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Needless to say, this article contains spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War.
Six months ago, the whole MCU was turned to dust. In six months time, it’s all going to be put back together again (probably), but how it happens, who survives, and what it all means for Phase 4 is still very much up in the air. According to Mark Ruffalo, even the filmmakers haven’t quite decided how it’s all going to end yet. Whilst that’s almost certainly not true, the film has a lot of story strands to tie up, and there’s plenty of speculation building up about how it’s going to do it.
Now that we’ve hit the halfway mark in the long, painful wait between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4, it’s time to round up the fan theories and see which ones seem the most likely.
If you have any of your own theories that we haven’t covered, let us know in the comments and we’ll add them to the list.
The following contains spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War and (maybe) for Avengers 4…
Captain America will die
The Soul Stone demands a sacrificial victim and it’s going to be Captain America – with Steve choosing death so that someone else (probably Tony) can wield the Infinity Gauntlet and save half the world.
Likelihood: Very likely. Chris Evans has already pretty much confirmed that he’s done with the MCU, celebrating his last day on set with a permanent sounding farewell tweet. His contract is up after Avengers 4, and it doesn’t sound like he’s signed on for any more movies (yet), so everything seems to be pointing at his permanent exit in the next film. Having Captain America bow out with a humanity saving act of self-sacrifice is pretty much the only way Marvel can kill him off, so this one seems to be on the cards. Whether or not it’s Tony that he does it for though, is not so certain…
Gamora is going to save everybody
Since Gamora was thrown into a bottomless void instead of being turned into dust like everyone else, it looked like she was more dead than the others. Actually though, she’s less dead – and she’s going to play a pivotal role inside the Soul Stone. We’ve already had a peek at her inside the stone’s plane of reality (the orange world where Thanos met a young Gamora) and her past relationship with Thanos is going to be the key to escaping it. She’ll be the one wielding the gauntlet, she’ll be the one taking down Thanos, and she’ll be the one saving everyone else.
Likelihood: Highly likely. Gamora’s story is the one that most closely relates to Thanos, so it makes sense that she’s going to be the one to sort him out. Her sister wields the gauntlet in the comics, but Gamora’s ties to Thanos make her much more likely to be the one doing it in the MCU. How does she escape the Soul Stone? Err…
Thanos forgets about his Gauntlet and Nebula nicks it
Thanos defeats the remaining superheroes, woos Death, beats Eternity itself and becomes an omnipotent part of the fabric of the space-time continuum. Unfortunately for him, he forgets that his mortal husk is still wearing the Infinity Gauntlet back on Earth, and Nebula comes along and takes it, using it to become more powerful than he is.
Likelihood: Unlikely. Weird as it sounds, this is exactly how it goes down in the comics. Whilst Nebula will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in the film (she’s one of only two surviving Guardians), this set-up would likely require a lot more than one film to cover and resolve. Also, Thanos’ motivation in the MCU is already very different from the comics. As we already saw at the end of Infinity War, he seems more content with sitting back and watching the sunset than he does with going on another purge.
Shuri will resurrect Vision
Shuri made a copy of the Mind Stone just in time, and she’s going to find Vision’s dead body and stick the stone back into his forehead hole – bringing him back to life.
Likelihood: Unlikely. Only because this doesn’t sound like it’s going to accomplish much, besides bringing one character back to life (in a film that’s probably going to be more concerned with bringing back several others). Unless this is just a device to bring the Mind Stone back into play (see further down)…
Tony Stark will become a magic man
Since Tony saw Doctor Strange skip through 14 million different alternate realities in a few minutes, he’s going to use his smarts to teach himself the mystic arts, mastering the power of controlling reality, and undoing everything Thanos did.
Likelihood: Possible. This theory mostly seems to come from a behind the scenes video that shows Robert Downey Jr wearing Strange’s cape. Tilda Swinton apparently came back for one day of filming for Avengers 4 too, so there’s a good chance that Strange’s powers are going to come into play somehow. And with him dusted, it almost makes sense that Tony should pick up his cape. On the other hand, having Stark “teach himself” how to control reality seems like a bit of a cop out.
Thanos will get tricked into the Quantum Realm
Ant-Man survived the snap because the Infinity Stones don’t work in the Quantum Realm (though he might have survived anyway of course). When the Avengers realise this, they trick him inside (reminding him that Ant-Man and billion other microscopic things are alive down there) and then the mini-Avengers follow him in and beat him up, leaving him there forever.
Likelihood: Unlikely, but… The Ant-Man problem will have to be worked out somehow, but it’s unlikely that the final set-piece of a decade’s worth of storytelling will take place inside micro-verse. What’s more, all the surviving members of the Avengers will have to figure out how to get inside too, which seems like too much of a stretch for one film. On the other hand, a lot of rumours do seem to be pointing to the importance of the Quantum Realm – putting it as the most likely way the “dead” characters will be able to come back to life. Reddit user leafinferno pointed to a discussion between Jane Foster and doctor Eir in Thor: The Dark World that introduced the “Soul Forge”, aka a “quantum field generator” that “transfers molecular energy from one place to another”. If “souls” and quantum fields have some sort of connection in the logic of the MCU, it makes sense that Ant-Man’s Quantum Realm could play an important role in reversing the snap. Whilst it’s unlikely that Thanos will go in to the Quantum Realm, it’s looking more likely that the dead Avengers will come out of it.
Loki isn’t dead
Loki stabbed Thanos with his left hand, instead of his right, proving that we were actually looking at a projection. The God of Mischief is actually fine, and he might even help his brother un-snap his friends.
Likelihood: Very likely. Not only did Tom Hiddleston get all shifty at ACE Comic Con when someone asked him about it, but we know that Loki is returning for a spin-off TV show. No one really ever dies in the MCU, especially if everyone loves to hate them.
Loki has been pretending to be Bruce Banner the whole time
Not only was Loki “projecting” during the Thanos fight, he was pretending to be Bruce Banner the whole time. That’s why Banner acts weird for the whole film, that’s why the Hulk doesn’t come out, and that’s why Heimdell sends him straight to Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum.
Likelihood: Nope. Loki could well be alive (see above), but he’s definitely not Banner. Where’s the real Banner? Why isn’t Loki acting much, much weirder in a different body? Also, this is a twist that would cause the entire world to face palm and start laughing, which isn’t what anybody wants.
The Avengers will master time travel
Since up is now down and we’re already dealing with different planes of reality, the surviving Avengers will beat Thanos by travelling back in time – possibly landing in the mid-90s with Captain Marvel.
Likelihood: Possible. Disney CEO Bob Iger spoke about “different realms” in Avengers 4 and suggested that the action could play out in locations that “can be separate geographically, or separate in time—not just in place, but in time.” A few leaked set photos show the cast in older costumes, which either means we’re getting flashbacks or actual timey wimey plot twists. Captain Marvel must be set in the ’90s for a reason, and time travel doesn’t seem that far fetched in the MCU anymore. How, and why, the avengers manage to master it though (and how they use it to bring down Thanos) is another question.
Nick Fury knows everything
Doctor Strange is the only one who sees every possible outcome of the Thanos battle, and he travels back in time to visit Nick Fury in the ’90s (during the events of Captain Marvel) to tell him exactly how to help ensure the 1 in 14 million version of events that results in victory. After the ’90s, Fury is always grimly aware of what’s coming.
Likelihood: Hmmm. This one ties up pretty much every end-credit sting in the MCU, explaining why Fury never seems that surprised by anything that happens. It also explains why he only calls on Captain Marvel when the snap starts (instead of, say, during the mbadive alien invasion of the first Avengers movie). The idea that Strange masterminds the events of the end of Infinity War to make sure the “1 in 14 million” endgame happens is plausible, even likely, given his dying words (“Tony, there was no other way”). The idea that he masterminded the events of the whole MCU by time travelling back to the 90s and putting the fate of the universe in Fury, seems a bit much.
Tony will have to kill his own parents
The Soul Stone will ask Tony to sacrifice the one he loves the most, and it’s not Captain America or Pepper. Instead, he has to travel back in time to 1991, find The Winter Soldier, and order the hit on his own parents.
Likelihood: Unlikely. Only because this sounds far too complicated. We know that some of the events of the film are set in the past, and we know there’s going to be a reason for Captain Marvel being set in the early ’90s, but it makes more sense for Tony to sacrifice Captain America to the Soul Stone. Also, going back to middle of the MCU and altering a mbadive event like this throws far too many space-time spanners in the works.
Tony will have to kill himself
Captain America might want to sacrifice himself to give the Soul Stone what it wants (and to give someone else the chance to fight back with the Gauntlet), but Tony will actually swap places with him at the last minute, giving the film it’s real big death.
Likelihood: Possible. There are a few things in this ones favour. Firstly, Robert Downey Jr has been talking about quitting the role for years. He’s an actor with a lot of other plates to spin, and it’s likely that he’ll want to bow out soon (and it’s not like we haven’t all thought it was going to happen already at the end of at least two other movies). Secondly, the whole Chris Evans thing seems far too public to not be misdirection. Marvel is notoriously cautious about what they allow their actors to tweet, and setting Cap up to take the fall could just be a way of distracting us from the real truth – that Iron Man is the one that saves the universe by sacrificing himself. Of course, it’s also possible that both of them die in Avengers 4, but that does seem like a bit of a downer.
The Mind Stone is the real baddie
Thanos isn’t bad, he’s just under the spell of the Mind Stone – just as Loki was in the first Avengers, and just as Ultron was in Age Of Ultron. “My theory is that the Mind Stone is alive, can see the future, and saw its own destruction, and set Thanos on the whole quest for the gauntlet – and killing off half the universe was just to reverse time and save it from destruction. Or it just hates life,” says one Redditor.
Likelihood: Hmmm. This one has a lot of support online, but it also has a lot of detractors. It seems like it makes a lot of sense, but it also seems unbelievably complicated – offering up a twist that most audiences will likely laugh off. Are we really supposed to believe that the events of all the previous films have been the doing of a sentient gemstone? And that Thanos was just misunderstood before he pried the Mind Stone off of Vision? Maybe.
Avengers 4 opens in UK cinemas on 26 April 2019
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