Avengers: Endgame is being re-released with new material in late June. In an interview, Kevin Feige said the new material will be, "a deleted scene, a little tribute, and a few surprises," all after the credits. Marvel is no stranger to a post-credits scene or two, and when Endgame didn't have one, many took it as a tribute to the fact that Phase 3 was ending. Instead, the beating of metal on metal in the background was taken as a call back to when Tony Stark originally built his rudimentary suit in Iron Man.
Naturally, some fans see the decision to re-release the movie with added material as a cynical ploy to try to dethrone Avatar as the highest grossing global box office film. The tribute is probably one of many to Stan Lee, who died without getting to see Endgame, but the promise of new material is alluring. Here are five things we'd love to see in the new release, and five things we hope don't come up.
Want to See: Where was Cap, Really?
Apparently, Cap goes back to return the stones and then spends the rest of his life living quietly with the love of his life, Peggy Carter. This opens a can of worms though: In Agent Carter, Peggy falls in love with Daniel Sousa. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we see an elderly Peggy surrounded by her family as she's dying. So, does Cap going back destroy that storyline, effectively killing off those descendants of Peggy? And are we really supposed to believe that Captain America just sat back casually during all the times America was threatened while the original Cap was frozen? Some are happy to dismiss his life with Peggy as an alternate timeline, and Cap going back would open a veritable Pandora's box of alternate timelines, but how does he end up back in "our" timeline to pass the mantle to Falcon? Is he somehow using the extra time to bring back Natasha, opening up a path for the Black Widow movie?
Not to mention that this whole ending-up-with-Peggy plot would make Cap kissing Peggy's niece Sharon in Captain America: Civil War pretty gross. So if we could get a deleted scene showing us where Cap really was, that would be great.
Don't Want to See: More About Thanos
In Infinity War, we learn a lot about Thanos and his background, but there's more that simply can't be brought into the movies. One big question fans unfamiliar with the comics had is whether or not Thanos is related to the Skrull, the underdogs that Captain Marvel saves. They do bear some physical similarities, including the lined chin, and the stories could easily intertwine. Thanos is bitter over the destruction of his home planet, the Skrull are looking for a new planet--they could have believably been members of his race that Thanos didn't know survived if the MCU wanted to bend the canon a little bit more.
The truth is that both Thanos' people, the Eternals, and the Skrull were experimented on by the Celestials, another supernatural race that pre-dates even the Asgardians. The chin is, apparently, a common feature of people whose genetic material the Celestials messed with. It's an interesting background, but it's a question so easily answered online that we don't need the answer in the movie.
Want to See: A Loki Teaser
Listen, Loki is alive. In the failed 2012 NYC heist, Loki makes off with the Tesseract and escapes into an alternate timeline. The real question is: What did he do next? Since Endgame, the first photo from the new Disney+ show about Loki has been released. Endgame was careful to set up all the coming Disney+ shows and gave us a good idea of what Loki's going to do with his newfound powers of courtesy of the Space Stone hidden inside the Tesseract: Cause trouble.
Maybe one of the "surprises" Feige teased is a look at Loki and the first place the God of Mischief chooses to barge into for his own amusement.
Don't Want to See: A Spider-Man: Far From Home Teaser
The next Spider-Man is going to be hugely important because it officially ends Phase Three of the MCU, but we don't need a post-credit scene for it. The movie comes out less than a week after the Endgame re-release, so it's too late for a teaser.
The movie has been hyped enough, and while everyone loves Tom Holland's take on Spider-Man and wants more of him, it would seem like a waste of a post-credits scene to release it now. If anything is going to make this re-release seem even more cynical, it would be a teaser for Far From Home when we're going to see Peter Parker jet off to Europe a few days later.
Want to See: The Next Avengers Team
That said, a Spidey appearance could be interesting if it hints at a new Avengers team. With most of the original six--Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, and Thor--dead or retired, there's room for a new team to come together. It's easy to see that Peter Parker is going to be challenged to step up, especially since a plot point of Far From Home seems to be Nick Fury not allowing the boy a break.
Who else could be part of the new team? Valkyrie has already taken over running New Asgard for Thor, is she also going to step into Thor's Avengers team shoes? Wakandan scientist and genius Shuri would be a fun addition. After all, we need someone who can handle the inventing that Tony used to do. In a way, the younger the better. The MCU can gamble on longevity if they bring in a new cast of teenagers who have to learn how to protect the world the way their mentors did.
Don't Want to See: Minor Plothole Fixes
Feige promised a deleted scene. This could mean a lot of interesting things, including answers to some of our bigger questions after the Endgame, but we don't want it to fix minor plotholes. Questions like where Valkyrie got her horse when only the Asgardians were evacuated to New Asgard are valid but, well, what's the point? Unless answering one of those small questions is going to introduce something that could set up a new movie it doesn't seem like those are actually all that important.
After the movie, there are plenty of fan theories floating around about the future of the MCU, including a suggestion that Hulk could become a villain. Additionally, there's a possibility Venom will join the MCU as a villain for Spider-Man. Could we see Hulk experience something that leads down a dangerous path? Could Eddie Brock be in the background, doing a report on a news show that got cut the first time around?
And if the deleted scene could also not include yet more jokes about Thor's weight and alcoholism, that would be great.
Want to See: A Doctor Strange Teaser
The Doctor Strange sequel hasn't begun filming yet, according to Benedict Wong, but Endgame set up a lot of serious questions for the Sorcerer Supreme. With the (supposed) destruction of the Time Stone, how is Doctor Strange supposed to protect the planet now? The Time Stone and the Eye of Agamotto that is was contained in were key to the Ancient One's protection of the planet.
Without the ability to look into the future and work out ways to defeat threats before they actually arrive, the Masters of the Mystic Arts are going to have to find a whole new way to protect Earth, and quickly. Some might think having a teaser for this will be hard when the movie hasn't begun filming yet, but the post-credit scenes have surprised us before, setting up things that didn't show up again for years. A Doctor Strange teaser would be a smart and interesting move here.
Don't Want to See: Anything That's Going to Taint Our Memory of Iron Man
There's a chance that the tribute that Feige mentioned will actually be to Tony Stark, but that seems ridiculous when the last scene was mostly about saying goodbye to this iconic character. Most likely the tribute will be to Stan Lee and anything other new information about Tony Stark will come up in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
But it's not a stretch to say that Tony Stark was not always a perfect character, and his past has come back to haunt him and his loved ones more than once. Setting up someone to have to answer for Tony's mistakes wouldn't be unbelievable, but now is not the time. Any sort of surprise or deleted scene that hints at him doing something that causes harm to anyone (and especially Peter) would be awful when the fandom is still mourning him.
Want to See: More Harley Keener
When Harley Keener showed back up at Tony Stark's very exclusive funeral, fans were delighted by this little easter egg. We haven't seen him since he helped Tony figure out Extremis Iron Man 3, so seeing him come back now is a clear indicator that he and Tony Stark kept in touch during the eleven years that separated the two movies. But why is he back? Harley is, after all, the perfect age to step into Tony's shoes as the next Iron Man.
In an ending full of 'passing the torch' moments, we don't see who inherits Iron Man's iron suits. Did Harley grow up to study engineering, aided by Tony Stark's mentorship? At only 4 years old, Tony's actual daughter Morgan is much too young to take over, making Harley the next natural inheritor. Peter Parker may take up the leadership role, but he's not going to change suits now. Will one of Feige's "surprises" be a moment where Harley puts on Iron Man's helmet? We sure hope so.
Don't Want to See: A Gag Reel
It's true: everyone loves a good gag reel. The gag reel of the cast of Captain Marvel dancing and goofing around is such a treat! But it was released the perfect way: Months later, in the home media release. But putting something so silly at the end of what is a pretty somber movie would undercut the emotional weight of the end of the film.
There are some perfect moments of comedic levity in the movie, like the America's Ass running gag, but they come less and less as the stakes of the movie rise higher and higher. It's important that the audience leaves the movie feeling keenly the loss of Tony Stark, because it's going to set up Peter Parker's emotional arc in Far From Home. Anything humorous would ruin that.
Do we think a gag reel is likely? No. Would we hate it? Definitely.