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Avengers: Endgame rerelease's deleted scene features beloved Die Hard actor

The Marvel Cinematic Universe epic got new footage, but is it worth another trip to the theater?

Sean Keane Former Senior Writer
Sean knows far too much about Marvel, DC and Star Wars, and poured this knowledge into recaps and explainers on CNET. He also worked on breaking news, with a passion for tech, video game and culture.
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Sean Keane
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This guy shows up in the unfinished deleted scene.

Marvel Studios

Rereleasing Avengers: Endgame with extra content helped it seize Avatar's throne as the highest grossing movie of all time, as Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige revealed Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at San-Diego Comic Con. But are those new bells and whistles worth another trip to the theater? Here are the details.

Before the movie

We get a new message from Tom Holland, Spidey in Spider-Man: Far From Home, saying the preview for that film will play after Endgame. Then Anthony Russo -- who directed the movie along with his brother Joe -- tells you to stick around after the credits for "something special."

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Stan Lee, seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, appeared in every MCU movie until Avengers: Endgame.

Marvel Studios/Screenshot by CNET

Stan Lee tribute

The first special something turns out to be a lovely tribute to late Marvel legend Stan Lee -- who co-created the Avengers, Spider-Man and countless other timeless characters -- in which he talks about he just wrote comics to pay the rent and was astounded by how popular his work became. 

Lee interacts with MCU directors like James Gunn, Taika Waititi, Kenneth Branagh and Jon Favreau, along with Thor actor Chris Hemsworth, as he shot some of his cameos through the years. Lee humbly says he's "a very lucky guy" before a message.

"Stan we love you 3000," it reads, referencing Morgan and Tony Stark's Endgame lines.

Watch this: Avengers: Endgame could have been very different

Deleted scene

The unfinished extra scene sees Professor Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) rescuing people from a burning building before he gets a phone call from Captain America. It includes a cool cameo from Reginald VelJohnson as a fire chief looking up at the building. 

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Reginald VelJohnson spoke highly of the cast and crew of Avengers: Endgame. His scene, which was cut from the movie, took a week to film.

Leon Bennett/WireImage

You might remember VelJohnson as Sgt. Al Powell in Die Hard, a movie Ant-Man incorrectly mentions as being about time travel in Endgame. The actor's perspective in the deleted scene also mirrors that of his character in Die Hard -- he spends much of that movie communicating with hero John McClane (Bruce Willis) from outside Nakatomi Plaza.

The scene includes very early CGI effects and most likely served as Hulk's post-"five years later" reintroduction sometime during the production -- the diner scene in the finished cut was a much better choice. It's also a bit disappointing that we didn't get to see the cut Thanos fight scene with Hawkeye and Black Widow.

VelJohnson told CNET sister site Comicbook.com he was pretty down about his scene being cut.

"I was so depressed, I didn't go see the movie when it first came out," he said. "My scene took a week to film, and I was with some good people and we did the scene and collaborated and I thought that this was going to be something good, then they said they cut me out. I was so upset, man."

However, the actor saw Endgame after learning that it'd be in the rerelease. He also heaped praise on the cast and crew.

"I was very excited, man, and really happy to be involved with them. They're really good people," he said. "I enjoyed working with them."

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The last bit of extra content is the opening scene from Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Jay Maidment/Sony Pictures

After the deleted scene, we see the opening scene from Spider-Man: Far From Home -- the next movie in the MCU timeline, in which SHIELD Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) encounter Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Mexico -- we've got a postcredits explainer for that movie too.

"From all of us at Marvel Studios, thank you," reads the final message.

Straight up, this stuff isn't worth another trip to the theater. Endgame itself is worthy of multiple viewings, but the extra content here is more like a taster for the Blu-ray special features. You can definitely wait until August to see the new stuff.

First published July 2, 1:30 p.m. PT.
Updated July 26, 2:15 a.m. PT: Adds VelJohnson's comments.

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