Marvel has spent the last several years assuring audiences that the MCU would stop feeling like homework. But now, in something of an about-face to those pledges, Marvel Studios is apparently assigning a three-hour movie as required reading. Anthony and Joe Russo, the directors behind “Avengers: Endgame” and “Avengers: Infinity War,” say “Avengers Endgame: Encore” is essential preparation for December’s “Avengers: Doomsday”—only two months after promising their new Avengers movie would start the franchise “from scratch.”
The contradiction is especially stark because it comes directly from the Russos. In June, Joe described “Doomsday” as Marvel’s “phase zero,” arguing that the film would offer audiences a new entry point after nearly two decades of interconnected movies and television.
“This is starting over from scratch,” Joe said at SXSW London. “We want to make sure everybody feels like this isn’t leaning on anything from the past.”
But Marvel is leaning pretty heavily on “Endgame” now. Speaking with Fandango, Joe explained why Marvel wants audiences to revisit the film before “Doomsday.”
“There’s a natural progression from ‘Endgame’ into ‘Doomsday,’ which is also inclusive of all the other stories that have been playing out. But I think it’s important to see ‘Endgame’ again in theaters for two reasons: One, you’re going to have a lot of fun … and two, I think it’s required viewing for following the story in Doomsday,” he said.
Anthony then offered an even more intriguing—and contradictory—tease. “If you saw ‘Endgame’ when it was originally released, you couldn’t see this coming,” he added.
The new sales pitch, while enthusiastic, also runs against Marvel’s broader attempt to convince moviegoers that the franchise has learned from its post-“Endgame” sprawl. In 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that Kevin Feige had told Marvel colleagues that following the studio’s expanding slate had begun to feel “more like homework than entertainment.”
Feige later made that course correction public while promoting “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” Because the film took place in its own universe, audiences could enter its world without needing to know where the characters had been during the previous 36 MCU movies.
People “feel liberated that they can just enjoy what’s ahead of them,” Feige said at the time. “It is no-homework-required.”
Meanwhile, Disney CEO Bob Iger had already acknowledged that Marvel’s rush into interconnected storytelling on Disney+ damaged the brand. Although Iger’s primary complaint concerned volume and creative focus rather than continuity itself, his diagnosis helped drive Marvel’s promised shift toward fewer, more accessible projects.
“Not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making several television series, and frankly, it diluted focus and attention,” Iger said in 2023.
That “required viewing” is a paid 185-minute re-release—four minutes longer than the original cut—with a custom introduction, new footage, and an exclusive IMAX and Infinity Vision end tag. Marvel has not revealed what the additions contain, but Anthony’s claim that 2019 audiences “couldn’t see this coming” suggests more than a generic preview.
Whether fans resent the added homework remains unknown. Still, after years of Marvel promising to make the MCU easier to follow, declaring a paid theatrical re-release essential could ruffle some feathers.
The obvious connections are Robert Downey Jr. returning as Doctor Doom after Tony Stark’s death and Chris Evans reprising Steve Rogers despite “Endgame” completing his story. Evans has also teased a “brutal” new Captain America arc.
Stephen McFeely wrote “Avengers: Doomsday,” which opens December 18. “Avengers Endgame: Encore” returns September 25, effectively transforming Marvel’s Infinity Saga finale into a prologue for its next event movie.
