Avengers 4: Doctor Strange has ALREADY used the Time Stone? Theory explains all

Fans have long been speculating about the moment the Benedict Cumberbatch-played Marvel favourite looks at millions of different outcomes of their fight against Thanos (Josh Brolin).

He famously said that he saw only one outcome in which the supervillain did not succeed.

At the end of the movie, when Thanos appeared to have won by collecting all of the Infinity Stones and wiping out half of humanity, Strange uttered that they were now in the “endgame”.

So what did this mean?

On Reddit, user iamre has suggested that Strange has already used the Time Stone, which he surrendered to Thanos in order to spare Tony Stark (Iron Man, played by Robert Downey Jr).

“What bothered me in the movie was why Dr. Strange never used his Time Stone, Thanos even wonders why,” they began.

“We know that he uses it and sees that in 14,000,605 possible futures they only succeed in 1.

“Now we never see how Dr. Strange manipulates events to make sure that the 1 successful outcome occurs. Like how does he do EVERYTHING PERFECTLY and make sure everything goes perfectly (surely he saw Starlord’s mistake in the visions) to ensure the one successful outcome?”

They added: “My theory was he actually DID use the Time Stone: he used it to make a time loop like he did with Dormammu, this time making sure every single character, factor, etc… lined up perfectly and going back and trying again and again until it produced the outcome he wanted, which is the one we as an audience saw.”

Responding, another user gave a good reason why this could actually be accurate.

“I actually totally agree with this because if you notice in the movie Strange is the only one who doesn’t tell Star Lord to not hit Thanos, I think he knew it had to happen and probably force this outcome to happen, so I totally like the time loop theory,” wrote BallaBoi88.

Avengers 4 is due next year and will head into reshoots this autumn.

Before that’s released, fans can properly meet one of its main characters: Captain Marvel, whose Brie Larson-fronted solo adventure is out next March.

Avengers 4 is out on April 26, 2018.