Avengers Infinity War: Thanos made THIS massive mistake – and it could lead to his defeat

WARNING: Major spoilers ahead for Avengers: Infinity War.

The supervillain, played by Josh Brolin, collected all of the Infinity Stones and initiated the Snap, which killed off 50% of all humanity.

The pursuit of the Stones formed the bulk of the film, with the Time Stone – surrendered by Doctor Strange in exchange for Tony Stark’s life – the penultimate one to be retrieved.

Thanos then went to Wakanda to take the Mind Stone from Vision, but he had to use the Time Stone to get it, after Scarlet Witch had already destroyed it.

A new theory from a Marvel fan has suggested that turning back time may prove to be Thanos’s undoing in next year’s Avengers 4.

SteamDelta wrote on Reddit: “We all know that it was an odd turn for Doctor Strange to give up his stone. It seems he decided he had to [in order to] put into action the right course for them to win.

“He gave it up before Thanos had the Mind Stone. But he gave it up before Thanos could get the Mind Stone. Because he knew that Thanos would end up using it [the Time Stone].

“Remember the warning Doctor Strange was given back when he first used the [Time] Stone, when he was playing with the apple? ‘Temporal manipulations can create branches in time. Unstable dimensional openings. Spatial paradoxes! Time loops!’

“And then Thanos went and used it. Resetting the universe back 30 seconds before the mind stone was destroyed.”

They added: “When reliving those 30 seconds there were dimensional openings, spatial paradoxes, and that will be the holes in time that let the Avengers go back to the battle of New York, or even cross dimensions, or perhaps they’ll even pull the victims of the snap out of that first 30 second reality into our reality.”

Many fans have speculated that the Avengers going back in time will be the key to saving everybody who perished – but is it actually Thanos going back in time that will prove to be the key?

Whatever the case, we still have a year to wait before we know.

A great many characters are at least heavily expected to be returning: namely Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who is confirmed to be getting his own new movie, starting within moments of Avengers 4 finishing.

Yesterday it was alleged that Jake Gyllenhaal will be his next nemesis, after Ryan Gosling reportedly dropped out of casting discussions.

Avengers: Infinity War is out now.