Hold on to your bladders folks: Avengers: Endgame is returning to theaters with new footage. According to ComicBook.com and corroborated by Screenrant, Disney’s box office dominating pop culture sensation will be re-released on June 28 and accompanied by never before seen goodies for the Marvel faithful. All the new Avengers: Endgame content occurs after the credits.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige further elaborated on the re-release. “[The new version of Avengers: Endgame is] not an extended cut, but there will be a version going into theaters with a bit of a marketing push with a few new things at the end of the movie,” Feige told Screenrant during a Spider-Man: Far From Home press junket. “If you stay and watch the movie, after the credits, there’ll be a deleted scene, a little tribute, and a few surprises.”
On an eyerollingly cynical level, this isn’t surprising. Avengers: Endgame is gunning for Avatar’s $2.788 billion global box office record but has lost its momentum as of late. Since its late April release, Avengers: Endgame sunk James Cameron’s Titanic with brutal efficiency yet trails Avatar with a comparatively paltry $2.743 billion global box office gross. With Avengers: Endgame being bounced out of the box office top 10 last weekend, time is running out to dethrone Avatar, and by re-releasing Avengers: Endgame, Disney is making a last ditch effort to reload its repulsor beam fueled harpoons in order to slay James Cameron’s great blue whale.
On a personal note: I’m admittedly disappointed with the minimal content in the re-release. I would have hoped that Disney and Marvel would pull out all the stops. While I wasn’t expecting an Avengers Endgame: Unrated with America’s Ass version, I’m bummed that we’re only receiving a post-credits stinger rather than a Lord of the Rings extended edition style cut promising more witty banter and plot breaking time travel shenanigans. For a film with a historic theatrical run, this re-release seems very underwhelming.
With that said, an Avengers: Endgame re-release does have some appeal. The new iteration of Avengers: Endgame will prime audiences for Spider-Man: Far From Home for the following week, possibly banish Avatar into obscurity, still be superior to Justice League’s fabled Snyder Cut, and give Marvel Cinematic Universe fans a reason to assemble at theaters one last time.