4 Years Ago, Sony Paved the Way for Avengers: Endgame Encore With the MCU’s First Extended Edition Re-Release

Earlier this year, Marvel Studios announced that its highest-grossing film is returning to theaters under the banner of Avengers: Endgame Encore. The re-release arrives on the heels of the upcoming blockbuster event Avengers: Doomsday, which opens later this December, and it’s expected to get fans excited about the next Avengers event. However, instead of simply pushing a nostalgic rerun to haul in additional box office revenue, Marvel is shaping Encore into a narrative bridge, adding brand-new footage designed to set up the multiversal conflict spearheaded by Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.). The move effectively confirms Doomsday is the direct sequel to the Infinity Saga, while also turning the re-release unskippable for fans who want to understand the minutiae of the lore. While Endgame Encore is an unprecedented experiment for Marvel Studios, the movie is actually not the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s first extended theatrical cut.

In December 2021, Spider-Man: No Way Home leveraged a massive $200 million budget to unite Peter Parker (Tom Holland) with his multiversal variants, Peter 2 (Tobey Maguire) and Peter 3 (Andrew Garfield). The film dominated the post-pandemic box office, amassing an impressive $1.9 billion worldwide during its full run, a record only recently broken by Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Influenced by the unprecedented demand and willing to celebrate Peter Parker’s 60th anniversary in print, Sony Pictures decided to repackage No Way Home and send it back to theaters. Exactly four years ago today, on September 2, 2022, the studio released Spider-Man: No Way Home — The More Fun Stuff Version, an extended version filled with extra scenes for hardcore fans.

What Was in The More Fun Stuff Version of Spider-Man: No Way Home?

Sony Pictures added roughly 11 minutes of previously deleted material into the runtime of The More Fun Stuff Version. The hefty runtime provided deeper character interactions that the original theatrical pacing could not accommodate, with extended scenes and extra dialogue lines giving the whole cast some breathing space. Arguably the best addition came through extended dialogue between the three Spider-Men before the Statue of Liberty climax. Watching Holland, Maguire, and Garfield discuss the mechanics of web-shooters and their respective rogue galleries leans into the character dynamics that drove the film’s financial success, while also focusing on the comic-accurate weirdness of the multiversal crossover concept.

Beyond a handful of good extended scenes, a significant portion of The More Fun Stuff Version‘s added 11 minutes felt like filler. For instance, the expanded interrogation sequence featuring the Department of Damage Control gave new comedic dialogue for Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) and Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), but the scene brings the film’s primary plot progression to a halt. Similarly, an extended montage of Peter utilizing his abilities in the Midtown High gymnasium disrupted the serious tone. Even an extra moment featuring Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) taking on Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) as a client contributed little to the movie’s flow. It’s quite clear why those scenes were removed in the first place, and even if The More Fun Stuff Version was an interesting experiment, it still wasn’t an essential re-release.

What Do We Know About Avengers: Endgame Encore New Footage?

To prevent the Avengers: Endgame Encore from suffering the same pacing issues caused by the filler in The More Fun Stuff Version, Marvel Studios is taking a different approach with its new additions. The studio confirmed at CinemaCon that the Encore cut will include approximately four minutes of new footage. Also, unlike the deleted scenes reinserted into the Spider-Man adventure, the new material in Encore was specifically shot during the production of Avengers: Doomsday. That means Marvel is retroactively altering the resolution of the Infinity Saga to directly establish the stakes for the upcoming crossover, potentially changing how we see some key scenes and character arcs.

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has also said, on many occasions, that the updated version of Avengers: Endgame is mandatory viewing for fans invested in the franchise’s overarching canon. Feige confirmed that Avengers: Doomsday will pick up exactly where Avengers: Endgame left off, framing the new film as a direct sequel to the 2019 release rather than a continuation of the disjointed Multiversal Saga projects. He also noted that the Encore version contains key “surprises,” which means the new footage might not be directly related to Doctor Doom. Whatever the new footage reveals, it’s clear the studios treat the newly expanded theatrical cut Avengers: Endgame as an essential piece of the MCU’s tapestry.

Avengers: Endgame Encore opens in theaters on September 25th, serving as the official lead-in for Avengers: Doomsday, which debuts theatrically on December 18th.