By Zach Johnson
This past weekend, the epic conclusion to the Infinity Saga returned to theaters.
Seven years after Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame was released, shattering box office records and bringing the Infinity Saga to an epic conclusion, an encore presentation was released in IMAX® and Infinity Vision, creating another unforgettable theatrical experience. With an estimated $86 million ($26 million domestic, $60 million international), Avengers Endgame: Encore opened at No. 1, marking the second highest global debut of all-time for a re-release. Since 2008, Marvel Studios has generated $35.075 billion at the global box office across its 38 films, reinforcing its position as the most successful film franchise ever.
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, Avengers Endgame: Encore also featured an exclusive extended look at the highly anticipated December 18 release of Avengers: Doomsday, in which heroes from three distinct universes will collectively face a distinct existential threat.
Whereas Avengers: Endgame gave Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) a happy ending a century in the making, Avengers Endgame: Encore showed audiences just how quickly things can change when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) came knocking.
“We love that movie for what it is, and we know many other people do as well. Looking at it again through a new lens was something we approached very carefully,” Anthony explained. “But here’s the thing: When we made that film, we were so specifically committed to that movie as an ending of stories, not a beginning of new stories. Many years later, as we started to conceive a road forward that would evolve into Doomsday, it just begged of us: ‘You really need to pick the story up from where you left it in Endgame.’”
Another scene showed Dr. Doom (Disney Legend Robert Downey Jr.) collecting Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) for reasons unknown, while a scene set in the Time Variance Authority (TVA) showed Mobius (Owen Wilson), Casey (Eugene Cordero) and OB (Ke Huy Quan) watching the Multiverse collapse through a chain of concurrent incursions.
Of the latter scene, Joe said, “I think it’s one of the more significant events that’s ever happened in the MCU. This is sort of the end of times. The TVA’s sole job is to protect the timelines from collapsing, and now they’re all collapsing at once. In that footage alone, you see the end of thousands of universes in seconds. So, something catastrophic is happening.”
Who or what caused that catastrophe will remain a mystery — for now.
As for the scene involving Ruffalo — whose name wasn’t part of the viral casting announcement— Anthony confirmed more beloved actors from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) will appear in the film. “The pattern that you’re sensing is real,” he said with a laugh. “We have absolutely not announced the entire cast. There is more to come.”
Speaking of the film’s expansive roster, the Russos teased what fans can expect when heroes from three distinct universes converge, and the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Talokan, the Thunderbolts, the Wakandans, and the X-Men interact together onscreen for the first time. According to Anthony, the ensemble cast — which also includes Chris Hemsworth, Pedro Pascal, Paul Rudd, Anthony Mackie, Florence Pugh, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Wyatt Russell, Channing Tatum, Simu Liu, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, Patrick Stewart, Joseph Quinn, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Letitia Wright, Lewis Pullman, Kelsey Grammer, Kathryn Newton, Danny Ramirez, Winston Duke, Alan Cumming, Hannah John-Kamen, Rebecca Romijn, and Mabel Cadena, with Tenoch Huerta Mejia — have a “strange alchemy” that will entertain both new and longtime fans.
“If we feel like we love them,” Joe said, “then we think the fans will love them, too.”
“Sometimes the smaller characters — the characters you think are less central to the plot — we find the most delight in, in terms of what those characters are doing or experiencing,” Anthony added. “Part of the thrill is it allows us to keep things surprising and unpredictable in terms of who could pick up and carry the ball at any given moment.”
“Narrative universes are colliding and mixing and combining in ways that we, as fans, could never imagined,” he continued. “I mean, going back to the original X-Men movie — did you ever imagine that we would arrive at this moment? That’s a really special thrill. If you’re a fan of that dynamic in our storytelling, then we’ve got a lot in Doomsday waiting for you.”
Tickets for Avengers Endgame: Encore and Avengers: Doomsday are on sale now.