Avengers Endgame: Encore's Loki Ending Cameo Explained By Directors

Marvel Studios

No matter what happens, you can always count on the God of Mischief to be up to his old tricks. Tom Hiddleston's Loki has reigned supreme as an agent of chaos throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but his ongoing arc ultimately took him to a fascinating and downright heroic conclusion by the end of "Loki" Season 2. As essentially the God of Time and God of Stories literally holding the Sacred Timeline together, he finally appeared to find his place in the universe multiverse. However, audiences who made the trek to theaters for the lucrative re-release of "Avengers: Endgame" (rechristened as "Avengers Endgame: Encore") were in for a treat, as one extra scene depicted what happens in the moments right after "Endgame" comes to a satisfying close. And you guessed it: Loki's right in the middle of it all.

The new sequence unfolds like this: While Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) are enjoying their slow dance, they hear an intrusive knock at the door. As Steve ducks around the corner (which isn't very gentlemanly of him), Peggy goes to answer and asks if she can help this visitor. None other than Loki steps in, suggesting that he's the one who can help them both as he glances meaningfully towards Steve.

In an interview with Empire, "Avengers: Doomsday" directors Joe and Anthony Russo explained these new additions and that Loki cameo in particular. Apparently, fans can expect a slightly different approach to the character — which may fuel some fan-theories. According to Anthony:

"I mean, look, the God of Mischief proves to be the God of Mischief. Loki's one of the most fascinating characters, and he's had so many incarnations. One of the delights of 'Doomsday' is, you're going to get a new incarnation of that character."

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A new incarnation, you say? Parsing quotes by the Russo brothers can sometimes be a fool's errand, given how close they keep things to the chest. In this case, their specific wording seems like a wink and a nod towards certain Loki-centric fan-theories currently making the rounds — specifically, the prevalent idea that this version of Loki actually ends up impersonating Steve Rogers throughout the events of "Doomsday." Or, well, Anthony Russo could simply be saying that this marks a new stage in Loki's overall journey.

Either way, it's clear that Loki comes as the bearer of bad news, informing our favorite couple of the encroaching threat of Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom. In that light, fans may raise a skeptical eyebrow about Marvel throwing away yet another definitive character moment in favor of more sequels. As Anthony Russo details, though, this gave the Russos an opportunity to explore how the story could continue if we just stayed with these characters a little longer:

"We really thought about that ending [in 'Endgame'] as the perfect ending for Steve Rogers. And the idea of just going one moment past that perfect ending, and thinking about how radically that moment can change by just taking one step past it ... That was a big part of the delight in the new idea for what 'Doomsday' is and where the story goes."

"I think part of the fun of coming back was, we thought, 'Could we reach back to pull the story forward?'" Joe Russo added. "And this is a fluid universe, right? So, you could do it in this universe, and it felt like an interesting way to start the story of 'Doomsday.'"

Marvel Studios

Naturally, that leads us to our next question: How the heck will Loki get pulled into the events of "Avengers: Doomsday" to begin with? It's quite a leap to go from the mystical location known as the End of Time to showing up in the alternate reality where the former Captain America and his beloved Peggy decided to make a home for themselves following the events of "Endgame." As another new addition in "Encore" suggests, where we see Time Variance Authority (TVA) employees witnessing various universes collapsing and even waging war upon each other, only the arrival of Doom and the havoc he wreaks on the multiverse could be significant enough to bring Loki back down to Earth (so to speak).

Not that you should expect the Russos to shed much light on this for now, unfortunately. While they remain tightlipped over exactly how Loki will factor into the rest of the plot in "Doomsday," the siblings do reveal that it took them quite some time following "Endgame" to crack the code on how to pick up the story in the moments after Steve and Peggy's dance. According to Anthony Russo:

"It was many years later before the idea — this idea, that we actually committed to — came up, on how to move past that moment. A big motivation for releasing 'Avengers Endgame: Encore' is the idea that, now we're looking back at that movie thinking about going forward, instead of not thinking about going forward."

While these scenes are exclusively meant for this re-release and won't be featured in "Doomsday" itself, fans can begin to connect the dots themselves. Whatever happens, Loki is certain to be pivotal in what comes next. "Avengers: Doomsday" hits theaters December 18, 2026.