Warning: This post contains spoilers for the new scenes in Avengers Endgame: Encore and Avengers: Doomsday.
Now that Spider-Man: Brand New Day has come and gone, nearly all the pieces are in place for Marvel's most ambitious crossover yet: Avengers: Doomsday. Granted, we still have to watch VisionQuest to discover whether the Disney+ show will start to assemble the Young Avengers on the small screen, as multiple reports have claimed. However, the multiverse has already started to collapse, and that idea was reinforced with the release of Avengers Endgame: Encore.
The re-release of 2019's ensemble film features four new scenes that directly connect to the events of the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe crossover. One of these sequences showcases Mobius and O.B. in the TVA, watching as hundreds of universes start to collide with one another. It's a dire scene that not only showcases the scope of the events about to unfold later this year but also signals that no one across the multiverse is truly safe.
Another scene features Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter dancing in their home, as seen in the final sequence of Avengers: Endgame. However, such a tender moment is interrupted by the arrival of an uninvited guest: Loki. While brief, this sequence confirmed one of the biggest Avengers: Doomsday plot leaks to date. So before we go any further, consider this a final warning: There could be potential spoilers for Marvel's upcoming film ahead. If you don't want any surprises ruined, it's best to turn back now.
Encore reveals Steve Rogers is indirectly responsible for the death of Doom's family in Avengers: Doomsday
The ending of Avengers: Endgame featured Steve Rogers traveling back in time to live a peaceful life next to Peggy Carter. However, according to the Loki Disney+ series, this wouldn't have been possible. After all, the Time Variance Authority monitored and pruned any branched timelines in the MCU. These timelines are created when a character does something they aren't supposed to in the grand scheme of things, forging a completely separate reality that deviates from the intended path.
Branched timelines are a problem for the TVA because they can grow to the point where they clash with other universes. The Loki show uses trees as an analogy, explaining that a single, individual tree represents a universe, and an endless forest is the multiverse. If a tree is left unattended, its branches can grow to the point where they intertwine with the branches of another tree. In terms of the multiverse, an ever-expanding branched timeline can unexpectedly collide with a completely foreign universe, causing an incursion in the process.
Steve Rogers going back in time to live with Peggy Carter wasn't supposed to happen. After all, the plan was for him to simply return the Infinity Stones to the point from which they were taken and not cause any disturbance in the process. The TVA should've picked up on the fact that a branched timeline was being created, and they should have pruned it as a result. So how come Steve got his happy ending, regardless of that?
Back in February 2026, industry insider MyTimeToShineHello revealed that "sometime after Avengers: Endgame and before the end of Loki Season 2," the God of Mischief visits Steve and Peggy, who are living in the past. Loki warns them that the branched timeline they just created will be pruned by the TVA, but he offers them a way out: to move them to a universe where Captain America and Peggy Carter never existed, allowing them a peaceful life outside the TVA's watch. This new universe turns out to be the homeworld of the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom.
The Avengers Endgame: Encore post-credit scene confirmed that Loki did, in fact, visit Peggy and Steve in the past just after they started their new life together. However, the "way out" he presented to them is likely to have big repercussions for the multiverse as a whole. The same source revealed that Steve and Peggy's new life in the Fantastic Four's world—a place they were never supposed to be in—caused a devastating incursion that killed Doctor Doom's family.
The second trailer for Avengers: Doomsday indirectly confirms that Doom lost his wife and son, as Sue Storm says that everything the ruler of Latveria held dear was taken from him, just as the camera pans to a tapestry depicting a woman and a kid. As such, it does seem like Captain America was responsible not only for alerting the villain to the dangers of incursions but also for his suffering.
Another Doomsday leak indirectly confirmed during the new scenes in Avengers Endgame: Encore is that whenever the X-Men's universe is about to face an incursion, the mutants simply destroy the foreign world to ensure their own survival. This could suggest that we're about to witness that widely rumored scene of the X-Men trying to destroy Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man homeworld, as the two realities clash.
Avengers: Doomsday may be Marvel's most secretive project yet, but we finally have a glimpse behind the curtain at the many events about to unfold. Fortunately, it won't be long before we can finally experience the whole story for ourselves.
Avengers: Doomsday will be released on Dec. 18, 2026.
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