The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) debuted to the sound of Tony Stark striking an anvil in a cave. We all remember the scene: Ramin Djawadi’s electric guitar riff pulsing in the background, syncing with the rhythmic, metallic CLANG … CLANG … CLANG as the captured billionaire holds up the crudely cut faceplate of the Mark I armour.
That was the birth of Iron Man, the hero who would become the franchise’s load-bearing wall.
Eleven years later, Avengers: Endgame delivered a definitive conclusion as Steve Rogers finally got his long-awaited dance with the love of his life, Peggy Carter. It was the emotional bookend to an eight-year promise, tying back to what Steve told Peggy over the radio, “I’m gonna need a rain check on that dance”, as he steered the Valkyrie into the Arctic ice.
Tying together storylines and relationships across more than twenty films is what made Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame so compelling. With the theatrical re-release Avengers: Endgame Encore, Marvel is rolling the dice with those sacred moments, adding new footage (under two minutes in standard screenings, five to six in Infinity Vision) that reworks storylines to bridge the gap to Avengers: Doomsday.
Rather than celebrating the past, Marvel is reframing its biggest milestones to set up its next chapter. The question is whether these changes will carry the story forward with greater emotional weight, or risk undermining what came before.
Nostalgia Carrying the Story Forward
Used with purpose, nostalgia and familiar iconography can do more than trigger applause in a crowded cinema; they can propel a new story forward.
The post-credits clang that closed Endgame, the sound of Tony forging his first mask in Iron Man, now gives way to images of Doom forging his own. It invites audiences to see Stark and Doom as two sides of the same coin. Both are brilliant inventors shaped by trauma, building suits of armour to control a dangerous world while walking opposite paths.
It’s a neat move. Audiences have nearly two decades of attachment to that sound, and to Robert Downey Jr., so the Doom reveal lands with weight it never had to earn.
Similarly, having the 2012 Loki variant knock on Steve and Peggy’s door anchors a sprawling multiversal crisis in a choice audiences already care about. As director Anthony Russo confirmed during a Q&A screening of Encore, Steve staying in the past created a branched timeline that sets off the chain reaction leading to Doctor Doom. By tying the inciting incident of Avengers: Doomsday directly to Steve’s decision, the stakes feel personal right from the start.
What’s more, Marvel has already shown that callbacks can serve character growth rather than just fan service. Spider-Man: No Way Home used Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin and Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker not merely as cameos, but as emotional catalysts to push Tom Holland’s Spider-Man into adulthood.
If Avengers: Doomsday treats Tony’s legacy and Steve’s return with that same narrative purpose, leaning on the past could make the present story hit much harder.
Building on Stories Told Elsewhere
The smartest addition in Avengers: Endgame Encore is the TVA mid-credits scene, where O.B. and Casey brief Mobius on an Incursion between Earth-10005, the universe of 20th Century Fox’s X-Men films, and Earth-1127, with up to 3,000 more erupting across the Multiverse.
This scene is Marvel openly using its acquired back catalogue as the setup it never built.
For an Incursion to matter to the audience, we have to care about the worlds being destroyed. The Multiverse Saga spent years introducing disconnected characters and alternate realities that audiences barely had time to invest in — it didn’t give Marvel a second Earth whose destruction would feel like a tragedy. Placing the Fox X-Men universe on the chopping block solves that problem overnight as it draws on more than twenty-five years of audience affection for characters we grew up watching outside the MCU.
To understand why that matters more than years of plot mechanics, look at how Thanos was set up in the Infinity Saga. Despite the popular belief that the Mad Titan had years of intricate build-up before Avengers: Infinity War, his pre-2018 screen time was surprisingly brief: a silent 2012 stinger, a few minutes in Guardians of the Galaxy, and an Age of Ultrontag. The sense that he loomed over everything mostly came in hindsight.
What made Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame work was the emotional investment audiences had in the heroes colliding on screen. Just as Deadpool & Wolverine tapped into the history of Fox’s superhero era for an unexpectedly poignant send-off, using the TVA scene to pull the Fox X-Men universe into an Incursion lets Marvel cash in on decades of existing fan investment.
The only danger is that leaning on another studio’s history can start to feel like a narrative shortcut if it replaces proper character groundwork within the MCU itself.
The Risk of Undermining the Past
Retconning is hardly new. In the comics, fans accept that no ending is permanent. Done right, a retcon can even surpass the original story, like when Ed Brubaker broke forty years of comic canon to resurrect Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier.
Mainstream cinema, however, tends to treat finality differently. Part of what gave Avengers: Endgame its emotional power in 2019 was the understanding that it was a genuine farewell for Downey and Chris Evans after a decade in their roles. Steve’s ending felt definitive enough that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier built its entire arc around passing on the shield in his absence.
Using Loki to reopen the Infinity Saga’s final full stop puts the audience’s sense of closure at risk, turning a deeply satisfying “happily ever after” into a stepping stone for Avengers: Doomsday. Likewise, attaching Doom’s origin to the final audio tribute to Tony Stark risks overshadowing a sombre curtain call.
If these additions are not handled with care, Marvel risks teaching audiences that no goodbye is permanent and every emotional resolution is only temporary, which could dull the impact of both past and future endings. At the same time, if the story honours what those sacrifices meant to the characters, revisiting them could add a tragic new layer to the saga rather than erasing the old one.
Can Avengers: Doomsday Justify These Changes?
Let’s not forget that bringing back Robert Downey Jr., the former face of the MCU, as Doctor Doom is a business move for Marvel. The studio had to pivot quickly after the Kang Saga collapsed due to a perfect storm of creative missteps, the disappointing box office of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and the assault conviction that ended Jonathan Majors’ run as Kang.
The changes in Avengers: Endgame Encore are neither an automatic triumph nor a misstep. They are high-stakes liberties the Russo brothers have taken, which Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars now have to justify.
For that gamble to pay off, Marvel needs to ensure that these callbacks serve the characters first and the spectacle second. If the writing treats Steve Rogers’ return, the legacy of Tony Stark, and the survival of the X-Men with the dramatic weight they warrant, audiences will have every reason to embrace the new direction.
Endgame ended with the sound of Tony building his first mask. Encore ends with Doom building his. Whether that’s a rhyme or a replacement is what Doomsday has to answer in December.
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