AVENGERS ENDGAME: ENCORE Directors Tease Doctor Doom’s Mysterious Iron Man Connection
Doctor Doom just hijacked one of the most iconic sounds in MCU history, and the Russo Bros. are making it clear that fans should be paying attention.
Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, directors of Avengers Endgame: Encore, have opened up about the new Doctor Doom post-credits tease, its intentional connection to Iron Man, and the clues hiding in plain sight ahead of Avengers: Doomsday.
The original Avengers: Endgame arrived without a traditional post-credits scene. Instead, Marvel closed the movie with the sound of Tony Stark forging his first Iron Man armor, a fitting tribute to the hero who launched the MCU and ultimately sacrificed himself to stop Thanos.
Avengers Endgame: Encore gives that familiar moment a much different context. The new version ends with Doctor Doom forging his own armor, echoing Tony Stark's creation of Iron Man. With Robert Downey Jr. now playing Doom after more than a decade as Stark, it's easy to see why fans are wondering how closely the two characters might be connected.
Speaking with Empire, Joe Russo confirmed that the similarities between those moments are very much intentional.
"There is certainly a symmetry at play here," Joe teased. "There is an interesting examination of good and evil at play. And I think that that scene at the end, obviously it's intended to be almost identical. It's because there's a duality being explored."
That's an intriguing choice of words, particularly with the Multiverse giving Marvel plenty of room to play with familiar faces in completely different roles. Chris Evans has already existed in the MCU as both Captain America and the Human Torch, so it's certainly possible that somewhere in the Multiverse there's a Victor Von Doom who happens to have Tony Stark's face.
The Russos aren't confirming that's what's happening, though, and it sounds like fans looking for answers should go back to Endgame itself. According to Joe, dialogue from the movie will have new significance once Doomsday arrives.
"I will say this: there are clues in Endgame, things that are said, that will pay off in Doomsday," he added. "So if you want to go back and revisit the movie again – not the new footage but lines that are said in the movie – [there are some] that have an impact on Doomsday."
That's going to send MCU fans hunting through Endgame for anything that might suddenly mean something different in the Multiverse Saga.
The new footage also digs further into Incursions, with universes fighting for survival as realities collide. Earth-10005, the universe associated with the X-Men, is among those in play, and the information shown on the monitors apparently isn't random background material.
"Everything is premeditated. Every inch of footage that you see has some relevance in some way," the filmmaker revealed. "There are clues in every piece of that new footage, that can lead you to a greater story in Doomsday."
So, between Doctor Doom's armor, the Incursions, and dialogue buried in the original film, Avengers Endgame: Encore is giving fans plenty to think about before Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters this December.
For the Russos, however, bringing Endgame back isn't only about planting clues for the next Avengers movie. Joe also sees the rerelease as an opportunity for audiences who missed the movie's original theatrical run to experience one of Marvel's biggest crowd events on the big screen.
"I mean, I would argue if you're gonna go see it, who knows if this movie will ever be back in theatres? This was a request of ours to go back into the movie, and really push this film back out again.
“Because one of the greatest sights of our lives was getting to stand there at the back of a theatre on opening night of Avengers: Endgame, and all the work we'd done over seven years, all that hard work paying off. The energy felt like a rock concert. That sense of community, everybody sharing that story together."
"And there's a generation that has only seen it from their couch, or their living room. And people like to go see these movies with family members, and with children and with grandparents. This is just one more opportunity for them to go out and have a communal experience again.
“Movies are, frankly, one of the only things left that really truly bind us and give us shared experiences. That, sporting events, concerts, you know. And so to have an opportunity to take a movie like this, that really galvanised people, we're excited, and we really wanted that opportunity to be there again for the audience."
Anyone who saw Endgame with a packed opening-weekend crowd probably remembers just how insanely wild that experience could get. Now Marvel is using that movie to bridge the gap to Avengers: Doomsday, while giving another generation the chance to see it in a theater.
A new poster for Avengers Endgame: Encore has also been released, which you can check out below.
The big question remains exactly what Marvel is doing with Downey's Doctor Doom. The matching armor-forging imagery certainly invites comparisons between Doom and Tony Stark, but the Russos are keeping the actual connection under wraps.