‘Avengers: Infinity War’: How Doctor Strange Hid The Time Stone Revealed

During the battle on Titan in Avengers: Infinity War, Doctor Strange hid his precious Time Stone by placing it among the stars.

Major spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War follow.

On the commentary track attached to Avengers: Infinity War‘s digital download, the film’s writers and directors opened up about Doctor Strange handing over his Infinity Stone to Thanos. In the scene, Strange offers up the Time Stone in an effort to preserve Tony Stark’s life. As it turns out, the Stone was being hidden amongst the stars in Strange’s effort to keep it from Thanos.

“We should also do a shout-out,” screenwriter Christopher Markus said. “It’s one of the storyboard guys, but hiding the stone in the stars, I don’t know whose it was.”

“It was Darrin [Delinger], I believe,” co-director Joe Russo said.

“Yeah, I can’t remember if that came out of storyboards or visual effects, but I don’t know,” co-director Anthony Russo said. “But I love it, and have been delighted by it for a long time now.”

Though Avengers: Infinity War did not have Thanos’ name in its title, the film was very much the Mad Titan’s movie.

“We always knew that that would be the most profound or some of the most profound beats of the film,” Russo told ComicBook.com. “We wanted the story, Thanos, even though he’s the villain, to follow the traditional arc of hero beats. In that you have to follow through with what he did and carry him to the ending, self-satisfied, sitting on his porch, feeling the weight of what he’s done in order for him to have the completion. That’s how it wraps up for us and that’s why we say it’s a self-contained story and that there is an ending, it’s just not the ending that you’re used to. And Thanos, if you track all his major beats, they tell a complete story.”

The ending, however, might look a bit out of place by comparison to previous Marvel films. It’s impossible to name a movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where the Avengers flat out lost. The Russo Brothers admit they did see the touch of risk which came with such a finale.

“We certainly knew that it was a difficult choice to make, but that’s what excited us about it,” Anthony said. “Joe and I, I think, we run at… when something makes you nervous or scared on a creative level it’s usually because there’s something really good there. So, we knew it was a complicated proposition, but it’s something that sounds good or exciting to us. The next step to me, to continue to surprise audiences and surprise ourselves with where these stories can go and what kind of an emotional experience that they can give us, it’s so important to keep pushing forward and keep these movies evolving and treading new ground. And it’s just, we knew that was a very rich choice that would lead us and audiences to new experiences. And I think, seemingly, it’s having that effect.”

Avengers: Infinity War is available now on digital downloads and arrives on blu-ray and DVD on August 14.