Marvel Releases Spider-Man Brand New Day Post Credits Scene After Two Months

Avengers: Endgame Encore, Disney’s re-release of its blockbuster ensemble film, explains one of the most glaring unanswered questions left at the tail end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Although nearly identical to its original release, Endgame Encore features four new post-credits scenes that help connect the events of the 2019 film to Marvel’s next big ensemble blockbuster, Avengers: Doomsday. It also creates a clear link between the latest Spider-Man movie and the upcoming crossover event.

One character who makes a surprise appearance is Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo).

Last seen getting carted off on a stretcher after turning into the Hulk and rampaging through the Department of Damage Control headquarters, Banner’s whereabouts and general status were left to the imagination at the end of Brand New Day. Seeing as he caused widespread panic across New York City and potentially injured several witnesses, people assumed he was locked up tight after his short-lived cameo scenes.

Banner’s bizarre post-credits encore

One post-credits scene at the end of Avengers: Endgame Encore changes everything. The stinger features Banner in a secure facility seemingly of his own design. He pans the camera around a solid stone ceiling, highlighting its structural integrity and subterranean nature, claiming that, “Hulk isn’t getting out of here, and no one else is getting in.” Banner adds that he has “been experimenting with a new gamma suppression serum,” something that might hold weight in future Marvel movies.

Before he can finish his thoughts or show his findings, Banner is confronted by an ominous green glow, which gives way to a man offscreen. When Banner asks who the person is, he has little time to process the curt reply, “I’m here to collect you,” before he is whisked away, leaving behind a few glowing emerald runes. The scene implies Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) has kidnapped the Hulk for the purposes of his master plan, set to be revealed in Doomsday.

Fans online are sarcastically comparing the scene to the type of video shown ahead of a theme park ride. Others point out that this should have been tacked on to the end of Brand New Day. It remains odd that Marvel decided to pair this Hulk post-credit scene with a movie released seven years ago. Structurally, the scene makes no sense at the end of Endgame. Disney executives seemingly placed it there simply to get butts in seats.

Laying the groundwork for Doomsday

Endgame Encore is stuffed with new connective tissue for Doomsday. The extended ending brings Loki to the doorstep of Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter mid-dance, while the other stingers include a TVA sequence dealing with the collapsing multiverse and a new version of Endgame‘s iconic hammering gag that reveals Doctor Doom’s mask instead of Iron Man’s.

The Banner scene is the oddest of the bunch because it is not really about Endgame. Even stranger, neither the Hulk nor Peter Parker are expected to appear in Doomsday. The new post-credits scene suggests otherwise, unless it pertains to something happening in Avengers: Secret Wars, which equally makes little sense given that the movie is still over a year away from release.

There is no public confirmation that Marvel simply moved the scene from one movie to another, but the placement makes it seem probable. Putting the Banner and Doom scene after Brand New Day would have given that movie a much cleaner resolution for one of its most important cameos, while naturally bridging Banner’s story into Doomsday. Instead, Marvel waited two months and attached it to a theatrical re-release of Endgame that exists primarily to get audiences thinking about the Avengers again.

Endgame Encore was designed as a bridge to Avengers: Doomsday, with Marvel advertising its new footage as a reason to return to theaters. A scene featuring Doctor Doom abducting the Hulk is more valuable here than sitting quietly at the end of a movie audiences saw months ago. Alternatively, the team behind Doomsday only thought of this Banner tag after seeing Brand New Day, and then raced to throw together a post-credits stinger to help explain why the Hulk will be absent from the upcoming movie.

Whatever the reason, the result is strange. Brand New Day left viewers wondering what happened to Banner in its closing moments, leaving open a thread that could have been closed with a well-placed stinger. Marvel apparently decided it was better for audiences to buy another ticket to Avengers: Endgame to find out what happened to the Hulk instead.

Source: Polygon