Joe and Anthony Russo told Fandango that Avengers: Endgame Encore will connect directly to Avengers: Doomsday, calling the re-release “required viewing.” The Encore cut adds about four minutes of footage and arrives September 25. But will fans pay again to watch a film they have already seen?
The directors of Avengers: Doomsday would like you to buy a ticket to a 2019 movie again.
Joe Russo told Fandango that Avengers: Endgame Encore, the theatrical re-release arriving next month, ties directly into the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday film releasing in December..
“It’s gonna connect the story of the two movies,” Russo said. “There’s a natural progression from Endgame into Doomsday, which is also inclusive of all the other stories that have been playing out. I think it’s required viewing for following the story in Doomsday.”
Anthony Russo added a line that reads like a tease. “If you saw Endgame when it was originally released, you couldn’t see this coming.”
No, because they added footage to make it fit into their new film in an attempt to get more box office moola.
What Avengers: Endgame Encore actually is
It’s four extra minutes of footage and updated color. That’s it.
The Encore version has been color-graded, and its confirmed runtime is 185 minutes. The original ran 181, which puts the new footage at roughly four minutes.
That’s less than fans expected. Rumors had circulated suggesting seven to ten minutes of additions.
There’s also a special end tag, though not every screening will include it, so where you buy your ticket may determine whether you see it.
So why bother?
Nobody has said what’s in the four minutes
Marvel hasn’t described the new footage, and neither have the Russos beyond Anthony’s remark about not seeing it coming.
That’s left the theorizing to fans, and most of it circles Robert Downey Jr., who plays Victor von Doom in Doomsday. Some suggest Doom is a Tony Stark variant, which has no basis in the comics. Others think Downey may play both Doom and a Tony Stark from another universe.
None of that is confirmed by anyone at Marvel. It’s speculation built on the fact that Downey is back and the MCU currently has no Iron Man.
Either way, it was footage made up after the fact to retcon the film to fit the new movie series.
This sits oddly next to Marvel’s no-homework pitch
Marvel spent this month arguing the opposite.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told Empire that the studio is deliberately slowing down, releasing only four films across the next three years. His explanation was that Marvel had overextended. “We always try to focus on quality, but when the quantity is so much, you get spread thin,” he said.
Feige has also acknowledged that the flood of interconnected content became a barrier. He conceded last year that “for the first time ever, quantity trumped quality,” after Marvel put out more than double the hours of content between 2019 and 2025 than it had in the twelve years prior.
The fix Marvel has been selling is movies that stand on their own. The Fantastic Four: First Steps was built that way and opened strong.
Now the directors of the studio’s biggest upcoming release are describing a seven-year-old film as required viewing, in a version that only exists in theaters for a limited run.
Will people pay to see Endgame again?
When to see both
Avengers: Endgame Encore hits theaters September 25.
Avengers: Doomsday follows on December 18, the first Avengers film since Endgame in 2019. Tickets went on sale during D23 earlier this month.
Downey has seen the finished film and called it “absolutely fantastic,” which is what actors say about their own movies. The runtime has been described only as substantial.
Four minutes of new footage and a color grade, sold as homework for December. Marvel is betting fans will show up twice, and given how Spider-Man: Brand New Day has been performing, that bet is not unreasonable.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
GamesRadar+ (August 25, 2026), Lauren Milici’s report on the Russo brothers’ Fandango comments, the 185-minute runtime, the color grading, the limited end tag, and the September 25 release date
Fandango (August 2026), the original Joe and Anthony Russo interview
Empire (July 2026), Kevin Feige’s comments on Marvel being spread thin and the four-film slate
Variety (July 2025), Feige’s “quantity trumped quality” remarks and the content volume figures
The Walt Disney Company (August 14, 2026), the Avengers: Doomsday D23 appearance and the December 18 release date