It was pretty apparent that Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) warmed up to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) throughout the events of Avengers: Infinity War. At one point on the Q-Ship, Strange event went as far to say he wouldn’t risk giving up the Time Stone even if it meant Stark had to die.
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Fast forward a few minutes and an incredible fight later and Strange sacrifices the Time Stone solely to save Stark’s life. It seemed as if Strange altered his thoughts on his new-found colleague rather quickly and according to one new fan theory, it’s all by design.
A theory gaining some steam online mentions that during his time seeing over 14 million potential futures, Strange gives the Tesseract and Eye of Agamotto to a future version of Stark to study and build his own version of the Gauntlet.
Because Stark needs to build a new version of the Gauntlet in the future, Strange decides to give up the Time Stone in an effort to keep Stark alive in the present timeline.
The theory goes on the explain that in his time-traveling adventures, Strange made contact with Loki prior to the God of Mischief’s death aboard the Asgardians refugee ship to tell him of the plans. The theorist points out the fact that Loki and Strange both summon the Tesseract and Time Stone, respectively, in the same manner because they’re pulling it back from the future.
It’s been a popular idea with fans that Avengers: Endgame will either see the Avengers travel through time or use the Quantum Realm to jump between dimensions or some combination of the two. As this particular theory states, the entirety of Endgame will see the Avengers going throughout time to collect another set of the Infinity Stones, eventually using Stark’s new gauntlet to defeat Thanos and undo The Decimation.
What do you think Strange’s endgame with the Infinity Stones happens to be? Do you think this new fan theorist is onto something? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or join the conversation online by mentioning me on Twitter (@AdamBarnhardt) to gush about all things MCU!
Avengers: Endgame hits theaters on April 26th. Marvel Studios has two other movies on the release schedule this year including Captain Marvel on March 8th and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.
