Endgame: Encore Sets Up Bruce Banner As The Most Important Avenger (Not The Hulk)

Published Sep 26, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT

Once head of Screen Rant's Star Wars coverage and co-lead of Superheroes, Tom Bacon now works with the movies and books teams. He's a lifelong fan of the fantasy and sci-fi genres, and loves franchises such as Doctor Who and Marvel. You can find him on Twitter @TomABacon, on LinkedIn @tabacon, or on Muckrack under tombacon.

Tom has a wide range of interests, and he continues to serve his university as a volunteer chaplain. He's heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will swiftly learn he's into British politics too.

Avengers: Endgame Encore's new footage includes a surprising new post-credits scene that sets up Bruce Banner's future in Doomsday. Depending on your viewing format, the re-release of Avengers: Endgame features several minutes of new footage, deliberately designed to link the movie to this year's Avengers: Doomsday. It's a smart marketing approach for Marvel, ensuring viewers recognize the straight narrative throughline between the Avengers blockbusters.

The most surprising footage, though, is a post-credits scene that's actually set after Spider-Man: Brand New Day's Hulk plot. The Professor Hulk era is over, with Bruce Banner and the Hulk now serving as rival alters once again; worse still, the Hulk seems particularly angry at being locked down by Banner for an unspecified period of time, and he goes on a brutal rampage. In the aftermath, Banner is taken away — and now, thanks to Avengers: Endgame Encore, we know where he went and what happens next.

According to Endgame Encore's new post-credits scene, Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner has sequestered himself in a prison deep beneath the Earth's surface. The Hulk's last rampage has presumably convinced him he's no longer safe around other people, but he's convinced this is a place even the Hulk can't break out of. He's currently working on a gamma ray suppressor, a device that will presumably neutralize the Hulk once and for all by making transformation impossible; it's the next step after the inhibitor technology in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

But Banner's stint in isolation is, unfortunately, doomed. Banner is interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious intruder, and the Avenger disappears. We don't actually see who took him away, but we hear the voice, and a Latverian rune can be seen. It's pretty clear that Bruce Banner has been spirited away by Doctor Doom, setting him up for a role in Avengers: Doomsday. He transforms (or at least seem​​​​​​​s to from a Hulkish roar), but that may not have been the intention.

Most viewers are assuming Doctor Doom is interested in the Hulk. It's easy to understand why they'd reach that assumption; the Hulk is an absolute powerhouse, after all. But Doomsday's trailer confirmed Doctor Doom doesn't need any help when it comes to power. He's shown effortlessly blocking Stormbreaker, a weapon literally created to kill Thanos. The latest Hulk version (the so-called Savage Hulk) may be formidable, but he's nowhere near Doctor Doom's weight class.

If Doom was interested in the Hulk, it would have made more sense to attach this post-credits scene to Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Instead, though, it's attached to Avengers: Endgame Encore — a fact that seems significant. This movie reminds us that Bruce Banner is one of the Avengers' Science Bros, one of the smartest men on Earth, and he worked with Tony Stark to understand time-travel. Banner is the one who discussed the MCU's multiverse with the Ancient One. Nobody on Earth-616 knows more about the multiverse than Banner.

There seems to be a direct connection between Endgame's time travel and Doomsday's multiversal collapse. Assuming Marvel is lifting from the build-up to Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars (a safe assumption given next year's Avengers film is literally called Secret Wars), it's reasonable to assume Doctor Doom is trying to figure out what's caused the end of the multiverse. It would, therefore, make sense for him to look up one of the Avengers who seems to have been part of the cause.

In the comics, there have been several different versions of the Hulk who went bad and worked against the Avengers. The most famous is the Hulk of "World War Hulk," an epic story in which a vengeful Hulk led an alien army in an invasion of Earth. Another variant is the Maestro, a future Hulk who's the dark mirror of Professor Hulk, a twisted warrior who single-handedly defeated the Avengers of his time. The Maestro is ruler of an entire domain in Secret Wars in the comics, so it's possible Endgame Encore is setting him up.

But there's another possibility. The MCU's greatest scientists have often made questionable decisions; Tony Stark himself created Ultron. Many modern comics have stripped away Bruce Banner's secrets, revealing the Hulk is simply a manifestation of his own brokenness, an alter created by his repression of trauma. In fact, Bruce Banner has often been a villain in his own right. Brand New Day arguably set this up, hinting Banner abandoned the Professor Hulk status quo. He chose to suppress the Hulk once again.

If Doctor Doom has come to Bruce Banner for help, it's entirely possible he'll persuade Banner to assist him. From Banner's perspective, the decision would be justified; he's fighting to save the entire multiverse, after all. In the comics, the build-up to Secret Wars was a story in which heroes made the most awful decisions, all because they believed them necessary to save their universe. Bruce Banner may well be a villain in Avengers: Doomsday, an ally of Doctor Doom rather than one of the Avengers.

Are The Hulk And Doctor Strange Now Allies Of Doom?

Interestingly, this discussion mirrors one currently taking place with another Avenger — Doctor Strange. Doom is known to have several masked allies, and it's generally assumed they're masked to conceal their true identities. One of these allies has a mask with a third eye, which seems a pretty concrete hint that Doctor Strange's own efforts to stop an incursion have forced him into an alliance with Doom.

Now, then, it seems possible two Avengers — not just one — have forged unholly alliances with Doctor Doom. Avengers: Endgame Encore potentially sets up something of a schism among the Avengers themselves, with some seeing Doom as a savior rather than an enemy. In the comics,

Strange became Doom's second-in-command in Secret Wars, albeit one with an uncomfortable relationship with Doom. Marvel could easily be setting up the exact same dynamic in Doomsday, for Bruce Banner as well as Strange.