Avengers Endgame: Encore's biggest surprise comes in a post-credits scene featuring Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner. After going Savage in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the scientist has locked himself up in a military bunker two miles beneath the Earth.
He's researching ways to suppress the Green Goliath, and quite confidently says in a video log that there's no way out or in. Moments later, the lights dim and Doctor Doom arrives. Banner Hulks out, but when the cameras come back on, Doom has somehow spirited The Hulk away.
In an interview with Empire Online, the Russo Brothers, Joe and Anthony, chose their words carefully while explaining what this all means for Avengers: Doomsday.
"Now, somebody pays [Banner] a visit, in what he thinks is perhaps the most secure place on the planet," Joe mused. "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."
"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.
"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 noted, "The farthest we can go is to say, there are characters and actors who have not been announced, who are a part of Doomsday."
Moving on to the post-credits scene featuring the Time Variance Authority witnessing the Multiverse's first Incursions (thousands are taking place by the time the scene ends), Joe called what we see there "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," he teased. "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 revealed, "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."
Things are certainly heading in a very intriguing direction, and a new rumour is also doing the rounds today that sheds additional light on what the deal is with those Latverian Witches.
We still don't know who they are beneath their respective masks, but the trio may be formidable villains in their own right. However, something tells us Victor Von Doom will not be at their beck and call...