‘Avengers: Endgame’ Theory Argues That Living Tribunal Is Main Villain

The release of Avengers: Endgame is creeping closer and closer, and a new theory could point to one possibility of what the film’s possible “bigger threat” could be.

Reddit user Coolest_Breeze recently suggested one possibility tied to Endgame, which would be that the Living Tribunal ends up making some sort of appearance within the film. As their theory suggests, the presence of the cosmic entity would force Thanos (Josh Brolin) to work together with the remaining Avengers, as a way to stop the Living Tribunal from ending their “unbalanced” universe.

For the uninitiated, the Living Tribunal is a cosmic entity who essentially judges the various realities in the Marvel Comics multiverse, and becomes the judge of whether or not each universe is sustainable. (Somewhat similarly to DC Comics’ The Monitor, who made his live-action debut in The CW’s “Elseworlds” crossover late last year.)

In the theory’s version of Endgame, the Living Tribunal possibly threatening to destroy the universe would help Thanos see the error of his ways, or at least motivate the Avengers to try to convince Thanos. As the theory points out, this would lead to the Avengers not only needing to get the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos, but to also convince him that the decimation was a bad idea.

Even with the Living Tribunal already being a pretty popular theory for that extra threat, there’s no telling exactly what is in store for fans with regards to Avengers: Endgame. After all, one of the main bits of evidence surrounding the user’s theory is that Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is sharing a scene with a completely CGI character, but there’s no shortage of Marvel cosmic characters who that could possibly be, especially considering the epic scale that the film is teasing.

“If you were to think of the Marvel universe over the last ten years as a book, this is the ending of the book,” co-director Joe Russo told reporters last year. “And then there may be new books written, but this is certainly the ending of this book.”

“I think, as storytellers, what it means for us is that while you’re always looking for a cataclysmic event in a film, to change a character, to challenge a character, and to sort of explore who that character is, and test who that character is, I think it gave all of us in this film an opportunity to figure out, well what were those ultimate tests for these characters?” co-director Anthony Russo added. “To sort of go one step further even than how you would normally test a character in one of these films because we have the freedom to sort of think of it, in many cases, as sort of a final test.”

Would you want to see the Living Tribunal appear in Avengers: Endgame? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Avengers: Endgame will be released on April 26, 2019. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5, 2019.