Guest Blog by Nathan Warby
Now that we’ve all been sufficiently traumatised by Avengers: Infinity War, it seems like a good time to reflect on THAT ending, and speculate what might be in store for us in the untitled sequel coming next year. Obviously, major spoiler warning.
As you probably noticed, the original phase one Avengers were the only ones not turned to ash by Thanos’ finger-click, leaving the OG’s to settle their differences and attempt to reverse the chaos in Avengers 4. This sets up a more personal story than the Infinity War epic. Whilst the ‘deaths’ of our favourite heroes were heart wrenching, it’s pretty safe to assume that most, if not all of them, won’t be permanently erased. You can probably expect that the characters turned to dust (literally) by the Infinity Gauntlet are likely to be rescued, whereas those who met a slightly more brutal end might be gone for good. Sorry Loki. But how are the rightly broken Avengers supposed to restore the lives of half the universe, with Thanos and the broken Gauntlet seemingly retired out in space? We have a few theories.
The Captain Marvel Theory
In the post-credit scene, we see Nick Fury use some kind of alien pager to call for back-up in the form of Captain Marvel. Perhaps she will hold the key to defeating Thanos. In case you don’t know how powerful she is, she could probably take on nearly all of the Avengers at the same – think Superman levels of awesomeness. So, does that mean she could wield the Infinity Stones? Maybe. If Tony and Cap find some way of recreating their own overpowered glove, Carol Danvers could use it to give the purple murderer the beat down he deserves. Obviously, there will have to be some time-travel shenanigans for them to gather the Infinity Stones for themselves, but at this point anything is possible.
Soul Realm Theory
Another idea is that the victims are not dead exactly, but their souls are trapped inside the soul-gem. This means that time might not have to be reversed to save everybody, they just need to be pulled out of the soul realm – which leads me to my favourite theory. If the character’s souls still exist within the soul stone, perhaps they could still be contacted. If there is a secret stash of heart shaped herbs laying around, maybe the Avengers can access the soul plane and speak with their fallen comrades. Tony Stark could travel to Wakanda, have a really awkward reunion with Steve, then use the herb to communicate with the “deceased” Doctor Strange, who can finally explain why he gave up the time stone, and why it was ‘the only way’.
The downside to this theory is that we don’t know exactly how the herb works, or if it allows for actual communication with the dead, or if it just induces an hallucination. Failing that, with the number of reality bending tricks that Wong has access too, there's a good chance he could help Stark communicate with Strange through astral projection, or some other trippy magic. Either way, that would be pretty cool and make for a hilarious scene with Tony floating around separate to his own body - I can hear the quips already.
Ant-Man Theory
This one’s a little ambitious, but it’s by far the coolest. As you may have noticed, Scott Lang didn’t make an appearance in Infinity War. It was mentioned that he’s on house arrest following the events of the last Captain America movie. Ant-Man and the Wasp is set to come this July and takes place between Civil War and the current film. One of the plot devices we know about the feature so far, is that they must travel into the quantum realm, as Michelle Pfeiffer has been cast as Janet Van Dyne (the original Wasp) who was lost to the subatomic world years ago. In the original Ant-Man, the quantum realm is described as a place where time has no bearing. So, could it hold the secret to travelling between timelines? If during the movie, Lang and Pym discover how to utilise time travel, it could be a neat way of weaving him into the Avengers sequel in a meaningful way. As a side note – I think the post-credit scene for Ant-Man and the Wasp will see Hope turned to ash along with Hank, spurring Scott Lang to contact the Avengers.
A new trailer came out today and it's pretty clear there will be travel to the quantum realm. Check it out below.
So there’s a few ideas to get the ball rolling, but we’ve got an agonising year-long wait to discuss and theorize what happens next. The one thing we do know – we’re not prepared for it.