Joe Russo Teases a 'Very Surprising' Avengers: Doomsday Ending, and It Could Point to a Huge Twist

Joe Russo is now telling audiences that Avengers: Doomsday has a very surprising ending, and the way he phrased it makes me think the film has a twist in store that nobody is expecting. His language is very specific, but it is also a little strange, because we know from the source material what ends up happening, and because there seems to be a slight disconnect between what the Russos are saying and how many of us suspect this movie is going to end.

In the wake of Avengers Endgame Encore arriving in theaters, the Russo brothers have been doing a ton of interviews for that press junket, and of course they keep getting asked about Avengers: Doomsday. That is where we have heard reveals about additional cast and about the runtime, at least as the film currently sits in the edit. The most recent comments, though, are about the ending, and they may hint at something none of us anticipate.

Anthony Russo Calls Avengers: Doomsday a Focused, Propulsive Two and a Half Hour Film

The quotes come from a rather long interview the Russo brothers gave to Fandango. Anthony Russo described Doomsday as a two and a half hour movie or so, and said that as you sit through it, "it's a focused propulsive narrative that has an organizing principle at its center and everything has to orbit around that." He added that part of the creative challenge for him and Joe was figuring out what that orbit is and how it all smashes together.

On bringing back the original X-Men characters, the brothers said that being able to work with those actors is like a dream come true for them and part of what they called the Marvel miracle. They pointed out that the Avengers and the X-Men had a connection in the comics, but as those characters moved into cinema, they were divided between Hollywood studios. They never imagined the day the two could find their way back to one another, and said that getting to be the facilitators of that through this movie made them pinch themselves.

Joe Russo Said 'Surprising' Three Times About the Doomsday Ending

Then came Joe Russo's comment on the ending: "I think people are going to be surprised. It's a very surprising ending. It's a very surprising movie. And that's all we'll say about that." In his tone of voice and body language, there was a lot more emphasis on the word surprising. He said it three times in a row. The movie is surprising. The ending is surprising.

That is an interesting thing to say on a couple of levels. When you tell people something is going to be surprising, doesn't that in itself undercut the surprise? If you go in expecting the ending to be surprising because the director himself told you that you should be, then is any surprise really a surprise, given what the word means? I am getting a little philosophical here, but I think it genuinely applies to this film.

The reason is that the Russos are drawing from Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars, more so than from the 1984 elements that I think are going to show up in the movie. And we all know that unless Doom wins at the end of Avengers: Doomsday, there will not be an Avengers: Secret Wars and a Battleworld. So on some level, the narrative is already predetermined. For Joe Russo to still promise a surprising movie and a surprising ending, knowing the story is shaped by that source material, tells me they have something in store that has not been floating around online or shown up in the plot leaks yet. No matter what they say about it in advance, I think it is still going to be shocking in the moment.

Kevin Feige Already Promised Doomsday Would Be Satisfying and Surprising

We heard shades of this already when Kevin Feige spoke about the Avengers: Doomsday ending earlier in the year. He said the film will leave fans both incredibly satisfied but also incredibly surprised, and finished by saying it will make the year long wait for Secret Wars very difficult.

To me, that insinuates that whatever happens at the end of this film, we are all going to be satisfied but also want resolution and be unable to wait to find out what happens next. That is almost a one to one match with what the Russos just said. So the huge question is how Doomsday could possibly end in a way that is satisfying yet still surprising, after we have been told it will be a surprise, while also working as some sort of cliffhanger that makes a year feel too long, when it is derived from a narrative whose ending we basically already know.

The Rumoured Deaths, Including Sentry, Thor and Steve Rogers' Son, May Not Be the Big Shock

A spoiler warning here for anyone avoiding the plot leaks. I do not think the surprise is just shocking deaths. There have been rumours of characters sacrificing themselves, like Sentry, and of Thor getting his arm ripped off, or maybe even not surviving the end of Avengers: Doomsday.

One rumour in particular was said to be maybe even too far for Disney: we may possibly see Doctor Doom killing Steve Rogers' son right in front of him at Doom's castle after the boy has been kidnapped. My theory is that this plays out at the end of act two. But the ending the Russos are teasing, in my view, goes way further than shocking deaths.

My Theory: Doomsday Shows Battleworld Under God Emperor Doom Before the Credits

I think the general anticipation is that at the end of the third act, when all the heroes are said to march into a huge battle, it will come down to the very last moments, where Doom wins, the multiverse collapses and he creates Battleworld. Then we cue the credits and either get a post credits scene with a small glimpse of the future, or wait a whole year until Secret Wars shows us Battleworld and what actually happened.

I think it is a little different. My theory is that we will actually get to Battleworld's creation in the third act, and that after the final battle, as part of the film's denouement, there will still be plenty of time left to show us Battleworld and the new reality Doom has created after the multiverse collapses. Right now, if you listen to the plot leaks, it sounds like all three timelines, the 828, the 10005 and the 616, last until the very end of the film, when the heroes go to the 828 and march on it. But given the post credits scene we just saw in Avengers Endgame Encore, there is also a good chance there is not much time left for some of those timelines, or any of them.

That is why I am thinking the surprising ending could be us entering Battleworld, a new reality where Doom is God Emperor and, with an asterisk, most heroes and characters have no memories of the world before. The film would then show us what life looks like in this new timeline under God Emperor Doom. That would be surprising at the very least. And if they do it right, with only around 10 or 15 minutes of this new reality, it would also leave us on a major cliffhanger, because they would have started the next part of the story and we would have no idea what happens next.

Infinity War Still Shocked Fans Who Knew Thanos Would Snap

I would argue that Infinity War had to work the same way. Setting aside the fact that Mark Ruffalo told everybody that everybody dies, you sort of knew Thanos was going to snap. That was part of the plan. Still, part of us thought the Avengers might actually win, or more specifically, did not think Marvel would kill off that many heroes at the end of the film. It was still shocking, even for diehard fans who basically knew where it was going, because how can you have Avengers: Endgame if Thanos does not at least triumph in Infinity War?

What has completely changed is the landscape of the fandom and the amount of attention on these films. Secret Wars has been discussed and picked apart for three or four years since the initial announcement. That did not happen in the years leading up to Infinity War, apart from among the diehards, and there were very few people like me covering this kind of news back then. Compare that with today, with TikTok and extended social media, and there are infinitely more people covering it, pun totally intended. The storyline has become far more familiar in a way that I just do not think was the case for Infinity War and Endgame.

Robert Downey Jr.'s Doom May Have Pushed Marvel Away From Hickman's Story

The point to remember is that Marvel Studios has had no problem changing details, conflating details, or simply doing its own thing with inspiration from the original work. In bringing back Robert Downey Jr., who looks like Tony Stark from the 616 but is now Victor von Doom, Marvel may have found a whole new way forward, with that detail forcing the story onto a different trajectory.

If so, their Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars might not really look anything like Jonathan Hickman's Time Runs Out and Secret Wars. Elements would be included and inspired by it, but it would really be its own thing. So while we know there is an Avengers: Secret Wars with Battleworld, and that God Emperor Doom will rule over it per the story, maybe there is a new path where we do not know what is coming. We may know where it goes, but not the events along the way.

For that reason, I would say the Russos and Kevin Feige might be on to something when they promise a surprise. We may have an exact idea in our heads of how it will go, based on the source material and the plot leaks, while they are sitting there laughing and thinking, that's not even it.

What do you think would be a surprising way to end Avengers: Doomsday?