‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Director Addresses Controversial Doctor Strange Decision

Many are still trying to process Doctor Strange’s surprising choice in Infinity War, and the directors are certainly hinting that there is a greater purpose in play.

Spoilers incoming for Avengers: Infinity War, so if you haven’t seen it yet you’ve been warned.

The Russo Brothers sat down with students of Iowa City High School to discuss the film (via The Little Hawk Student Newspaper), and it didn’t take long for Doctor Strange’s controversial choice to hand over the Time Stone to come up in the discussion.

“Uh… Yeah, spoilers- I’m not going to say what he did but doctor strange- closure is given to doctor strange….But Doctor Strange– what did he say in the film,” Joe Russo asked.

The students responded in unison “This is the only way.”

Russo then asked, “What did he do before that?” There were a variety of answers, so Russo brought up the moment when Strange is meditating and starts to convulse. “He saw 14 Million futures, potential…futures,” Russo said. “So maybe Doctor Strange knows something.”

Strange’s “this is the only way” and “we’re in the endgame now” lines suggest that giving up the Time Stone and letting Thanos “win,” for lack of a better term, is the only way they can ultimately defeat him, something emphasized by an earlier scene.

Earlier on Strange makes it a point to tell Tony Stark and Peter Parker that if it comes down to a choice of saving them and protecting the Time Stone, he will choose the Stone. Why say all that if he was just going to give the Stone up at the first sign of Stark’s life n the line? It doesn’t make sense, that is unless it was part of a bigger plan, and we’re inclined to give Doctor Strange the benefit of the doubt.

The students also brought up that emotional ending sequence, where Thanos does wipe out half of the heroes from existence, specifically how they keep the emotional impact when certain characters are slated to have future movies.

“We made those deaths impactful- emotionally, because you have an emotional connection with those characters and it’s difficult taking someone like Peter Parker and putting him in that position,” Russo said. “What 16 year old wouldn’t want not to go in such the way it’s shown so we set up that relationship between he and Tony Stark in separate movies to lead to that moment- it’s a father-son relationship. It’s painful to watch. Certainly the most painful to watch is the Gamora sequence because Thanos is a horrible despicable creature- who believes that he sincerely loves her- which makes it a lot harder to watch. So we try to complicate things emotionally because our job as storytellers is to tell the best story we can and make your experience as many emotions as possible when you watch the film. Because ultimately it is a- you’re paying money to go see it and if we can make you laugh, cry, happy, sad and feel catharsis- you get a lot more for your money than just laughing or just crying.”

Marvel Studios’ Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War are in theaters now. It will be followed by Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6, 2018, Captain Marvel 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.