At this point, it’s anyone’s guess what exactly is going to happen with Avengers: Doomsday, a film that Marvel has a lot riding on during an uneven period for the MCU since Avengers: Endgame.
Endgame was the moment for the MCU, so much so that Doomsday is being described as a literal sequel to that film. It remains to be seen what that means, but now the Russos are doing something wild and a little bizarre.
Speaking at the Sands Film Festival, Joe Russo said that for the theatrical re-release of Avengers: Endgame, there will be new footage in the film “that is set in the Doomsday story that we have added to Avengers: Endgame,” Russo said.
“It’s an opportunity to create a bridge from Endgame to Doomsday in a very unique way, and because the movie was so successful, we have an opportunity to re-release it. You don’t always get the chance to re-release because it costs money, so the fact that we can enhance the story of Doomsday by bridging it to Endgame and these characters that we worked with for years that we love so much, and continue their story: It’s a really unique opportunity.”
This sounds extremely strange, some kind of a bump to make sure Endgame fits in better with Doomsday and sets up that movie (, though what fraction of a percent of the audience is actually showing up for a re-release, even with new footage?
The connection from Endgame to Doomsday may be especially important for two actors/characters, Chris Evans’ Captain America, who somehow leaves his time-traveled life to rejoin the fight, and at least the former Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., who will now be Victor Von Doom (not secretly Stark, we’re told) in Doomsday. That was the last time we saw either actor in the MCU. When it was announced they’d return, there were some claims that it was “desperate,” but who knows how this is going to play out in earnest.
It’s not as if Doomsday can simply gloss over the post-Endgame era, as those characters make up the vast majority of its cast from the Fantastic Four to the Thunderbolts to Sam Wilson and his burgeoning new Avengers team. Even a character like Channing Tatum’s Gambit is being pulled from Deadpool and Wolverine (at least a version of him) to join the FOX X-Men, it seems (at least a variant of them).
It remains to be seen how Endgame is a “setup” for Doomsday, given a dead Thanos, an entirely different villain, and almost all of the core Avengers not in the new film (we don’t think, anyway). Perhaps this new footage will give us clues, but I do not expect any great mysteries to be solved, like why Doom looks like Tony Stark, and we don’t know how much footage there will be in total.
Correction: This article originally said the comments were at CinemaCon, but they were at the Sands Film Festival in a Deadline interview.
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