Whatever Marvel Studios has planned for next year’s Avengers 4, it’s widely assumed that the Russo Brothers have every intention of subverting our expectations in some way, prompting many a fan to comb through Avengers: Infinity War for signs of whatever sleight of hand is at play here.
A good proportion of these theories are focused on Doctor Strange, which is understandable considering his mystifying methods, along with the fact that he’s the only hero in the movie who seems to have a long-term plan in mind. This new piece of speculation, however, focuses on another character known to display some mind-bending powers.
As a user on Reddit observes, Scarlet Witch and the Reality Stone have at least two things in common: their ability to create illusions, and their strong association with the color red. From here, the theory goes that the stone which Thanos acquired on Knowhere wasn’t the real Reality Stone, but another of Wanda Maximoff’s tricks.
It’s an interesting enough, if rather vague, piece of speculation, but it raises far too many questions to be all that plausible. For one thing, how did Wanda play this trick on the Mad Titan long before the pair visibly met? Why didn’t she fill in her fellow heroes on this plan? How was Thanos still able to use the Infinity Gauntlet to dust half of all life from the universe? Was this sequence just another illusion, and if so, would the Russo Brothers really leave us hanging for a whole year on a twist that weak?
Needless to say, though Infinity War may still have some secrets to yield, this probably isn’t one of them. Either way, you can expect Avengers 4 to drop some real bombshells when it hits theaters on May 3rd, 2019.
