ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Avengers Endgame Sets Up Avengers Doomsday, Here's How.

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

ScreenCrush The Podcast tackles all the movie and TV hot topics, offering reviews and analysis of Marvel, Star Wars, and everything you care about right now. Hosted by Ryan Arey, and featuring a panel of industry professionals.

Avengers Doomsday will serve as a direct sequel to Avengers Ingame. But what exactly does that mean? Well, the Avengers time heist in Ingame was extremely reckless, and it is why the multiverse is about to meet its Doomsday. And we have found every clue, Easter egg, and loose end in Avengers Ingame that we're always there to set up Avengers 5, even back when it was Avengers the King Dynasty, and even more so now that it's Avengers Doomsday.

Hey, welcome back to Screen Crush. I'm Colton Ogburn, and the Avengers Doomsday trailer is expected any day now, but we also have news that, one, Avengers Endgame is being re-released in theaters next year before Avengers Doomsday comes out, and rumor has it that the film will serve as a direct sequel to Ingame. Now, that is something that yours truly has been saying for months now. Roll the clip. I really think it's like, oh, hey, this is a sequel to Avengers Endgame.

But let me tell you exactly what that means. What do we mean when we say a direct sequel? Well, think of it this way. Avengers, Avengers Age of Ultron, and Avengers Infinity War were Avengers 1, 2, and 3. But they weren't really direct sequels to one another. They weren't even really a true trilogy because he had to watch a lot of other movies in between those Avengers movies to even follow what was happening. But that all changed with Avengers Endgame, a movie that was a direct sequel to its predecessor, Avengers Infinity War. What was also different about Infinity War and Ingame was that they came out just one year apart, which is going to be the case for Doomsteen

in Secret Wars as well. Now, with Infinity War and Endgame, there was, of course, also Ant Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel that came out between those two films, and sure, they were important to watch. But Avengers Endgame, on a story level, it was a direct continuation of the story in Infinity War. The events of Infinity War and how that movie ended were the very foundation to Endgame's entire premise. And we assume the same will be true for Doomsday and Secret Wars, which, like I said,

also come out just one year apart. So it makes sense for in-game to be a direct sequel to Infinity War or for Secret Wars to be a direct sequel to Doomsday. But Avengers Doomsday being a direct sequel to In-game has some surprised because it is coming out nearly eight years after Avengers' Endgame, meaning that we will have had 10 MCU movies and nine MCU shows that have come out between the two films. So I get why this news is news and has some people surprised, but here's why it didn't surprise me in the the slightest because I have seen Avengers in-game more times than I care to admit. And every time I go back and watch it, as the Multiverse saga has continued, it becomes more and more clear to me that Kevin Feigey and the Russo brothers, they were setting up many things in Avengers in game that

would have major ramifications for the next saga and for the next Avengers film. Now, before you comment away, I know that it wasn't always going to be Doomsday, it was going to be Kang Dynasty, The Russo brothers weren't always coming back, but I do think that while the Russo's originally weren't going to do Avengers 5, I could totally see it having been the plan for them to come back for Secret Wars. And I also think that while Downy Doom wasn't always the plan for Avengers 5, I do think he was always the plan for Secret Wars, because this is something that has been in the works before even the MCU began. I think it's something that's been in the back of Kevin Feige's mind all of this time, the Russo brothers as well, and while they may not have had any like concrete plans,

I still think that they put some things in their films, including Avengers Endgame, that were planting seeds for future potential storylines. And that's exactly what we're going to see in Doomsday. And I think it's been pretty obvious from the jump that Ingame, while yes, it was the end of the Infinity saga. Well, actually, I think technically far from home is the end of the Infinity saga. But anyway, in a lot of ways, Ingame was also like, first chapter to the multiverse saga. I mean, that movie had the Avengers fighting an alternate timeline variant of Thanos in the final battle.

And what is the multiverse saga about, if not time travel in the multiverse and variants? In-game is where this whole multiverse saga story began. So it makes perfect sense that Doomsday would be a direct sequel. I mean, we're talking Tony's creation of time travel, Loki's escape, Steve staying in the past with Peggy. Those are just a few of the major loose ends that Avengers in-game introduced that were setting up not only the events that we've seen so far in the saga, but the very events of Doomsday. So let's break down every single moment, clue, and slight tilting of the head from endgame that have been hiding in plain sight as big setups for Doomsday.

So Avengers Infinity War, it ended with Thanos winning and snapping away half of all life in the universe. This defeat was something the Avengers could not live with, and five years later they embarked on a mission through time to collect the infinity stones from the past, bring them back to their own present day, their universe, and use the stones to snap back all the lost lives. And this very action to undo the defeat that they couldn't live with is what has now led us to Avenger's Doomsday. Despite Hulk saying the past can't change your future, what he left out is that it can

damn sure create alternate universes. Now, the ancient one explained this to Hulk, and we got our first look at the concept of branching timelines in the MCU in-game, and it's also an in-game where we learned how time travel in the multiverse were intertwined. These were our first steps into the multiverse saga. Now, Hulk thought that by returning the stones to their rightful place and time, that it would be as if they never left and all would be well. But the ancient one was not convinced. That is not until Hulk told her that it was Dr. Strange who handed the stone over to Thanos in the first place. Strange, he gave it away. He gave it to Thanos.

Willingly? Yes. This moment is showing us the ancient one ignoring her better judgment and deferring to the judgment of Dr. Strange. But what she doesn't seem to know is that... From our experience, the greatest danger to the multiverse, it turns out, is Dr. Strange. Strange is a meddler. He can never leave well enough alone, kind of like somebody else I know.

As we saw in What If there is a universe where Dr. Strange couldn't accept the death of Christine Palmer. And he tampered with time and reality trying to undo her death, and that resulted in the universe. in the death of his entire universe. And we saw a different Dr. Strange do the same thing in Universe 838 when he was trying to find a way to stop Thanos. This also resulted in the death of an entire universe. And in Infinity War in the 616 universe,

once again, we saw the character of Dr. Strange, our Dr. Strange, used the time stone to look at possible futures, aka he looked at the multiverse. He tampered with the natural flow of events, and while he may have successfully set the event on a path to beat Thanos, he also set them on a path to doom the entire multiverse. But hey, Strange isn't alone. It was also, of course, He Who Remains, aka King, who allowed for all of this to happen.

And who do you think paved that road? Any guesses, survey said? He who remains. And that's where we'll start, Loki. When the Avengers went back in time to 2012 to get the Tessaract, aka the Space Stone, they wound up creating a splintered timeline where Loki escapes with the Tessorak. Now, if you've seen Loki and you're watching this video, so I assume you have, we know this splintering timeline was pretty quickly pruned from existence by the TVA,

and they arrested that variant of Loki. That variant would then go on to meet He Who Remains, dethrone him, and Loki now sits on the throne at the end of time. Now, while I would very much recommend to anyone who hasn't seen Loki to totally watch both seasons before seeing Doomsday, I do not think it will be required viewing again, because Avengers Doomsday is serving as a direct sequel. to endgame. And what happened in in game? Well, we saw Loki escape and that loose in was never addressed

again in that movie in game. It wasn't addressed once. We didn't see Loki's escape addressed until the Loki series and that is when we found out what happened. But I think going into Doomsday, you are not going to have to have seen Loki to understand what happened. I think when we meet Loki and see him sitting on his throne and perhaps when he meets the Avengers or even reunites with his brother, we'll get a simple expositional line letting everyone, including the audience, who hasn't seen Loki, remember in that last Avengers movie when Loki escaped with the Tesseract? Well, that set him on a very different path and gave him some new perspective and he learned a lot about the multiverse and it's chaotic state and he is now

a very different character. Loki can then explain to his brother and the others how the multiverse has expanded and he's doing his best to keep it intact, but that the multiverse is still slowly dying and now a new threat has emerged, Dr. Doom, a threat who is also a product of the meddling of Dr. Strange that was permitted by an anxious to retire, he who remains. And in doing all of that, in having Loki tell the Avengers what has been going on, because the Avengers are going to need to be filled in as well, if they handle it right, that can also be a very great way, especially if they lean on in-game to let the general audience, who perhaps hasn't seen every single thing since in-game, or maybe if this is their first Avengers film since in-game, it'll make it to where

they can still feel like they can follow the story and understand what is going on. So, Loki taking over, and the mainline MCU, sacred timeline, joining with the rest of the multiverse. That was arguably the biggest cause and effect example for how in-game and the actions of the Avengers directly set up the events of Doomsday. Or is it? Well, let's take a look at some other examples. And hey, real quick, while I have you guys, I did want to mention our massive holiday sale that is happening right now on our merch store, Screencrushmerch.com.

We have brand new holiday designs like the new Doug Ornament, where he looks like Snoopy from the Charlie Brown Christmas special. My wife actually designed this one, so you better go buy it. We also have this Happy Life Day shirt. We have my favorite, The Bonesaw versus Human Spider, a Fox Force 5 t-shirt, and that's my secret. I'm always working with the Hulk hunched over a desk. In addition, for this week only, we have a ton of deals on the store, 40% off all apparel, 15% off collectibles, buy three, get one free mugs and pint glasses, by two shirts, get one 50% off,

and hoodies, hats, and bags are all 25% off. But wait, there's more, 30% off all of our Star Wars parody merch and our superhero merge and storewide all products are 25% off now The sale is ending soon so be sure to go check it out and get your stuff or risk being nude Links are in the description below now back to what I was saying so we know that the 2012 branching timeline was pruned by the TVA Meaning that Steve telling himself about Bucky being alive and letting the Hydra people know that he knows their hydra Tony having Ant-Man give other Tony a heart attack, that was all pruned away. But there was also Thor and Rocket's journey to 2013 Asgard, where they not only removed the ether, aka the reality stone from Jane Foster, but Thor also steals his own hammer. Now, before we move on with the others, I should mention that, yes, theoretically, when Cap went back to trim all the branches, he was going to return the infinity stones and even bring Thor's hammer back.

we see that when he got on the time platform, he had Thor's Hammer. According to Bruce, when Steve returned the stones, that should essentially be them pruning those other timelines, making it as if they never existed. We can return each one to its own timeline at the moment it was taken. So chronologically, in that reality, it never left. But this idea that Steve returning the stones to the moment they got them would somehow undo those timelines or prune them from existence,

that contradicts Bruce's earlier in. that... Changing the past doesn't change the future. So even if we are to believe that Cap returning the stones did get rid of those alternate timelines, the 2014 branch has some major changes that even Cap can't undo by simply returning the power stone and the soul stone. The altering of the past that we saw when they went to 2014, where Thanos, Nebula and Gomorrah leave their 2014 timeline and travel to the future, the present day MCU, That results in Thanos and Nebula, both dying, there's no putting them back, and also Gomorrah stays in the mainline MCU, in her future, but the present day MCU.

So none of those three ever go back to their timeline. And, you know, Thanos and Nebula are dead, but Gomorrah, she is still living in the present day MCU, and she is a being who is living in a timeline in which she is not supposed to exist. And as we've learned, this greatly destabilizes and confuses reality. Steven, your arrival here, confuses and destabilizes reality. If he remains foresaw all of this,

and the Avengers' time heist was all part of his plan, which it was, then the same way that the TVA went and pruned the 2012 branch, they could have very well gone and pruned those other branches as well. So either the TVA cleaned it up, or Steve's mission of returning the stones cleaned it up, and the TVA only had to step in and personally prune the one where Loki escaped with the Tesserag

because Steve didn't have a space stone, to take back to 2012 and return to that timeline. What they did was supposed to happen. You escaping was not. But this brings me to one of the biggest ones, and that is the unplanned mission of Steve and Tony to 1970. This one resulted in not only stolen PIM particles and Tony learning that he was perhaps adopted.

Oh, brother, here we go again. Hear me out. Tony was perplexed as hell when Howard said that Maria was pregnant. My wife's expecting. And too much time at the office. Not only does he look confused, but he also even asks... How far long is she? Now, this could be nothing, but with the confirmation that Doomsday is a direct sequel to Ingame,

like I've been saying for a year, then this could play directly into how and why RDJ is playing Dr. Doom. We did a whole video on this. I won't rehash it here. Be sure to go check it out though if you haven't seen it. Okay, now that brings me to our boy, Steve. Steve did a big no-no. He traveled back in time when he was returning the Stones, and he created a reality where he lived a life with Peggy Carter. For the first time in his entire life, Steve was selfish.

And he was selfish at the advice of Tony Stark. Maybe I'll try some of that life if Tony was telling me to get. Steve Rogers going rogue and creating an entire new universe, a new timeline, whatever. That was a major, major, loose end that was left behind in Avengers Endgame. It was even him dancing with Peggy was the closing shot of that, movie. Let's watch it. I don't know about you guys, but yes, that scene, it was very sweet, but it is also super eerie, especially the cut to black. Look at this smiling dork. He thinks he's got it all figured

out. And hey, maybe he does. He obviously would go on to live a great life with Peggy, they grew old together, et cetera, but I guarantee you that this Steve, this old man Steve that we see at the end of end game, he saw some shit over the years. I don't think he lived a quiet life. In fact, I think this old man Steve that we saw travel back to the mainline MCU to give Sam this shield, more than that in a second, I wouldn't be surprised if that old man Steve has already lived the events of Avengers Doomsday and Avengers Secret Wars. I think come Doomsday, and yes, despite Chris Evans denial that he's in Doomsday, he's in Doomsday. And he will also be a key character. Now, his actions, I think at the end of in game will be directly linked to the events of Doomsday. Just like Tony Snap will be directly linked to Doomsday.

And yes, that was confirmed by the Russo brothers. So what I'm saying is, is that this guy that we see dancing with Peggy, and then this guy that we see sitting on the bench with Sam, there's a lot of years between these two guys. And I think that the events of Doomsday and Secret Wars happened in this guy's lifespan. So that brings me to a fun theory that I've talked about before, but I love it so much. I want to talk about it again.

Stick with me because it can get a little timey-wimey, But here's what I think happens and how this final scene of endgame could be the very first shot of not just the movie, but maybe the very first shot of the trailer. Maybe the trailer opens with that. I think we see the Steve, who went and lived a life with Peggy, get pulled from that life and thrown right back into the fight into the events of Doomsday and Secret Wars. And it is as a result of him being partially responsible for the state of the multiverse and him also wanting to save this new branch reality that he has created and that he calls home.

And I think in Doomsayer Secret Wars, we will see Sam Wilson, Captain America, give his shield to Steve Rogers, either because he's injured or he's dying or some reason. He will pass the shield, maybe even intending for it just to be temporary. Like, here, go kick his ass and hand Steve the shield and he goes and beats up Doom. Whatever. Some way, shape, or form, I think Steve gets the shield. Get this man a shield. And remember, Steve will not.

not have his own shield. When he left on the time platform, he didn't have a shield with him, meaning that somewhere along the way in his new life between this moment and this moment, he gets a shield at some point. Well, I think that that point is going to be when he gets that shield from Sam Wilson's Captain America, who got it from old man Steve. So we could see Steve Rogers hang on to the shield the rest of his life, but then when he's an old man, he travels back to his home universe, Universe 616, having lived an entire life with Peggy and and having fought the battles of Doomsday and Secret Wars, but before he dies, he is now making sure to complete the circle of giving that shield

that he got from Sam back to Sam, the same Sam, who would then become Captain America and be in the events of Doomsday in Secret Wars and then give it to Steve, and then Steve gives it back and it completes the whole cycle. It's like a snake eating its own tail. Anyway, sorry, that was a bit of a sidetrack. I do think it's going to happen. But that was all the how.

How in-game sets up Doomsday. Those are some of the key moments from Ingame that could totally be picked back up on in Doomsday. But I also want to talk about the why. Why is it important that Doomsday be a direct sequel to Ingame? Well, for a few reasons. One, Ingame is the second biggest movie of all time, second only to Avatar. Why are you blue? Everyone saw Avengers Ingame.

Everyone. But unfortunately, the same just cannot be said for the bulk of the Multiverse saga. The Multiverse saga has made a lot of shows and a lot of of movies and the fact of the matter is that not everyone has seen every show and movie. And it would be stupid to make an Avengers movie that requires you to have seen a bunch of movies and shows that you know, you being Disney, Marvel, whoever, that they know a good chunk of the general audience just has not seen. So I think Doomsday being a direct sequel to endgame is narratively brilliant. It just makes so much sense as we've discussed throughout this

video. But I think it also makes sense from a business perspective. This is the first of Avengers movie since endgame. It will have been seven years by the time Doomsday comes out. And look, well, we all expected for the first post-in-game Avengers movie to be more in the same vein as that first Avengers movie where we see all the new characters team up for the first time and have a culmination event of a phase, not an entire saga. That was what we thought would happen, but that didn't happen. I mean, not only did Marvel skip the phase-by-phase Avengers movies, they skipped doing an Avengers

One or Avengers Age of Ultron style Avengers movie in this saga as well. And they just went straight to a saga capping event with Doomsday and Secret Wars, hoping to replicate what they did with Infinity War and Endgame. The only problem is, no one Fri' cares about this saga. And the only reason Infinity War and Ingame did so well was because of Age of Ultron, was because the first Avengers movie, was because all of the phase one and phase two and phase three films that came out between and after those movies. With the multiverse saga, there's nothing to culminate.

And that's why Marvel is going back to R.D.J. and Chris Evans, the Fox X-Men. And these two movies, DumeStane Secret Wars, they are serving as more than just cappers to the multiverse saga, but really as a capper, a culmination to every Marvel movie ever. And that is how this film will be perfectly and brilliantly marketed. This film is going to pull on them nostalgia strings, not only for the Fox X-Men or a Toby McGuire Spider-Man, but nostalgia that audiences have for the MCU. itself and nostalgia for the Infinity Saga. So I think it's a great idea to have Doomsday be a film that you can walk into without having

seen a damn thing since In Game. You should be able to walk into that movie and watch it because for a lot of people, that's going to be the case. If you want this movie to make $2 billion or knock on the door of $3 billion, you're going to have to make a movie that can be watched without people having seen most of the saga that is leading up to this movie. Because the fact of the matter is, Well, I would say most people have seen at least one, two, maybe three of the projects.

Very few people have taken the time to watch them all. And I think Marvel knows that, and that is why I'm very happy to hear that they know it and that they are doing the right thing by making this movie something that can be watched by everyone. All right, those are just my thoughts and theories, though. I'd love to hear yours down in the comments below. And if you're new here, be sure to subscribe, hit the bell so you get notified every time we upload a new video. For Screen Crush, I'm Colton Ogbrin. I'm