Is Old Steve Rogers in Avengers: Endgame Really Loki? Explaining the MCU Fan Theory

As the re-released version of Avengers: Endgame is playing in theaters, fans are formulating theories for Avengers: Doomsday. One of these theories ties into one of the most debated aspects of Endgame since the movie’s release in 2019: Steve Rogers’s decision to stay back in the past and live out a life with Peggy Carter.

A new theory posits that the old Steve Rogers we see in the last act of Endgame might not be the real Steve after all. In fact, the Old Rogers we saw in both versions of Avengers: Endgame might be Loki pretending to be Steve.

Explaining the latest Avengers: Endgame fan theory:

A Marvel fan account called markos.reacts put forth an interesting fan theory after watching Avengers Endgame: Encore. According to their theory, Loki disguised himself as old Steve Rogers upon Captain America's request. According to this theory, Steve asked Loki to hand over the Captain America shield to Sam Wilson.

There’s only one problem with this theory, though: The old Steve Rogers we saw at the end of Avengers: Endgame felt genuine. Therefore, retconning this old Steve Rogers scene would definitely alienate fans. But there is one way this retcon might work. And it involves a tragic death.

Steve Rogers dies in Avengers: Secret Wars:

Captain America in Endgame | Image Via: YouTube/Marvel Entertainment

The closing minutes of Encore expand upon the closing minutes of Endgame, i.e., the scene in which Steve and Peggy are dancing. In the original version of Avengers: Endgame, Peggy and Steve are dancing to the 1945 song, "It's Been a Long, Long Time". However, in the re-released version, Loki interrupts the couple and offers to help them both.

However, we don’t see what Loki is offering Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter. But we see a small moment of this scene in the Avengers: Doomsday trailer. In that scene, we see a hand holding Loki’s TVA badge, which also has a drawing of Yggdrasil, the multiversal tree Loki is managing since the Loki Season 2 finale.

Many leaks and theories have suggested that Loki will transport the Rogers family to Earth-828 (The Earth we saw in The Fantastic Four: First Steps). This decision to settle on Earth-828 might be devastating for the overall Marvel multiverse, as it results in an incursion. This incursion, according to some leaks, results in Victor von Doom’s family’s death.

If that’s indeed the case, Doom might hunt down Steve Rogers throughout Avengers: Doomsday. But Steve Rogers’s last stand is not Doomsday, but rather Avengers: Secret Wars, as he could be one of the survivors of Doom’s rewriting of reality at the end of this December’s Marvel epic.

Marvel could close the door on Chris Evans’s Steve Rogers’s return by killing off the character in the concluding chapter of Marvel’s Multiverse Saga. Steve Rogers’s dying wish could be to pass on the mantle of Captain America to Sam Wilson. Loki could just honor this wish and return to this moment in Endgame, disguised as Steve, and pass on the shield to Sam.