The Many Theories of “Avengers: Endgame”

Eleven years and 22 films are all leading up to this: Avengers: Endgame is set to release April 26 and has an estimated run time of three hours. So how exactly does Marvel plan to wrap up the “Infinity Saga?” That’s the thing–nobody really knows.

[Note: If for some reason you haven’t seen Infinity War yet, you might want to stop reading now, as this article references some heavy spoilers.]

In early December, Marvel released the first trailer for the then-untitled Avengers project (dubbed “Infinity War, Part 2” or “Avengers 4” by fans). The trailer features Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) recording a video for his love, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) as he seems to be lost in space, saying his final goodbyes before shutting off his suit one last time. The first 40 seconds of this trailer left a lot up for speculation, and many fans began theorizing that the beloved Iron Man was doomed to die, drifting in space. The following scenes in the trailer showed Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) rallying up the survivors of Thanos’ destruction in an attempt to save the world (again).

The first trailer also finally gave us an official title for the movie–Avengers: Endgame. There’s a lot of things we don’t know about Endgame, so fans across the web have come together to speculate and theorize how the final chapter of their beloved heroes’ journey will play out. One of my favorite theories is that those who were assumed dead from the Decimation were actually transported to an alternate reality in which they had no recollection of Infinity War. The theory goes on to say that Marvel will switch focus to this alternate reality, essentially leaving those who survived the snap behind, creating a bleak future for the MCU. Another interesting theory explores the idea of either Tony Stark or Steve Rogers sacrificing themselves for the greater good of humanity, because who better to sacrifice than those who were there since the beginning?

Obviously, there’s no real way to know what’s going to happen, even if you read back on the Infinity War comic arc. Marvel could always pull a fast one and do something completely different. But given it’s a big budget movie with good guys vs. bad guys (plus some promotional material for a new Spider-Man movie, a hero who had quite a memorable death in Infinity War, getting released) your safest bet is just stick to the theory that we’re going to see a typical Hollywood ending which gives the good guys another win under their belts.

Even with all of these theories and fan predictions, we still don’t really know what Marvel is going to pull, which leaves me with a few crucial questions that I hope will be answered in the near future.

  • Will Iron Man return home?
  • How do the Avengers plan on freeing their lost friends from the Soul Stone?
  • What will the Avengers do with Thanos if they defeat him?
  • What will the Avengers do with the Infinity Gauntlet?
  • How will Ant-Man be able to contribute to the fight?

Even with all of these vague promos, I’m still hyped to see what they are going to do next. Infinity War was such a huge sucker punch to the audience, and knowing what’s on the line will just bring a whole new layer of suspense.

I can’t wait.