Avengers: Endgame Theory Explains Why Doctor Strange Really Surrendered The Time Stone

Regardless of what fresh material for Avengers: Endgame has come our way in these past few months, the fans theories just keep going back to Doctor Strange in Avengers: Infinity War and his tease of 14,000,605 futures, only one of which sees Earth’s Mightiest Heroes come out victorious. And while the forums have offered plenty of suggestions for Stephen’s elaborate plan, one post on Reddit argues that Strange’s strategy went no further than simply doing the right thing at the right time.

The theory from user Smegsaiah focuses primarily on the moment where Strange hands the Time Stone over to Thanos. One popular interpretation of this decision is that Benedict Cumberbatch’s character wanted to save Tony Stark because he saw how Iron Man would play an important part in our heroes’ eventual victory. The new theory, however, observes how the moment at which Strange chose to surrender the Infinity Stone ultimately caused the snap to coincide with Ant-Man’s journey into the Quantum Realm.

Since it’s been pretty much confirmed that this mysterious place will be crucial to the story of Endgame, Smegsaiah argues it was no mere coincidence that The Decimation trapped Scott Lang here, implying that Ant-Man is practically destined to find something important when he’s stuck down there.

One question raised from this suggestion is how Strange would know that his choice to hand over the stone to Thanos was timed perfectly to trap Scott in the Quantum Realm. Smegsaiah’s answer? He doesn’t. According to their theory, all the Sorcerer Supreme is aware of is that doing the right things at the right time will somehow contribute to a chain of events that will lead to the snap being reversed. He may not understand why his actions have the effect they have, but in the 14,000,605 futures he envisioned, the one where he gave the Time Stone to the Mad Titan at that exact moment was the one where they triumphed.

All in all, it’s an intriguing piece of speculation that makes us all the more curious to learn what Strange really had in mind when he set the events of Avengers: Endgame in motion. And we’ll likely find out when the film hits theaters on April 26th, 2019.