Sep 25, 2026 1:35pm IST
‘Avengers: Endgame: Encore’ Review: Old Wine In The Same Bottle, Laced With New Clues for ‘Doomsday’
Things were a lot different in 2019. The iPhone 11 was the shiny new thing, Chadwick Boseman was still with us, and COVID was not yet a word that would change the way we lived. Seven years later, the world feels almost unrecognizable. And yet, here we are, back in the same universe, watching “Avengers: Endgame” all over again as we wait for “Avengers: Doomsday”.
That is the strange appeal of “Avengers: Endgame: Encore.” It brings back a film most of us thought we had already said goodbye to, but adds a handful of new scenes designed to connect it to what comes next.
The important thing to remember, though, is that this is still “Endgame.” About 99 percent of what you are watching is the film you already know by heart. Bruce Banner’s “I see this as an absolute win,” Tony Stark’s “I love you 3000,” Captain America’s “Avengers, assemble,” and all those moments that made audiences cheer and cry seven years ago are back.
And you probably know exactly when every one of them is coming.
That can be both comforting and slightly strange. The familiarity may still give you goosebumps when Steve (Captain America) finally picks up Mjolnir or when the Avengers assemble. But there are also moments when you may find yourself thinking: We know this part. Can we get to the new stuff?
That, ultimately, is what “Encore” is selling. Not another “Endgame,” but a chance to revisit the old one while looking for clues about the future.
Once Tony’s funeral is over and the film reaches the ending we remember so well, the first major change arrives.
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Loki comes knocking
Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter’s final dance no longer immediately brings the curtain down. Their quiet moment continues until someone knocks on their door.
Peggy answers while Steve stays out of sight. The visitor is Loki, wearing his TVA uniform. Peggy asks if she can help him. Loki replies that he can help “both of you”. Steve then steps out, visibly stunned to see him.
And that is where the scene ends.
It is a small addition, but an intriguing one. This is not the Loki who died at the hands of Thanos. It is the 2012 variant who escaped with the Tesseract during the events of “Endgame,” was eventually taken in by the TVA and went on to become the God of Stories.
His appearance immediately makes Steve and Peggy’s alternate life feel more important than the peaceful epilogue we originally imagined. The scene does not explain what Loki wants, and that is clearly the point. It leaves the door open for “Doomsday”.
Doom comes for Bruce Banner
The first major post-credits scene jumps forward to Bruce Banner, who is living in isolation in an underground military facility. After his recent Hulk incident, he is working on a new treatment designed to suppress his gamma condition.
Then the lights begin to flicker.
Bruce asks who is there. A voice answers: Doctor Doom. “I’m here to collect you.”
We hear Bruce transform into the Hulk. The camera drops, and when we see the floor again, a glowing green symbol remains. Bruce and Doom are gone.
It is an effective little scene because it raises more questions than it answers. Why does Doom want Bruce? Where is he taking him? And what does he intend to do with the Hulk? Encore gives us no answers, but it makes one thing clear: Doom is already making moves before Doomsday begins.
The Iron Man echo
The next scene is even shorter, but perhaps more loaded with symbolism.
Doctor Doom is shown forging his metal mask, hammer striking metal against an anvil. The sound deliberately recalls the famous hammering from the end of the original “Endgame” and, more importantly, Tony Stark building his first Iron Man armor in the 2008 film.
With Robert Downey Jr. now playing Doom, the parallel is impossible to miss. But the scene does not suggest that Doom is secretly Tony Stark or an alternate version of him. Instead, it creates a visual rhyme between two men using their ingenuity to build armor that will define them.
This is both the charm and limitation of “Avengers: Endgame: Encore”. The original film remains as emotional, spectacular and crowd-pleasing as ever. But the new material is not really here to reinvent Endgame. It is here to remind us that the story did not end there.
Seven years ago, we left the Avengers with a funeral, a dance and the feeling that an era had truly ended. Now, Marvel wants us to look at that same ending and wonder what was happening just beyond the frame.
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