Avengers Endgame: Encore brought the blockbuster back to theaters this past weekend and gave the 2019 movie a new ending. Now, after Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter reunite and share a dance, they're confronted by Loki, who mysteriously offers to help them.
This is seemingly the TVA version of the God of Mischief. However, it's not outside the realm of possibility that, rather than this being an unseen moment from the TV series, Loki is somehow visiting their branched timeline from where he sits at the heart of the Multiverse.
In an interview with Empire Online, Anthony Russo justified changing what many fans consider a pitch-perfect ending for Avengers: Endgame that would be better left untouched.
"We really thought about that ending [in Endgame] as the perfect ending for Steve Rogers," he acknowledged. "And the idea of just going one moment past that perfect ending, and thinking about how radically that moment can change by just taking one step past it. That was a big part of the delight in the new idea for what Doomsday is and where the story goes."
Joe added, "The Marvel Universe is a giant experiment, and has been for years. I think part of the fun of coming back was, we thought, 'Could we reach back to pull the story forward?' And nobody's done that before. Nobody's ever had an opportunity to do it before. And this is a fluid universe, right? So you could do it in this universe, and it felt like an interesting way to start the story of Doomsday."
The filmmakers refused to comment on whether the old Steve Rogers featured in the closing moments of Avengers: Endgame was reflecting everything that happened to him in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. We also don't know how he eventually returns to the present as an old man and whether it will still happen after these movies.
Explaining they considered that the right conclusion for Captain America at the time, Anthony said that the new scene is a result of them "looking back at that movie thinking about going forward, instead of not thinking about going forward."
Adding that they used the "same lighting, same lenses, same set" to recreate the movie's final scene, Joe pointed out, "We like that it's that Rashomon [thing] – how do you look at this from a different point of view? How do you bring a different point of view to it? The magic is done with makeup. Evans and Hayley both look incredible, so it wasn't difficult, I'll say that."
As for the Loki of it all, Anthony chose his words carefully when asked how he's appearing before Steve and Peggy when we last saw him seemingly trapped at the heart of the Multiverse, serving as its battery for countless timelines.
"I mean, look, the God of Mischief proves to be the God of Mischief," Anthony teased. "Loki's one of the most fascinating characters, and he's had so many incarnations. One of the delights of Doomsday is, you're going to get a new incarnation of that character."
Interestingly, the filmmakers confirmed that the scenes featured in Avengers Endgame: Encore will not be in Avengers: Doomsday and that they were included here to bridge the gap between the two movies.
Marvel Studios has also officially released the "Silence Your Phones" PSA that played in theaters this weekend. It features the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four at the movies together, and it's suitably star-studded.