Avengers: Endgame Encore proves Marvel's biggest MCU mistake keeps happening

Marvel are at it again with the Avengers: Endgame Encore re-release — as if three hours back in 2019 wasn’t quite stretching everyone’s bladder enough. The studio have decided Endgame needs another lap around cinemas this September, just in time to set up their next heavy-hitter, Avengers: Doomsday.

Avengers: Endgame Encore lands in cinemas on 25 September 2026, with four new minutes of footage tacked on.

This Encore edition adds a whole four minutes (no, that isn’t a typo) to the original cut, along with an extra teaser for Doomsday. Apparently, that scant bonus material now makes Endgame 'required viewing' if you want to make sense of the next blockbuster. And yes, this is actually the logic they’re sticking to.

The Russos Make Their Pitch

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo are out in force drumming up excitement, eager for fans to file back into theatres. In recent comments to Fandango, Joe Russo tried to paint the new cut as genuinely essential for keeping up:

Here’s how Joe Russo put it during a Fandango interview, mixing hype with a not-so-subtle nudge:

"It’s going to connect the story of the two movies. There’s a natural progression from Endgame into Doomsday, which is also inclusive of all the other stories that have been playing out. I think it’s important to see Endgame in theaters for two reasons. One, if you want to have a lot of fun cheering and screaming and reliving all the emotions you had the first time you saw it. Number two, I think it’s required viewing for following the story in Doomsday."

Anthony Russo chimed in to say that nobody who saw Endgame back in 2019 could have guessed what’s coming — which, fair enough, is the very nature of sequels built on years of connective tissue and endless mid-credit scenes.

Back to the MCU Homework Problem

What’s priceless here is Marvel clearly haven’t dropped the whole 'you must see every instalment' approach, the sort that made the MCU feel less like a film series and more like a part-time job. Remember when the Infinity Saga was mostly just a few films a year, and Disney+ wasn’t stuffing us with spin-offs to keep up with? Back then, everything building towards Endgame felt like an actual event — not a checklist for fans to keep their story straight.

Come 2021, all that changed. Suddenly, there were Marvel shows and movies every few months, each loaded with plot threads you’d better remember, or risk feeling like you’ve turned up to a quiz without revising. The audience clearly tired of this: box office numbers dipped, Disney+ viewership stalled, and even Marvel started to admit maybe people didn’t want to connect every last dot just to enjoy a film.

Four New Minutes? Really?

This brings us to the slightly absurd ask behind Endgame Encore. If the extra material was a proper recut — say, an overhaul of what counts as Endgame itself — then perhaps the 'required viewing' pitch flies. But what you actually get is four extra minutes and a fresh lick of colour grading. Anyone who wants to be truly up to speed for Doomsday has to rewatch a three-plus-hour film just for a teensy bit of new footage pretty much made to serve as a glorified trailer thread. That’s quite the demand for, let’s be honest, all but the most diehard fans.

This sort of move should really be a party for Marvel's biggest milestone, not a way to send half the audience scrambling back through the archives. Here’s hoping this Encore doesn’t mark a full-blown return to Marvel’s 'homework' era — because after a few years of backlash, you’d think they’d have clocked the bloody obvious by now.