Spoiler warning: This article discusses the ending of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and new footage from Avengers: Endgame Encore.
Marvel has finally addressed the unanswered fate of Bruce Banner, two months after his brief appearance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The explanation arrives in one of four new post-credits scenes added to Disney’s theatrical re-release of Avengers: Endgame.
The extra footage is intended to connect the 2019 blockbuster with Avengers: Doomsday, while also expanding a storyline left hanging after Banner transformed into the Hulk and caused chaos inside the Department of Damage Control headquarters.
For Australian Marvel fans following the wider MCU, the scene offers a significant clue about Banner’s next move — although its placement is an unusual one.
What happens to Bruce Banner?
At the conclusion of Brand New Day, Banner is taken away on a stretcher after his destructive Hulk rampage. The film leaves his legal and physical situation unresolved. Given the panic across New York City and the possibility that people were injured, the obvious assumption was that he had been placed in secure custody.
The new stinger presents a different scenario. Banner is inside a heavily fortified underground facility that appears to have been designed by him. He points out the strength of the stone structure and confidently declares, “Hulk isn’t getting out of here, and no one else is getting in.”
Banner then reveals that he has been testing a gamma-suppression serum. Before he can explain the research, an eerie green light appears. An unseen figure answers Banner’s question with the words, “I’m here to collect you,” before taking him away and leaving glowing emerald runes behind.
The scene strongly suggests that Doctor Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr., is behind the abduction. It appears Banner may have been taken for a purpose connected to Doom’s larger plan in Avengers: Doomsday.
Why was the scene attached to Endgame?
The decision to place this material after a re-release of Endgame is difficult to reconcile with the story it continues. The Banner sequence directly follows a thread from Brand New Day, yet it was not included with that film.
Endgame Encore contains several other pieces of new material designed to lead into Doomsday. One extended moment shows Loki reaching Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter during their dance. Other scenes involve the TVA and a collapsing multiverse, while a revised hammering gag reveals Doctor Doom’s mask instead of Iron Man’s.
Among those additions, the Banner sequence feels the least connected to Endgame itself. Neither Hulk nor Peter Parker is expected to be part of Doomsday, based on the information discussed in the source material. That raises the possibility that Banner’s story could instead be relevant to Avengers: Secret Wars, though that would also be an unusual fit with the film still more than a year away.
A missed opportunity for Brand New Day
There is no public confirmation that Marvel moved the scene from one film to another. Still, its structure makes that possibility difficult to ignore. Ending Brand New Day with Banner’s disappearance followed by Doom’s intervention would have resolved the film’s most prominent cameo while naturally setting up the next Avengers story.
Instead, the explanation arrived roughly two months later as part of a theatrical event built around returning audiences to Endgame. The re-release includes only around five minutes of new footage, but Marvel promoted those additions as a reason to revisit the 2019 film and look ahead to Doomsday.
It is possible that the creative team developed the Banner sequence after seeing how the character was used in Brand New Day. It may also have been assembled to explain why Hulk is not expected to appear in the upcoming crossover. Whatever the production reason, the result is an awkwardly positioned but potentially important piece of MCU continuity.
The scene’s presentation has also attracted online criticism, with some viewers comparing its setup to a short video made to promote a theme-park attraction. That reaction reflects the central problem: the footage answers a question from one film, but appears after an older film that has little direct connection to Banner’s disappearance.
What the scene could mean for Marvel’s next crossover
For now, the clearest reading is that Doctor Doom has taken Banner for a role in his broader plan. The gamma-suppression serum may become important later, particularly if Banner’s ability to control or separate himself from the Hulk affects the events of Doomsday or Secret Wars.
The scene does not confirm whether Banner will appear in Doomsday, nor does it establish exactly why Doom wants him. It does, however, turn an unresolved ending from Brand New Day into a thread that now reaches towards Marvel’s next major ensemble films.
For readers who enjoy following the practical side of interactive entertainment, the MCU’s expanding web of characters has the same appeal as mapping connections across a large arcade game library. RETROCADE’s arcade news and editorial coverage explores that broader culture, while its arcade machines and compact bartop arcades bring classic gaming into Australian homes.
Marvel could have delivered this information at the end of Brand New Day, where it would have provided a cleaner conclusion. Instead, audiences needed to return to Endgame to discover what happened to the Hulk. The answer may prove important, but its delayed and unexpected release makes Banner’s next chapter one of the MCU’s strangest unresolved stories.
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