Avengers: Endgame Encore Is The Perfect Reminder Of What The MCU Has Been Missing For 7 Years

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Published Sep 23, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT

Since 2019, Kevin Erdmann has been one of Screen Rant's Senior Staff Writers, covering all kinds of Superhero and Star Wars media with Easter egg breakdowns, theory pieces, breaking news, and more. A huge Star Wars & MCU fan, Kevin also loves Batman (because he's Batman), but could talk for hours about why Nightwing is DC's greatest hero.

With 8 years of total experience covering entertainment and pop culture, Kevin has gotten the chance to interview top creatives and talent, and has also attended major media events like Disney's D23 convention.

Majoring in Cinema Studies with a minor in Comics and Cartoon Studies from the UofO, Kevin lives in Oregon with his wonderful wife, adorable dog, and sinister cat who is no doubt currently plotting his demise.

The MCU's new Avengers: Endgame Encore re-release is a great reminder of what the MCU has desperately been needing for the last 7 years. Although the MCU has tried to recapture what made the previous Infinity Saga so great, it'd arguably had just as many missteps as successes in the current Multiverse Saga. Even so, rewatching Endgame makes a critical absence even more glaring.

Undoubtedly a bid to get audiences reinvested in the franchise and generate more excitement for the release of Avengers: Doomsday at the end of the year, Avengers: Endgame Encore is a new theatrical re-release for the fourth Avengers movie, which was first released in 2019. Additionally, it's been promised that Encore will feature a few minutes of additional new footage to help tee up the events of Doomsday.

As fun as it will no doubt be for fans to see some of the MCU's greatest moments on the big-screen again, the decision to bring Endgame back and add new moments to better connect it to Doomsday feels indicative of a bigger problem with the MCU as a whole in the seven years since. On the whole, it feels as though what Avengers: Endgame Encore is actually doing is highlighting just how different the franchise has felt (especially in one key area).

Avengers: Endgame Was The Last Time The MCU Felt United

Chris Evans as Captain America on the battlefield with the other Avengers in Endgame

Of course, 2019's Avengers: Endgame culminated a decade of storytelling, and its greatest strength was bringing together so many of its best and greatest characters across the MCU for a major battle with Thanos. Having the clearest of common goals to undo the Snap and stop the Mad Titan from erasing all existence, the differing backgrounds and personalities of the MCU's various heroes took a backseat as they were all unified under one cause as Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Beyond Endgame, the MCU hasn't had the same consistent feeling since the 2019 film. Not only has this 7-year interim been the longest period between Avengers movies, but there hasn't been much cohesion between individual projects either. There's been a very limited amount of build-up to Doctor Doom and the multiverse's imminent collapse. It's why something like the new Encore release feels more necessary than it should, as it's uniquely positioned to add a handful of extra minutes to help make the set-up for Doomsday feel more robust.

While it's good that new corners of the franchise have been developed with their own stories and the debut of new characters in the Multiverse Saga, there hasn't been any sort of obvious central Avengers-level narrative to connect them all (save for the last year or so). While part of that had to have been the pivot from Avengers: Kang Dynasty to Doomsday, the fact remains.

Avengers: Doomsday Will Make The MCU Feel Connected Again

As of 2025, the MCU has been gradually rebuilding/creating new connective tissue as best it can ahead of Doomsday's release at the end of 2026.

Captain America: Brave New World ended with Sam Wilson's Captain America determined to rebuild the Avengers, with Samuel Sterns' The Leader confirming threats from other worlds. Thunderbolts* ended with the New Avengers forming and responding to a space crisis involving The Fantastic Four of Earth-828 coming to Earth-616. Likewise, Fantastic Four: First Steps saw Doctor Doom debut at the movie's end, presumably kidnapping young Franklin Richards, while Spider-Man: Brand New Day's post-credits most recently teased Spider-Man's absence on Earth and reappearance in space (or perhaps on another Earth entirely).

Now, we have Avengers: Endgame Encore and whatever new footage will be featured to keep setting up Doomsday and multiple teams of heroes finally uniting and working together once more in the MCU (which has sorely been missed). While not every MCU project needs to feel like an Avengers movie, the interconnected universe at least needs to feel more unified than it has and that it's headed to the same destination. It's a vibe that has finally started to be felt in the last year, will likely be cemented with Encore, and will then culminate with Avengers: Doomsday at the end of the year.

Avengers: Endgame Encore releases in theaters on September 25th from Marvel Studios.