVA Headquarters
The credits go on. We are met with a second midcredit scene. It's in the TVA. We got Owen Wilson, Ke Huy Quan. They're on the job. We got all the monitors. And then a couple of worlds start colliding. And then more worlds start colliding. And then a bunch of worlds start colliding. The number starts rising. The last number I heard could be a coincidence, but it was 3,000. It's pretty much like, "Sir, the MCU and the Fox comic book universe with the X-Men are colliding." But the last line was, "The multiverse is collapsing." Now, when we last left Loki, spoilers for Loki season 2. He's pretty much holding it all together, right? So, is Loki at the end of this extended end of Avengers Endgame? Loki in Doomsday has Doom somehow plucked him out of that situation which would make Doom far more powerful than the Beyonder. We all have that same sense, right? Like Doom's a villain, but he is trying to stop something bigger like the Beyonder.
The Iconic Iron Man Callback: Forging Doctor Doom's Armor for Secret Wars
Also, we're going into Secret Wars, so there's that. Then the last one, which is by far the shortest, it's the smallest bit, but also one of the coolest ones for me. It's just more nuanced than the other ones. This is at the end of the credits. You hear the clanking sound, the clank clank of the Iron Man hammer, you know, when he's building his armor in the cave, the Mark 1. Then it shows brief imagery of the fire you would have if you're forging an iron something. A mask being raised, but that's not an Iron Man mask. That's a Dr. Doom mask. The next Clank is an image of Dr. Doom in his mask. And that's that. But I thought that was by far the coolest one because I just like seeing Dr. Doom stuff. I like seeing things that feel like Victor von Doom.
Recontextualizing Tony Stark's Legacy with Robert Downey Jr. as Victor von Doom
However, I'm still here stuck in my head about the fact that they announce Robert Downey Jr. as Victor von Doom. So, when you have something that clearly throws back to the pivotal moment in Tony Stark's life when he starts down this new path of heroism, but it's flipped to be Dr. Doom. Well, I find that interesting...
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