When Avengers: Endgame returns to theaters this September, it’s going to feature new-new footage that ties it to Doomsday. Marvel isn’t inserting deleted or extended scenes that it left on the cutting room floor in 2019. Co-director Joe Russo revealed the film will feature recently shot sequences “set in” Avengers: Doomsday‘s story. He’s excited by this “unique” opportunity to create a “bridge” between his films. I’m sure he his. Just as I’m sure there are some MCU fans who feel the same way. I’m just not not one of them, because this whole thing just feels hollow.
I’m very much aware of this thing called “money.” I understand the financial reasons why Disney would want to re-release Avengers: Endgame with entirely new footage that promotes its next big-budget event film, Avengers: Doomsday. I simply don’t care about any of that. Budgets and box office totals are concerns for accountants. Besides, even if this is nothing more than a cash grab, people can either spend their money on this or not. Where I might be a little naive is that I don’t think this is entirely about selling tickets. I believe Marvel Studios has artistic and creative reasons for releasing this altered Endgame. As a fan I definitely care about those and their implications for the medium at large. And the artistic and creative reasons are exactly why this endeavor feels empty, desperate, and exhausting. Absolutely exhausting, in fact.
Even some fans excited by this new Doomsday–Endgame might not enjoy the feeling they “have” to see a movie they already know intimately. This is especially tiresome because it’s essentially an even more ludicrous form of pop culture “homework.” Following cinematic universes is already massively time-consuming under normal circumstance. The concept/burden of needing to know a lot of old stuff to appreciate something new has become so prevalent (and in many cases tedious and frustrating) artists now promote new entries by touting the lack of previous information necessary to enjoy them.
Instead of making Doomsday easier to watch and enjoy on its own merits, the MCU is going the other way with this Endgame alteration. It’s doing something Star Wars fans have come to hate with good reason, only much worse. This isn’t just replacing Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen as Anakin’s ghost. This is like if Disney shot all new scenes while filming The Force Awakens and then put them in Return of the Jedi, an idea so upsetting it would have lead to actual riots outside of Lucasfilm. (Seriously, if you thought you were angry when Han shot first, imagine if teenage Jar Jar stopped and asked, “Why hesa shootsa poor Greedsees?”)
Now, Disney might not think this is an issue with the MCU specifically because that franchise’s fans have proven they’re huge nerds who freaking love homework. It’s actually a big reason for the franchise’s massive success during its first decade. I know I didn’t mind my MCU homework. Like many others, I rewatched every single film ahead of Avengers: Infinity War. It was great! I loved it! And it paid off. The more homework you did before Avengers: Endgame, the more that the movie rewarded you. Oh, you thought you could skip rewatching Thor: The Dark World? TOO BAD FOR YOU. But for as much as Endgame rewarded the most dedicated MCU fans, that movie was also the final exam after a decade of studying!
Endgame was the test we all passed to graduate from Infinity Saga University. Now, for reasons we’ll get to, Marvel is telling us we have to go back and retake that three-hour-long test if we want to get our Maste…..okay I’ve stretched this school analogy longer than Reed Richards, but you get the point. This isn’t fun. This feels less like an exciting new way to watch an old movie and more like having to clock back in at our old job. Avengers: Doomsday is supposed to serve as (the beginning of) the end for Phases 4-6, the MCU’s Multiversal Saga. Any prep/rewatches needed to enhance this new experience should be limited to films and shows from this era. Memories of the Infinity Saga should be enough.
Instead, the Russos are doing their own Time Heist and forcing us to go with them and pay for a ticket to do so. (In fairness, we don’t yet know if this altered Avengers: Endgame will arrive on Disney+ before Doomsday premieres. If it does, that will certainly help.) And all of this is just to see new footage that serves an entirely different film. This new footage getting jammed into an already completed work of art only exists to serve as a “bridge” to a film coming out seven years later. It’s….I’m just so tired.
We know why the Russos and Marvel Studios might want/think they need that bridge. Agree with it or not, there is an artistic reason for doing this: fixing a big problem. The post-Infinity Saga MCU hasn’t exactly been the smooth narrative machine of the Infinity Saga. It all but abandoned the serialization format it used to build it into a global behemoth. Despite some great individual installments, too many characters and stories have come and gone without feeling important or making an impact. The unthinkable has also happened. You can skip entire shows or movies without feeling like you missed out. No one ever felt that way before Infinity War or Endgame.
Part of that approach was noble, as Marvel tried telling new stories using formats that broke out of an aging model. Part of that approach was not, as Disney forced Marvel to feed Disney+. But at this point, on the verge of Avengers: Doomsday, the reasons don’t matter. The only thing that matters is that it’s hard to even remember who the Multiverse Saga characters even are. I don’t even know if Shang-Chi will remember he’s a superhero when he finally returns to the MCU after five freaking years.
The unfocused, meandering post Thanos MCU also hasn’t “done the work” to earn this latest Avengers movie. Doomsday and its titular villain feel rushed because the whole Multiversal War Saga is undercooked. Part of that, obviously, has to do with the fact Disney course corrected after firing Jonathan Majors and shifting from Kang to Doom as its big bad. But that’s one reason of many. Not many viewers were thrilled with Kang’s development or the state of the franchise. But at least Kang was already part of the franchise. This is the entirety of Doom’s involvement in the MCU right now.
The fact that Marvel and the Russos built this “bridge” is a tacit admission that Phases 4, 5, and 6 lacked cohesion and narrative focus. So they’re trying to imbue it by retroactively placing it in Avengers: Endgame. They’re putting this undercooked phase in the microwave and serving it up as part of a meal they know you loved. The idea is clearly to give Avengers: Doomsday more narrative weight and importance in the franchise through its new “connection” with Avengers: Endgame.
It doesn’t work that way. Even if it’s done well, even if it’s executed in an interesting, creative, compelling way, you can’t microwave a gourmet meal, which is what Endgame was for fans. It was a gourmet meal for diehards, a fitting, rewarding end that came after a decade of careful preparation. Marvel Studios and the Russos are desperate to serve up that kind of experience again, but it’s impossible at this point. Avengers: Doomsday is going to succeed or fail on its own. The movie is either going to overcome the lack of build, or it isn’t, and no “bridge” is going to change that.
It’s desperation, in the same way the casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Victor von Doom was. It’s an attempt to recapture old glory without earning it. This is, under the best circumstances, an artistic endeavor undertaken solely to retroactively fix issues. And it’s being done in the worst way, by changing a completed work of art. None of this is “unique” or exciting. It’s just all so hollow.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He is better at movie homework than he was actual homework. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.