Avengers Doomsday Promo Adds Kirby Crackle to Doom as the Russos Confirm the Endgame Encore Scenes Won't Be in the Movie

The new Avengers Doomsday Silence Your Phones promo gives Robert Downey Jr.'s Dr. Doom a piece of Jack Kirby artistry, with Kirby Crackle surrounding his sorcery as he blasts Thor off his feet. On top of that, the Russo brothers have now told Empire that the new scenes attached to Avengers Endgame Encore were shot specifically to bridge the gap and will not appear in Doomsday itself.

The promo played in front of some Endgame Encore screenings and not others. It ran before my screening, and I think it played on the premium large format screens like IMAX, but not everywhere. Marvel released it online on Monday. Alongside it, the Russos gave Chris Hewitt at Empire what I think is more insight than in any other interview they have given ahead of Doomsday, and there is a lot of context worth knowing.

Doom's armored cloak and Kirby Crackle show how closely Marvel is chasing the comics

The first detail is in the shot of Dr. Doom blocking Stormbreaker. Compared with the version of this shot in the July 20th trailer, the promo now focuses on the specific pattern in Doom's hooded cloak. It shows this is not just some simple fabric. The cloak itself is woven with armor, similar to the vibranium weave of Black Panther's suit.

The second detail was one a lot of readers messaged me about, and I was delighted to see it. When Doom uses his sorcery to blast Thor off his feet, the effect has changed since the July and August trailers: they added Kirby dots, also known as Kirby Crackle. Jack Kirby invented this technique, using a cluster of black dots to represent negative space around certain forms of energy. It gives visual contrast to explosions, plasma blasts or any trail of energy, and signals that the energy comes from a cosmic or otherworldly source.

Kirby often drew Dr. Doom with this crackle coming from his hands, exactly like this. Seeing it in live action is so cool, and adding this effect shows they are sparing no expense as they keep working to make Downey's Doom as true as possible to the look and feel of the character in the comics.

The cast's reactions suggest they were not told they were reacting to a ringing phone

The promo then does a phone ringing gag, cutting to most of the cast, in character, sitting in a cinema and reacting either to this scene or to something else. What is odd is that I don't know whether the actors were told they were reacting to a phone ringing around them, which is what the gag implies, or whether they were directed to react to something shocking in the scene they were supposedly seeing, like a major character death. Based on how they react, I don't think it is Doom resurrecting Sentinels. If they had known what the promo was for, I think they would have been looking around shushing people.

You really have to go person by person. Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova, in the middle, looks away like someone was brutally killed and says "No, no, no, no," as if it was too violent for her. To me she was making the choice to respond to something viscerally gross. Simu Liu's Shang-Chi reacts similarly, yelling with a mouthful of popcorn. James Marsden's Cyclops is unfazed and looks over as if surprised the others are reacting this much. Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes is stoic and barely reacts at all, probably still stuck in his trauma from the Winter Soldier years, and the extra beside him seems to be making fun of him for it.

David Harbour's Red Guardian is one of the shouters, while Danny Ramirez's Joaquin Torres just laughs behind him. Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson is looking over at Bucky, Alexei or Cyclops as it starts, and it looks like they're talking some, then he screams too. Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost throws her popcorn in the air, Rebecca Romijn's Mystique throws her hands back, and the two shake their heads at each other. Chris Hemsworth's Thor barely flinches and raises an eyebrow, like he might have known this was coming, while Wyatt Russell's John Walker is shocked but keeps eating popcorn. Winston Duke's M'Baku shouts loudly, then yells "Yes!" and pumps his fist, and Tenoch Huerta's Namor yells in amusement.

Reed and Sue may be the most telling reaction in the whole promo

Vanessa Kirby's Sue Storm covers her mouth in shock, while Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards does not react at all until Sue turns to him and says something. The other people seated around the cast are just extras from the UK shoot, and it is really the Reed and Sue moment that I think tells the story here.

As we learned in Fantastic Four First Steps, Reed has already thought through every awful thing that could happen so he can protect people from it. Whatever this is, it is something he saw coming and something Sue is particularly embarrassed to see revealed. I think it is about Reed or someone else in the Fantastic Four dying, and Sue feeling especially shocked and embarrassed by it. Channing Tatum's Gambit is surprised but hardly reacts, and Letitia Wright's Shuri looks around in surprise and then back at Sue and Reed, as if she wants to see how they took it.

My guess: a major death, or Doom taking Sue Storm as his wife in Battleworld

I am going to take a swing and say the cast was told this is the moment Dr. Doom kills a major character who is not in the theater with them. That could be Patrick Stewart's Charles Xavier, Ian McKellen's Magneto, Chris Evans' Steve Rogers, Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter, Lewis Pullman's Bob, Paul Rudd's Scott Lang, Tom Hiddleston's Loki, Joseph Quinn's Johnny Storm or Ebon Moss-Bachrach's Ben Grimm. Or Doom is revealing something shocking about what he is doing to the Fantastic Four.

If it was a specific plot point, it would be something Thor and Reed saw coming, Sue feels embarrassed by, Shuri is keen to see Reed react to, Cyclops feels was deserved, and everyone else finds either disgusting or weirdly exciting. The direction could have been as simple as reacting as if a major character died a shocking, violent death, with no further details. But it clearly was not reacting as if someone nearby forgot to silence their phone. If it was more specific, I think it was one of the Fantastic Four dying, or the reveal of Doom having taken Sue Storm as his wife in Battleworld. Reed would have feared that, Sue would be embarrassed by it, everyone else would be grossed out, and M'Baku might be particularly excited to see it.

The Russos say Steve and Peggy's interrupted dance reaches back to pull the story forward

The first Encore scene extended Endgame's original ending to show Steve and Peggy's 1949 dance being interrupted by Loki. Anthony Russo told Empire, "We really thought about that ending and Endgame as the perfect ending for Steve Rogers," and explained that going one moment past it, and seeing how radically things can change with that one step, was a big part of the delight in the new idea for Doomsday. Joe Russo called the Marvel universe a giant experiment and said part of the fun of coming back was asking whether they could reach back to pull the story forward, something nobody had had the opportunity to do before.

Asked whether Steve telling Sam "No, I don't think I will" referred to Loki interrupting the dance, Anthony said that obviously was not their intention in 2019. On matching Evans and Atwell to their 2019 looks, Joe compared it to revisiting scenes from a different perspective in Endgame, invoking the Rashomon idea, and said the magic was done with makeup, using the same lighting, lenses and set. That said, there definitely seemed to be some visual effects help on Evans. His face looks thinned out, though that may also be the anamorphic lens warping the image at the edges. We think the character will be bearded for most of Doomsday.

On Loki, Anthony said, "the god of mischief proves to be the god of mischief," and that Doomsday will offer a new incarnation of the character.

The Encore scenes will not be in Avengers Doomsday

The most surprising answer came when the Russos were asked whether the Encore scenes were shot specifically to bridge the gap and would not appear in Doomsday. Joe Russo said, "Yeah, that's right." So not only the dance, but the Hulk scene, the TVA scene and maybe even the Doom hammering will not be in the film as we saw them.

I assume these actors, especially the TVA actors, must be in the movie in other scenes, and that the TVA set must appear elsewhere, because I don't see Disney and Marvel Studios budgeting to build that set just for a promo, and I wonder what the contracts would have looked like otherwise. It is still pretty shocking, and kind of unfortunate. I was looking forward to the whole Ron Howard Apollo 13 mission control scene this TVA sequence felt like. I think we will see snippets of it, or other scenes of those characters reacting at the TVA before or after. The Russos did something similar with the Civil War scenes that played after Ant-Man, which did not unfold exactly as they did in the final film.

Doom is collecting Banner, and Joe Russo hints his interest goes further

The Russos said they could not say much about the Bruce Banner scene, in which Doom says, "Mr. Banner, I've come to collect you." Reportedly, from what I am hearing, the Spanish version translates more closely to picking him up. So the takeaway is that Doom is gathering certain individuals and transporting them somewhere, probably Battleworld. Joe did say, "his interest may extend beyond just Banner."

When the interviewer pointed out Mark Ruffalo was not among the names in the chair reveal, Joe said, "Yeah, you've got to save some surprises." Pressed on whether this confirms Ruffalo is in Doomsday, Joe said Banner is "certainly involved in the story that revolves around Doom" but that they would not confirm or deny his appearance.

The 27 chairs now look like less than half the Doomsday cast, possibly including Elizabeth Olsen

I'm glad the Russos got the who else question, because the 27 chairs revealed in March 2025 are now kind of adding up to be less than half of everyone confirmed. On top of those names we now have Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Kathryn Newton, Mark Ruffalo, Owen Wilson, Ke Huy Quan, Eugene Cordero, probably Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, probably Jeremy Renner, Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Charlize Theron, and maybe Elizabeth Olsen.

The Olsen case comes from a batch of Endgame set photos the Russos have been sharing on social media, two of which show her photobombing in the background and make her the star of those shots. She had a baby on August 15th. Our friend Alex from the Escape Pod podcast said he flew back from London sitting right behind her in first class a few weeks after that, heard her speak, and walked off the plane behind her, saying he confirmed it many times over.

The TVA scene is "critical to the storytelling of Doomsday"

Joe Russo called the TVA sequence the most profound thing that has ever happened to the MCU, a perceived end of times in which the organisation built to stop the timelines collapsing now faces a catastrophic collapse. He said he would not call it more important than another scene, but that it is "certainly critical to the storytelling of Doomsday." Anthony added that it is a unifying principle combining the X-Men, Avengers and Fantastic Four universes at the heart of their collision.

Asked whether the screens showing universes fighting to stay alive were a hint, Anthony said, "Everything is premeditated," adding that every piece of the new material has relevance and contains clues to the greater story. Challenge accepted, Anthony. We were able to find 38 universes on those TVA screens, and I have more coming this week on which universe the X-Men universe destroyed.

Doom's hammering mirrors Tony Stark, and Endgame's lines hold Doomsday clues

The final three shots show Doom masking up over the sound of Iron Man hammering from Endgame's 2019 closing credits. Joe Russo said, "It's been planned all along," laughing, and Anthony said, "It's almost like the same actor is playing both characters." Joe added that there is a symmetry and a duality of good and evil being explored, and that the scene was intended to be almost identical.

The Russos are obviously being a little coy about this being planned all along. They did not know in 2019 they would direct Doomsday, the original plan was Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and it did not become a Doom movie until late 2023. I predicted back in December 2025 that Endgame Encore would end with this exact visual, and at some point in production they clearly saw the same parallel. That duality tells us why they wanted Downey to play both characters: another man who wanted to put a suit of armor around the world, but who did not get to end his story with a wife and a daughter.

Asked whether Tony's choices in Endgame paved the way for Doom, Joe said, "There are clues in Endgame, things that are said that will pay off in Doomsday." My candidates include Steve promising to clip all the branches, Tony saying "You mess with time, it tends to mess back," the Ancient One warning Banner that removing the stones would leave a timeline defenseless against the forces of darkness, Banner saying being a product of gamma radiation made him made for this, and old Steve's "No, I don't think I will."

What lines from Avengers Endgame do you think will come back in Doomsday?