AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY Directors Confirm Hulk Is “Involved” in Doctor Doom’s Story and Call TVA Scene “Critical”

The Hulk may have a much bigger role in the road to Avengers: Doomsday than Marvel Studios has let on, and directors Joe Russo and Anthony Russo are starting to offer a few clues about how Bruce Banner connects to Doctor Doom.

The filmmakers have opened up about the new scenes in Avengers Endgame: Encore, including that wild post-credits encounter between Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner and Doom, along with the TVA witnessing the Multiverse begin to collapse under the weight of countless Incursions.

Following his Savage Hulk rampage in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Banner has gone underground in the most literal way possible. He’s sealed himself inside a military bunker two miles beneath the Earth, where he’s researching a way to suppress the Hulk and keep the world safe from another rampage.

Banner believes nobody can get in or out. Doctor Doom has other ideas. The lights suddenly go dark, Doom shows up, and Banner Hulks out. When the cameras return, both Doom and Hulk are gone. Whatever Victor Von Doom wants with Banner, apparently no bunker on Earth is going to keep him away.

Speaking with Empire, Joe Russo explained: "Now, somebody pays [Banner] a visit, in what he thinks is perhaps the most secure place on the planet. And clearly he's there dealing with the trauma and the fallout from what happened in Brand New Day, and trying to protect the world from him. And somebody found him."

Doom’s interest also might not be limited to Bruce Banner. "I mean, look, his interest may extend beyond just Banner. So, that's what we'll say about that," the filmmaker added, saying that they had to "save some surprises" following last March's Avengers: Doomsday cast reveal.

The Russos aren’t confirming that Ruffalo will appear in Doomsday, but they are willing to confirm that Banner has a connection to the story surrounding Doom.

"I think [what] we could say is, [Banner] is certainly involved in the story that revolves around Doom," Joe continued. "We will not confirm nor deny his appearance in Doomsday."

Anthony added another interesting detail: "The farthest we can go is to say, there are characters and actors who have not been announced, who are a part of Doomsday."

Then there’s the other major Endgame: Encore post-credits scene, which takes us to the Time Variance Authority as the TVA witnesses the Multiverse’s first Incursions. By the end of the sequence, thousands are happening.

Joe described the event as "the most profound thing that's ever happened to the MCU. It is the perceived end of times. Everything the TVA was set up to do is to protect the timelines from collapsing, and now they're in a catastrophic collapse.

"And so that scene, I would argue, yes, has a great level of importance. I wouldn't say that it is more important than another scene. But it is certainly critical to the storytelling of Doomsday."

Anthony went further and explained how the Incursions connect the different Marvel universes that are now heading toward each other.

"It is the unifying principle of combining the X-Men universe, the Avengers universe, the Fantastic Four universe. That is at the heart of the collision of these universes. There are clues in Endgame, things that are said, that will pay off in Doomsday."

So, the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, TVA, Hulk, and Doctor Doom are all being pulled into the same Multiversal disaster. The Incursions appear to be the mechanism bringing those worlds together, while Doom clearly has his own agenda involving Banner and possibly the Hulk himself.

The MCU is moving toward a full-scale collision of universes in Avengers: Doomsday. Now the big question is what Doom actually wants with the Hulk, because kidnapping one of the strongest beings in the MCU is a big play.