Avengers Endgame: Encore New Scenes Explained: How They Set Up Avengers Doomsday

“Avengers: Endgame” originally ended with Steve Rogers finally getting the life he had missed. After returning the Infinity Stones, Steve remained in the past with Peggy Carter, and the movie closed on the two of them dancing together. There was no major villain waiting after the credits and no obvious setup for another Avengers adventure. “Avengers Endgame: Encore” changes that ending seven years later by adding several short scenes that turn the conclusion of the Infinity Saga into a direct lead-in to “Avengers: Doomsday.”

Marvel Studios has officially confirmed that Encore includes a look at “Doomsday,” with even more footage available in IMAX and Infinity Vision presentations. Early screenings in international markets have now revealed the content of the additions. The fuller version contains an extended Steve Rogers ending, a new Bruce Banner encounter, a major TVA sequence and a final Doctor Doom image. The following contains major spoilers for “Avengers Endgame: Encore.”

Related: Avengers Endgame: Encore Review: Is the 2026 Re-Release Worth Watching?

Loki Finds Steve and Peggy

The first major change happens exactly where the original “Endgame” ended. Steve and Peggy are together in their home, sharing the dance Steve had promised her decades earlier. In Encore, however, the scene does not immediately finish there. Someone arrives at the house.

Peggy answers the door while Steve remains out of sight. The visitor turns out to be Loki, now connected to the TVA following the events of “Loki” season 2. He makes it clear that he already knows Steve is there and tells the couple that he can help both of them. Steve then comes forward and sees Loki. The scene ends before Loki explains what he wants.

It is a small addition, but it completely changes the purpose of Steve’s final scene. The 2019 version told audiences that Steve’s work was finished. Encore suggests his decision to remain in the past has become relevant to the multiverse crisis.

Loki is also the ideal character to find him. After the second season of “Loki,” he has an understanding of timelines and branching realities that very few MCU characters possess. If Steve’s presence in the past created a problem, or if his timeline is about to become involved in an incursion, Loki would have a reason to intervene.

The scene does not confirm which explanation is correct. What it does establish is that Steve and Peggy’s story is no longer isolated from the MCU’s present multiverse problem.

Why Does Loki Need Steve Rogers?

There is another clue in the confirmed “Doomsday” cast. Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell and Tom Hiddleston are all part of “Avengers: Doomsday.” That makes the Encore scene more than a nostalgic reunion. It appears to provide the explanation for how Steve, Peggy and Loki become connected before the events of the movie.

Steve may therefore be returning not because Marvel is simply undoing his retirement, but because the timeline in which he chose to live with Peggy has become important.

There is also an older problem surrounding Steve’s ending. “Endgame” established that travelling into the past does not simply rewrite the traveler’s original present. Steve staying with Peggy therefore appears to involve another branch or alternate history. The MCU did not need to revisit that question in 2019 because Steve’s story was ending. “Doomsday” now has a reason to revisit it.

Doctor Doom Comes for Bruce Banner

Another new sequence continues Bruce Banner’s story after “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” Following the problems Banner experienced in that film, Encore finds him living in isolation inside an underground facility. He records himself discussing his situation and his work on controlling his gamma condition. Bruce appears to have separated himself from other people because he does not want another Hulk incident. His isolation does not keep everyone out.

The room begins behaving strangely before an unseen visitor reaches him. Bruce asks who is there, and Doctor Doom answers that he has come to “collect” him. The encounter ends with Banner and Doom disappearing from the room, leaving behind a strange glowing symbol.

Importantly, early descriptions initially led to speculation that Doom was taking Hulk’s abilities. The available footage does not clearly establish that. The safer interpretation is simply that Doom has taken Banner somewhere for a purpose that has not yet been revealed.

Why Does Doctor Doom Want Hulk?

This may be one of Encore’s most important unanswered questions. Bruce Banner has spent years studying gamma radiation, advanced science and the limits of the Hulk. He also helped create the method the Avengers used to travel through time in “Endgame.” If Doom is attempting to understand, control or survive a multiversal collapse, Banner’s scientific knowledge alone could make him useful.

There is another possibility. Doom may be gathering powerful individuals from different parts of the MCU before the incursions reach their final stage.

The wording is particularly interesting. He does not simply introduce himself or ask Banner for assistance. He has come to “collect” him. That makes the encounter sound like part of a larger plan.

Encore does not reveal what Doom needs from Banner, but it strongly moves Hulk’s story out of “Brand New Day” and into the larger Avengers crisis.

The TVA Discovers the Multiverse Is Collapsing

The most important scene for understanding the scale of “Avengers: Doomsday” takes place inside the TVA. Mobius, Casey and Ouroboros are dealing with a major emergency involving multiple realities. Early screening reports identify Earth-10005 as one of the universes in immediate danger. That designation is associated with the Fox “X-Men” film universe. The other reality involved is Earth-1127, which has not yet been properly identified by Marvel.

The two universes are approaching an incursion, meaning their realities are colliding. The situation then becomes much worse as more incursions begin appearing across the TVA’s systems. O.B. eventually realizes that the problem is no longer limited to two worlds and declares that the multiverse is collapsing.

That scene appears to establish the central problem of “Doomsday.” The MCU has already introduced incursions through “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” Encore now shows that they are happening on a far larger scale.

Why Earth-10005 Matters

The use of Earth-10005 is particularly important because it gives the returning X-Men a direct place in the story. “Avengers: Doomsday” includes several actors associated with Fox’s X-Men movies, including Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Alan Cumming and Kelsey Grammer.

Rather than bringing those characters into the MCU without explanation, Encore appears to establish that their universe itself is in danger.

The mysterious Earth-1127 is harder to explain. Marvel has not yet established exactly which characters belong to that reality, so claims that it represents a specific older Marvel movie universe remain speculation.

For now, the important point is not the identity of Earth-1127. It is that Earth-10005 is colliding with another reality and the TVA can see the same process spreading elsewhere. That gives “Doomsday” a reason to bring Avengers, X-Men and characters from other universes into the same conflict.

Doctor Doom Forges His Mask

Encore saves one final connection for the end. The original “Avengers: Endgame” did not have a conventional post-credits scene. Instead, audiences heard the sound of metal being struck, recalling Tony Stark building his first Iron Man suit in the cave during 2008’s “Iron Man.”

It was a simple tribute to where the MCU had begun. Encore uses that familiar sound differently. The new version reportedly shows brief images of Doctor Doom creating his mask while the hammering can still be heard. What once represented Tony Stark’s beginning now accompanies Victor von Doom’s arrival. Marvel could hardly make the Robert Downey Jr. connection more deliberate without explaining the entire mystery.

Downey is playing Victor von Doom in “Avengers: Doomsday,” but Marvel has not yet fully explained why Doom has the same actor who played Tony Stark. The forging sequence draws attention to that parallel while carefully avoiding an answer.

Is Doctor Doom a Tony Stark Variant?

Encore does not confirm that Doctor Doom is a Tony Stark variant. That theory has become understandable because Robert Downey Jr. is playing Doom and Marvel is now deliberately placing Doom imagery beside one of the MCU’s most recognizable Tony Stark callbacks. But visual parallels are not the same thing as confirmation.

Marvel continues to identify Downey’s new character as Victor von Doom. Until “Doomsday” explains his background, it would be premature to say that he is secretly Tony Stark from another universe. The Encore scene seems designed to make audiences ask that question rather than answer it.

How Encore Sets Up Avengers Doomsday

Taken together, the new scenes establish several pieces of the next Avengers story. Steve and Peggy are brought back into the multiverse plot through Loki. Bruce Banner is taken by Doctor Doom for an unknown purpose. The TVA discovers that incursions are spreading across realities, including the X-Men universe. Finally, Doom is placed directly alongside the legacy of Tony Stark through the mask-forging sequence.

That also explains why Joe Russo has described Encore as important viewing before “Doomsday.” The added material does not rewrite the events of “Endgame,” but it changes what comes immediately after them.

The Infinity Saga originally ended with the Avengers restoring what had been lost and several heroes finally reaching the end of their journeys. Encore reveals that some of those endings were only temporary. “Doomsday” appears to begin when the walls separating those different stories start coming down.