The team behind Avengers: Infinity War must be so proud of the havoc they caused with just a few mysterious lines from Doctor Strange. The moment when the Sorcerer Supreme suggests that there are many different futures – only one of which sees Earth’s Mightiest Heroes triumph in the fight against Thanos – has spawned countless theories and endless debate on how this concept could apply to Avengers 4, and you just know that the Russo Brothers are having a good laugh at our expense as they watch us fumble for the right answer.
This latest theory comes courtesy of Reddit user Meme_abstinent in a post titled “Strange is the Key to Avengers 4; not Iron-Man.” With that slightly harsh belittling of Tony Stark out the way, the user precedes with their thesis:
“In the whole 14 million possible futures situation, I don’t think Strange saw them win one and attempted to mimic it, rather he was saying he created one that he knew they could win with.”
The Redditor then expands on this idea which, as with so many of theories for next year’s release, involves time travel.
“Doctor Strange knows about the Soul World and it’s connections to the Quantum Realm.
He knows this by two possible reasons. He’s seen the future, all the way up until they WON, so the Quantum Realm had to be apart of it. Or maybe he just knows cause he’s a wizard.”
May we quickly interject to acknowledge the awesomeness of that last sentence, too.
“So Strange travels to the future, notifying Stark that the heroes are still alive in the Soul World. He then prompts Stark to begin a rescue mission through the Quantum Realm with Marvel and the surviving Avengers.”
The user then drops this one more compelling prediction, saying:
“Strange will also time travel to reunite with the Ancient One. She praises him, as she always saw greatness in his future, and gives him the time stone.”
To their credit, Meme_abstinent backs up their theory with a whole helping of linked sources, pointing to such revelations as the inclusion of the Soul World in the MCU, Dave Bautista’s recent admission that at least some of the dusted heroes will feature in the next movie, and Mark Ruffalo’s potential teasing of the Ancient One. Evidently, there’s a fair amount of substance behind this user’s theory, but we’ll see just how close to the mark they are when Avengers 4 finally opens on May 3rd, 2019.