Avengers: Infinity War contained a lot of callbacks and ties to previous installments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and while fans have pointed out many of them it seems like a major one from Doctor Strange was missed — until now.
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An Eagle-eyed fan on Reddit recently noticed a major connection between Doctor Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) role in Infinity War and the death of the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) in Doctor Strange and we’ve got to admit, we’re surprised we didn’t notice it before now. In Doctor Strange, during the final scene between Strange and the Ancient One, she reveals to him that she’s prevented countless terrible futures, but even when one tragedy is averted another waits to follow. She also notes that she hasn’t directly seen Strange’s future. Instead, she’s seen the possibilities of his future and then gives him a piece of wisdom — “sometimes one must break the rules in order to serve the greater good”.
[IW Spoilers Kinda] Rewatched Dr. Strange last night for the first time since seeing IW. This was always one of my favorite scenes in the movie, but after seeing now (post IW), I think the Ancient One was giving Strange more wisdom than he ever could have realized. from r/marvelstudios
Interesting, right? Now compare that to Infinity War. While on Titan, Strange tells Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) that he’s looked into the future and seen 14 million possible outcomes for the fight against Thanos — and only one of them ended with the heroes prevailing. A short time later he ends up handing over the Eye of Agamotto, better known to Thanos as the Time Stone, enabling the Mad Titan to go on to Earth to finish the Infinity Gauntlet and wipe out half of the universe with a snap.
While fans have almost universally seen that moment on Titan as Strange giving Thanos an initial victory as a measure to ensure that one victorious potential future, looking back at the scene with the Ancient One seems to hint that the seeds of that fateful decision were planted long before. And if that’s the case, it seems like the Ancient One may have seen some part of things coming as well, wisely giving Strange the one lesson he would need to save the universe.
Avengers: Infinity War is now playing in theaters. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th, Captain Marvel opens on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.
[ H/T: Heroic Hollywood ]
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