A new fan theory suggests that the ending of Avengers: Infinity War – in which Thanos (Josh Brolin) supposedly destroys half of the Earth’s population by snapping with the Infinity Gauntlet – really wasn’t deadly at all and is actually more a part of the upcoming Avengers: Endgame.
Reddit user u/Knight3rrant suggests that the snap, which appeared to turn heroes such as Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) into a misty and fatal dust, was actually ineffective and that it was the Avengers who initiated the “dustings.”
The theory is based largely on the timing of the post-credits scene from last year’s box office smash, which featured Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders). These two characters, like many of the others we had just witnessed, would eventually evaporate into dust, just before sending out a signal to Captain Marvel, the heroine of the MCU’s next feature played by Brie Larson
The argument goes that the setting is established by intel received by Agent Hill, which reports that Thanos’ fleet of ships were just entering the atmosphere of Wakanda. The idea is that in the amount of time between that message and Hill and Fury’s “dusting,” the entire battle of Wakanda could not have taken place, and therefore, Thanos’ snap could not have been the cause of the Decimation.
Rather, u/Knight3rrant believes that the “dusting” is actually the Avengers’ way of sending people into an alternate dimension, safely tucked away from Thanos. The Reddit user says we’ll see this explained in Avengers: Endgame in April.
Though it may be a little far-fetched, it’s certainly one way of explaining how Spider-Man and Black Panther get resurrected for their own upcoming sequels. But we’ll just have to wait and see what the Russo Brothers have in store for us.
