Director Joe Russo has issued a clear directive to Marvel fans ahead of the next cinematic crossover: a revisit to the 2019 blockbuster Avengers: Endgame is not just a nostalgic exercise but a necessary step for anyone planning to follow the narrative threads into the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Speaking in a recent interview, Russo framed the older film as essential viewing material, positioning it as the foundational text required to properly grasp the stakes and emotional weight of the next chapter in the saga.
"Re-watching Endgame is required," Russo said, explaining that the upcoming project builds directly on the consequences established in that film. The director, who helmed Endgame alongside his brother Anthony, suggested that the sequel will not waste time re-establishing its own premise. Instead, it will assume audiences are intimately familiar with the fallout from the climactic battle against Thanos, a confrontation that left the surviving heroes permanently altered. For Russo, the new movie functions less as a standalone adventure and more as a direct continuation of a story that was left deliberately unfinished.
The 2019 film, which boasts a staggering TMDb audience score of 8.241 out of 10, remains one of the most significant entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Its plot picks up in the immediate aftermath of Avengers: Infinity War, where the Mad Titan Thanos had succeeded in wiping out half of all life in the universe. The surviving Avengers - Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Thor, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, and James Rhodes - are left to grapple with catastrophic loss before devising a desperate plan to reverse the decimation. That plan involved time travel, a gamble that cost the team dearly, culminating in the death of Iron Man and the retirement of Captain America. Those specific sacrifices, along with the weight of the multiversal implications hinted at in the final act, are what Russo insists viewers need fresh in their minds.
The director’s comments carry particular weight given the narrative direction of Avengers: Doomsday. While details on the plot have been tightly guarded, the involvement of Robert Downey Jr. in a new role - rumored to be the villainous Doctor Doom - suggests that the rules established in Endgame about death, identity, and consequences are due for a rigorous reexamination. Joe Russo noted that the new film will "call back to the emotional core" of the earlier movie, implying that a casual familiarity with the plot summary won't suffice. The nuance, he argued, lies in the small character moments: the quiet grief of Thor, the pragmatic resolve of Natasha Romanoff, and the fractured brotherhood between Stark and Rogers. Those dynamics, not just the spectacle, are what the next film intends to interrogate.
The 181-minute runtime of Endgame might feel like a tall order for a quick refresher, but Russo’s insistence suggests that the creative team is writing with a specific level of audience recall in mind. He didn’t explicitly confirm whether Doomsday will feature cameos from the core cast, but his emphasis on the earlier film’s ending - specifically the fate of Captain America and the mantle of leadership passing to a new generation - implies a direct lineage. The director stopped short of describing Doomsday as a remake or a rehash, instead insisting that it’s a "response" to the choices made in 2019.
This isn’t the first time a filmmaker has asked audiences to do homework before a sequel, but the mandate is unusual for Marvel, which has often prided itself on accessibility. Yet, given the sheer scale of the upcoming crossover, which is expected to draw from decades of interconnected storylines, the directive makes pragmatic sense. If Doomsday is to function as a culmination of an era rather than just another episode, then the foundation laid by Endgame - including its depiction of Thanos’ defeat and the resulting multiversal fractures - becomes its most crucial piece of groundwork.
For casual viewers, Russo’s advice might seem daunting, but he offered a silver lining: he described the 2019 film as "the movie that makes the new one possible," implying that the effort of a rewatch will be rewarded with a richer theatrical experience. He also hinted that certain scenes in Doomsday have been constructed as direct visual and thematic echoes of moments in Endgame, creating a layer of meaning that only attentive viewers will catch. That level of intentional mirroring flatters the audience’s memory, treating the earlier film not as a piece of historical canon but as a living text that continues to inform the present.
As the release of Avengers: Doomsday approaches, the burden now falls on the fanbase. Russo’s word choice - "required" - leaves little room for ambiguity, framing a glorified movie night as a contractual obligation to the story. Whether that strategy proves to be a mark of bold storytelling or a barrier for entry remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: the director has made it clear that Endgame is not a closed chapter. It’s a prologue.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
