Remember when we saw Avengers: Endgame seven long years ago? At the time, it was the climax to 11 years of interconnected stories on the big screen. With Avengers: Doomsday coming in December, Marvel is inviting us to relive that spring weekend in 2019 as it rereleases Avengers: Endgame in theaters this September. But it won’t be the same exact movie any of us saw back then.
Not only will this new 2026 version of Endgame exhibit in something Disney is calling “Infinity Vision,” whatever that means, but it’s also including brand-new scenes that are meant to bridge the story directly to Avengers: Doomsday. (As if the past dozen Marvel movies and Disney+ shows weren’t doing that already.)
At CinemaCon last week, Marvel announced that Avengers: Endgame is going back to theaters for a limited engagement on September 25. The movie will screen in Infinity Vision, which Disney calls a new certification for premium large-format theaters. “Infinity Vision sets a new benchmark for theatrical presentation, certifying auditoriums that meet rigorous technical standards,” reads Disney’s press release issued April 16.
Infinity Vision sure looks and feels like a Disney-branded Hail Mary to make up for the fact that Dune: Part Three will have priority support from IMAX when both movies hit theaters on December 18. Still, this means that Endgame will look a little prettier than it did before. But that’s not the only changes coming to the movie.
On April 18, at the Sands Film Festival in St. Andrews, Scotland, Joe Russo remotely attended a session with AGBO chief creative officer Angela Russo-Otstot and Deadline’s Mike Fleming. Over Zoom, Russo said the rerelease will have new material “set in the Doomsday story.”
“It’s critically important to rerelease the movie, and, in fact, we’ll be rereleasing the film with footage that is set in the Doomsday story that we have added to Avengers: Endgame,” Russo said. He further called Endgame a “critical companion story” that will set the table for Avengers Doomsday.”
He added, “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 rerelease it. You don’t always get the chance to rerelease, 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.”
As the lone Marvel defender standing who still rides for these movies even after my coworkers and close friends have dropped the franchise, I’m struggling to imagine what could possibly be in Endgame that is relevant to both it and Doomsday. Since 2021, we’ve been watching movie after movie, Disney+ show after Disney+ show, that have all ostensibly been building toward Doomsday—some more than others, granted. (Werewolf by Night is probably sitting this one out.) Do we need another gratuitous X-Men cameo? Is the bonus Endgame footage giving a convoluted reason why Jonathan Majors’s Kang is no longer the main threat? Will it have Robert Downey Jr.’s new Doctor Doom hopping dimensions and seeing his “face” on Tony Stark? How much of this will be the cinematic equivalent of This could have been an email?
Who am I kidding? I’ll probably sit down for Endgame again, as I actually love that movie. (The first 30 minutes are oddly beautiful and sad.) I also have to see if Infinity Vision is actually anything. But while I’m there, I’ll make small talk with the strangers next to me and ask them how they got their advance tickets to Dune: Part Three.
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