Avengers: Infinity War came out in April 2018, and we have still not been able to solve all the mysteries hidden in the film. One of the biggest mysteries from the movie was the one future alternative, the Endgame that leads the Avengers to their ultimate victory over Thanos. He used the Time Stone to see 14 Million+ alternative futures and only found out 1 where the Avengers would win.
He didn’t spill any beans upon how the Avengers would win, and then he disintegrated because of the Snap. He turned out to be the biggest spoiler keeper in the history of Spoiler Keepers. Stephen Strange, the Master of the Secret Arts is going to be really important to the next Avengers movie. It is possible that he would have told some aspect of the coming future to the individuals that were present on Titan off screen, or it is possible that him keeping quiet was a part of the Endgame plot to come through.
One way or the other, there are secrets that we as an audience don’t know. The relevance of Strange seeing the future is far greater than we could imagine. People have pointed out that multiple time loops were probably in play when Strange went on to see the future, but moving beyond that there could have been something else that Strange would have been up to.
Reddit user Schedonnardus has suggested that Strange actually sent his astral form to the future in order to warn the Snap survivors of what comes next. Here’s what his theory says:
“In Avengers: Infinity War, Strange says that he went forward in time to view all the outcomes of the coming conflict. Yet, he didn’t physically go, we see him sitting there tweaking out; he’s there in the present, and is snapped out of the trance.
What if he sends his Astral form into the future? His Astral form can reveal itself to Tony post snap, and guide/give Intel to him and Nebula.
With the time stone, Strange literally has infinite time. It’s irrelevant that he gave the stone to Thanos, because his Astral form in the future is tethered to a point in time where Strange still had possession of the stone.”
If all this seems a little to easier and convenient, then the Redditor also presents another Angle which could make things even more interesting and even explain why Strange was so adamant for not using the Time Stone to fight Thanos:
“Another angle you could spin it is, say that the astral form is living on borrowed time and has to relay a few quick hints to stark before vanishing (say the amount of time from strange looking forward in time to when he hands over the stone).
This could mean that all of Strange’s stalling on Titan was to buy his Astral form time to explain to future Tony what the actual plan is to defeat Thanos.”
This certainly is an interesting theory. But as mentioned above, the Time Loops pointed out by many people will have some sort of relevance in the upcoming film. Doctor Strange screenwriter Jon Spaihts told everyone that Kevin Feige was the one who came up with the whole Time Loop thing three years ago. He even teased that this aspect of Doctor Strange will have some precedence in the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe as well.
Here’s what he said:
“It’s one of the sequences I’m most proud of and there was a version not very different from what you see in the first draft. I was able to come back at the end of the project and do some more work to help bring the movie home and refine that still further. But I think the seed of the idea actually came from Kevin Feige in the room. We were trying to figure out how that final battle could go, and Kevin was focused on his long play with the Eye of Agamotto and the role it’s going to play in his grand design in the cinematic universe — very focused on Strange’s manipulation of time. It was Kevin Feige in the room who said, ‘Could he trap him in time?’ And that led me to write the sequence that you see.”
Let’s see what grand scheme Doctor Strange has been playing since Avengers: Infinity War. Avengers: Endgame hits the theatres on April 26.
