Plenty of excitement and anticipation is building up for Avengers: Doomsday, but the movie also has quite a bit riding on it. Myriad movies and TV shows have been released since the MCU’s most recent installment in the Avengers franchise, Avengers: Endgame, but it certainly hasn’t been smooth sailing. Although Endgame is largely considered one of the MCU’s best movies, the franchise has faced a series of ups and downs since that movie’s release, and some might argue that it’s been more up than down.
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Marvel is clearly working hard to make this brand-new Avengers movie work, from Doomsday’s cast bringing back some of the franchise’s most loved actors, like Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr., to having full-fledged hours-long cast announcement events. Among the more recent updates on the movie, however, is something that may accidentally spell trouble for the larger MCU: The decision to re-release Endgame with brand-new, never-before-seen scenes.
Endgame’s New Scenes Will Undoubtedly Help Doomsday
Although the announcement that a new version of Endgame was going to be released was initially surprising, in terms of the timing, it makes sense. This is clearly being done in an effort to make the storyline of Doomsday more seamless. In fact, Doomsday co-director Joe Russo basically said as much, referring to this re-release as a “critical companion story” to Doomsday and saying, “It’s an opportunity to create a bridge from Endgame to Doomsday in a very unique way.” Russo likewise indicated that these new Endgame scenes will be set in the Doomsday story.
Audiences don’t currently know what is being added to the new cut of Endgame, and it seems likely that those details will remain a mystery until the re-release hits theaters this September. Even without that information, though, Russo’s comments suggest that the alterations are being made to Endgame specifically to make the two movies fit together better. That very well may improve Doomsday, particularly because the movie will need to explain the return of Steve Rogers, among other plot details, but it raises a host of concerning questions about Endgame and the larger MCU.
Endgame Wasn’t Perfect, But It Felt Complete
Perhaps the biggest concern about the re-release of Endgame is the fact that it doesn’t seem to be for the benefit of Endgame at all. Currently, it appears as though this decision was made purely to improve Doomsday. Yet, that undercuts what Endgame meant in the larger MCU at the time (and in the time since). Neither Avengers: Infinity War nor Endgame was a perfect movie, but they did have one specific thing going for them. Both Infinity War and Endgame were the culmination of years of movies and stories within the franchise.
Seeing the MCU’s many characters come together in this way in a narrative that felt so intentional, even if it was flawed in certain ways, was a key factor in the two-parter’s success. In fact, it was easier to overlook any issues with the movies because the narrative significance was so great. Going back and making changes to Endgame just to serve what the franchise is introducing now undercuts that history, and in so doing, it feels like it’s damaging the decade of movies leading up to that massive Infinity Saga finale as well.
Is The MCU Shooting Itself In The Foot?
Ironically, the moves Marvel is making to ensure Doomsday is a success might actually end up doing the franchise more harm than good. Jeopardizing some of the most popular movies in the MCU to try and make the newest movie a success seems like a risky decision at best and a reckless, misguided one at worst. The reception of Doomsday is only going to go so far if it means that fan-favorite stories and projects are being changed in the process. This is also a concern that doesn’t solely apply to the Endgame re-release.
Already, there’s been plenty of discourse regarding whether bringing Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. (even if he’s playing a new character) back for Doomsday is really the right call, particularly after Endgame did so much work to say goodbye to these actors and the characters. It’s possible that the MCU is actually making decisions that will harm the franchise overall, even as the intention behind these choices is just the opposite. Perhaps these decisions will be executed perfectly, but fans aren’t wrong for being concerned.
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