Marvel fans who braved the limited theatrical rerelease of Avengers: Endgame – Encore this week may have just received a tantalizing preview of what lies ahead in Avengers: Doomsday. The Infinity Saga finale’s expanded IMAX and Infinity Vision versions include a new ending in which Loki visits Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter, alongside additional post-credits scenes that appear to tie directly into the upcoming Doctor Doom film. Among the most intriguing reveals is a scene in which Doom kidnaps Bruce Banner, prompting speculation that the villain may be assembling his own team of heroes — a live-action Illuminati — to combat the collapse of the multiverse.
While the new footage is confirmed, the broader implications remain firmly in the realm of theory. Theories suggest that the Russo Brothers drew heavily on Jonathan Hickman’s New Avengers run when shaping Doomsday, an idea that has gained credibility as the MCU pivots toward its Secret Wars finale. In the comics, Hickman’s Illuminati — a secret coalition of Marvel’s most brilliant minds — worked to prevent the death of the multiverse from Incursions, catastrophic collisions between parallel Earths. Their saga, which culminated in the tragic arc Time Runs Out, saw Doctor Doom steal the power of the Beyonders to forge Battleworld and ascend as God Emperor Doom. Now, with Doom firmly cast in the MCU, adapting that material for Doomsday appears increasingly likely.
A Villain With a Saving Grace?
Conventional wisdom holds that Doctor Doom would serve as Doomsday’s primary antagonist, given the film’s title. Yet the new Encore footage invites a more nuanced reading. In one scene, the Time Variance Authority scrambles as it monitors thousands of Incursions, with Ke Huy Quan’s Ouroboros warning that “the multiverse is collapsing.” This raises a provocative question: did the MCU’s Doom cause the Incursions, or is he attempting to save what remains of reality? If the latter, the film’s title may carry a double meaning — Doom himself, and the end times he seeks to avert.
Going by the Doomsday footage, I’m inclined to say the latter.
Carlos Morales
The TVA scene reveals that one world in danger is Earth-10005, the Fox X-Men reality — a detail that tracks with a shot in the first Doomsday trailer where Patrick Stewart’s Professor X looks up to see another planet falling from the sky. The theory posits that Doom may need to destroy the Fox X-Men’s Earth to preserve another reality, establishing the film’s central stakes. The trailer sequence in which Doom deploys an army of Sentinels against the heroes may not be the climactic finale, but rather an early confrontation before Doom has conveyed the gravity of the situation to the wider cast.
The Banner Connection
The scene in which Doom kidnaps Bruce Banner lends further weight to the Illuminati theory. In the comics, Banner was a reluctant late addition to the Illuminati, initially resisted by his peers after they had previously shot him into space. But Banner’s intellect allowed him to understand the unfolding catastrophe on his own, and he joined the team midway through the saga. In the MCU, some may assume Doom seeks Banner for his gamma-powered alter ego, but the theory suggests he may instead want Banner’s mind — making the Hulk’s host the first recruit in Doom’s version of the Illuminati.
This raises further questions about the film’s ensemble. Will Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards be forced to ally with his greatest enemy? Could the Latverian Witches, whose costumes debuted at San Diego Comic-Con, serve as a pathway for Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch to return to the MCU as a member of Doom’s team? The plot may be less about heroes uniting against Doom than about them divided over how to respond to the Incursion threat — a possible explanation for the skirmishes between Shang-Chi and Gambit, and between Invisible Woman and Namor.
Looking Ahead
Avengers: Doomsday is set to arrive in theaters in December, and while the new teases from Encore are undeniably tantalizing, the full picture remains to be revealed. Until then, the expanded footage has given fans a fresh lens through which to anticipate the film’s ambitions, blending the Russo Brothers’ cinematic sensibilities with the sprawling, tragic scope of Hickman’s multiversal saga.
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