Marvel is about to release Avengers: Endgame Encore in theaters. Not only is this a chance to rewatch the climax of the Infinity Saga on the big screen again, it also gives fans several new scenes to chew on. Each of these scenes is meant to create connective tissue with Avengers: Doomsday and lay the groundwork for the debut of Robert Downey, Jr.’s Doctor Doom.
Those scenes have now leaked onto the Internet ahead of Endgame Encore’s release [Note - we’re pretty confident these leaks are genuine, but you can never be 100% sure in the age of AI.]. And there’s definitely a lot of food for thought here. We see key TVA figures reacting to the impending collapse of the multiverse and Doom himself kicking off some sort of recruiting spree. These scenes raise more questions than they answer about the plot of Doomsday, so let’s break down what we do and don’t know right now.
In what is easily the most intriguing new addition to Endgame, we get a scene focused on Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner set in the aftermath of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Banner has clearly seen better days, as he’s still recovering from the physical and psychological trauma of being hijacked by Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey. He’s desperate to reassert control over his Hulk persona, and so he’s locked himself deep in an underground bunker to test a new “gamma suppression system.”
But no sooner does Banner begin his test than the lights flicker and a certain armored villain makes his presence known. We hear (but don’t see) Downey’s Doom, who proclaims “I’ve come to collect you.” Both men then vanish, leaving only a glowing green rune on the ground (similar to the ones left when Asgardians travel on the Rainbow Bridge).
So the obvious question here is what Doom wants with Banner. He seems to be building some sort of team, but to what end? Is he more interested in Banner’s brains or Hulk’s brawn? We’d guess the former, as past movies have already set up the character as a voice of authority in the growing multiverse crisis. And judging from the Doomsday trailers and the fact that Doom can deflect Thor’s mighty Stormbreaker with ease, we doubt he’s in need of any extra muscle.
Is Doom assembling his own team of Avengers here? If so, what other characters might he be recruiting? Is it possible he’s building a version of the Illuminati as a brain trust to deal with Incursions? In the lead-up to the 2015 Secret Wars comic, the Illuminati also included members like Iron Man, Mister Fantastic, Beast, Namor, Black Panther, and Black Bolt. Doom himself wasn’t a member of that team, but he was working toward similar goals and forged his own alliances. Will the MCU Doom seek these heroes out on Earth-616?
Or is Doom planning for a post-multiverse future here? We have to wonder if Downey’s character has already given up on saving reality as it currently exists and is building his Battleworld contingency plan. Perhaps he wants Banner to serve as one of the barons on Battleworld (a role that a version of Hulk did fill in the comic).
Whatever the case, it seems that Ruffalo has a bigger part to play in Avengers: Doomsday than we realized. Ruffalo wasn’t even part of the initial cast chair announcement. But if there’s one takeaway from Avengers: Endgame Encore, it’s that Doomsday’s cast is going to be even bigger than we thought.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/4-burning-doomsday-questions-we-have-after-avengers-endgame-encore
