“We’re in the endgame now.”
If you’ve seen Avengers: Infinity War with your own two eyes – which we assume you have by this point – you’ll be pretty familiar with Doctor Strange’s bleak prophecy, telling us that out of 14 million possible outcomes, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes only managed to succeed in one, which doesn’t exactly bode well for Avengers 4.
Still, if our beloved characters stand an outside chance of toppling Thanos in 2019, it seemingly lies with Tony Stark. Or so says the latest MCU video from YouTuber Ryan Walsh (AKA Webhead). Essentially, the theory supposes that Doctor Strange chose to spare Stark as he’s due to play a major role in Avengers 4 (no surprise there), when Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will seemingly mount one final counter-attack against Marvel’s Mad Titan.
But this video essay digs a little deeper into Doctor Stranger’s master plan than just that, as Walsh goes on to explain:
Doctor Strange went forward in time, past the ending to Infinity War, and went into the events of Avengers 4 [to see] exactly what was going on there, and what had already happened. And he probably already saw that Tony Stark was the key to taking down Thanos [in Avengers 4]. Maybe Tony Stark is going to be the one to sacrifice himself for the entire universe? Maybe he does the post-snap, bringing everyone back, only to die with the [second] Gauntlet?
Again, this is nothing new; for months now, there’ve been rumblings that Tony Stark will be the one to lay his life on the line so that the next generation of heroes (see: Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man) may survive. Hell, we even saw a rather morbid piece of concept art that envisioned Iron Man’s death in the arms of Peter Parker. Talk about flipping the tables.
Speculation aside, Avengers 4 is booked in for a theatrical release on May 3rd, 2019.