‘Avengers: Endgame Encore’ Confirms Its New Footage Comes With a Major Catch

Marvel’s return of ‘Avengers: Endgame‘ to theaters has been building anticipation for months, positioned as far more than a simple nostalgia screening ahead of December’s ‘Avengers: Doomsday.’ Since the re-release was first announced during Marvel’s San Diego Comic-Con presentation, fans have been speculating wildly about what new footage might actually be waiting inside the film’s runtime.

That speculation gained real footing recently when AMC Theatres listed ‘Avengers: Endgame Encore’ at a runtime of 185 minutes, four minutes longer than the original 2019 cut’s 181-minute runtime, officially making it the longest Marvel Studios release to date. With tickets going on sale August 25 ahead of the film’s September 25 debut, fans finally have concrete confirmation of just how much new material they’re actually getting.

That confirmation comes with a significant catch. According to reporting from Cosmic Book News, those four minutes of new Doomsday-bridging footage will only be available on IMAX and Infinity Vision certified screens, meaning anyone buying a standard theatrical ticket will simply be watching the original 2019 version of the film with no new content at all.

The footage itself was shot specifically during production of ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ and is designed to bridge the story directly into December’s sequel. Speaking previously about the re-release, Joe Russo, who co-directed both ‘Endgame’ and ‘Doomsday,’ explained the thinking behind bringing the film back to theaters at all. “It’s critically important to re-release the movie, and, in fact, we’ll be re-releasing the film with footage that is set in the Doomsday story that we have added to Avengers: Endgame,” Russo said at the Sands Film Festival, according to Deadline. He described the move as “an opportunity to create a bridge from Endgame to Doomsday in a very unique way.”

That bridge appears deliberately tied to Disney’s push for its new Infinity Vision certification, a proprietary premium large-format standard the studio is introducing as a direct competitor to IMAX. According to Cosmic Book News, the strategy carries real urgency, since ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ won’t have access to IMAX screens in December at all, with that format already committed to ‘Dune: Part Three,’ which opens the same day. Locking Encore’s new footage behind Infinity Vision and IMAX now gives Disney a low-risk opportunity to familiarize audiences with the format before Doomsday arrives without that same competitive advantage.

While Marvel has stayed quiet on the specifics, fan speculation has zeroed in on a few likely additions. Reports have pointed to a possible new scene involving Steve Rogers speaking with Ant-Man at Tony Stark’s funeral about time travel, along with a previously unseen sequence involving Loki’s early days working with the TVA. Given that the original 2019 film had no post-credits scene whatsoever, many expect at least part of the new runtime to include Marvel’s first-ever end-credits tag for ‘Endgame’ specifically.

With Endgame’s lifetime box office total sitting at $2.799 billion, just over $124 million short of ‘Avatar’s’ all-time global record, the re-release also carries the faint possibility of pushing the film back into record-chasing territory, though that remains a secondary storyline compared to the film’s real purpose: getting audiences comfortable with premium format tickets before ‘Doomsday’ arrives in December without the usual IMAX safety net.

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