Avengers 4 Theory Explains Why Nebula And Rocket Survived Infinity War

Before audiences headed out to theaters on April 27th, and Avengers: Infinity War began playing worldwide, Marvel fans were left thinking about just two questions: who lives? And who dies?

Turns out Joe and Anthony Russo had a very specific strategy in place leading up to the event movie’s release, as those members of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes who confronted Thanos and lived to tell the tale will be back for round two (read: Avengers 4) in order to put an end to the Mad Titan once and for all.

Moreover, it’s no accident that Doctor Strange’s bleak, 1-in-14 million forecast just so happened to involve Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America – three MCU favorites who are expected to retire soon after 2019. Only the initial heroes remain, then, and Marvel boss Kevin Feige recently assured curious fans that this wasn’t a coincidence and is all part of a bigger plan to have just the original Avengers left standing as we head into next May’s sequel.

But that begs the question: why are Nebula and Rocket still around, then? They weren’t part of the OG group, so why were they spared from Thanos’ snap?

This being the MCU, there’s clearly a reason that these two characters were kept alive. Nothing is done by accident when it comes to this franchise, as Feige and co. are known for their meticulous advanced planning. And while we’ll likely have to wait for Avengers 4 to hit theaters to find out the exact answer, a new fan theory has attempted to piece together the puzzle, and you can check it out below:

We have the original Avengers all well and alive but why are Rocket Raccoon and Nebula alive?

I think the answer is clear if the Time Travel Theory is real that might be the reason why these 2 are alive.

– Rocket Raccoon is probably the only Avenger who is alive and knew where the Power Stone was.

(Avengers can get the stone from Xandar right after GotG ends and the GotG story continues like we know.)

– Nebula is probably the only Avenger who is alive and knew where the Soul Stone was.

(Maybe someone from the Avengers sacrifice themselves to get the stone before Thanos. This would explain the many deaths that will “happen” if the spoilers are legit.)

– Thor is probably the only Avenger who is alive and knew where the Reality Stone was.

(The Avengers can steal it from the collector or Thor can find a way in the timeline not to give it to the collector during the events of Thor 2.)

– Iron Man,Thor and probably Hulk are the only alive avengers knowing where the Time Stone was.

(So right after the events of the Doctor Strange Movie the Avengers can either steal it or somehow convince Strange about the events that are going to happen)

– The Space Stone aint a tricky one. The events of the Avengers happen like we know and then the Avengers team can get it. Everybody knows where it is or was. They Probably go back to the moment where Thor & Loki are about to leave earth. The Space Stone was only significant in the Avengers movie. Doing anything with the stone after the A1 events wont harm the Timeline.

– The Mind Stone is a real tricky one.

If they get it back in the Avengers 1 Events Vision never happens and the Avengers 2 events probably aint happening.

So my Theory is they get it back before the events of Avengers 3. Extracting the stone out of Visions head.

With Time Travel all the stories we have seen can happen like we know. No Timeline errors or something like that.

There are some good points made here, and a glance at the comments section only adds even more intriguing insight, with one user suggesting the following:

Nebula and Rocket are both space pilots. Tony would have a hard time figuring out how to get anywhere from Titan without someone with experience piloting an alien ship as well as the necessary navigational skills. Same with earth bound avengers needing Rocket to find stones off the planet. This also allows for multiple space missions like in IW so that’s probably their primary purpose for surviving the snap with the original avengers.

Again, we’ll need to sit tight and wait until Avengers 4 is with us next May to find out what Marvel’s plan is for Nebula and Rocket, but like we said, they were spared for a reason and something tells us that this theory, along with the additional thoughts from the comments section, isn’t too far off.