WMG / Avengers: Infinity War

All spoilers on this page are left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Pre-Release

Pre-release theories

Drax will be killed by Thanos

And return as Death's Champion in Part 2 for a final confrontation with Thanos.

• It's hard to call this one confirmed or jossed. Thanos did kill him, but he died unsung and en masse along with many other heroes — I'm not sure how Drax could get such a spotlight if everyone else is resurrected alongside him.
  • In Avengers: Endgame, he doesn't face Thanos.

Loki will have a full Heel–Face Turn and sacrifice himself to save everyone

He will be revived as Kid Loki with the Soul Gem, not have any previous memories of his old self. Because of the Asgardians not trusting him, Thor lets him stay on Midgard and join a new Team; The Young Avengers.

• He does make a Heel–Face Turn, but is killed by Thanos.

Team Coulson will appear in one or both films.

Because come on.

• Besides, the Avengers have to have known Coulson is alive by now; and they felt responsible for his death.
  • Jossed. They are never mentioned or alluded to.

The movie will have the biggest battle in the history of Marvel movies.

Seriously, the title is Infinity War. Something like that deserves a huge battle to the death.

• Infinity War does indeed have a massive battle, but perhaps not the biggest. Endgame on the other hand...

Live-action versions of the Big Hero 6 will appear in one of the two films.

Disney owns Marvel, so why not have the dimensions cross?

• Big Hero 6 was originally a Marvel comic book in the first place.
• Or we only get to hear them. Say, someone needs help in robotics, but Tony is out of reach and they call the first person who knows something even close to what they need, that being Hiro, and he talks to the hero in how to solve the problem. We won't see them, obviously, but hey, that would still be a nice little moment.
  • Jossed.

Drax WON'T be the one who kills Thanos.

He will, however, help distract Thanos at a key moment that helps lead to his defeat, perhaps even performing a Heroic Sacrifice.

• Confirmed in that Drax doesn't kill Thanos. However, he doesn't have a part in his defeat.

When the Guardians of the Galaxy cross over with The Avengers to take down Thanos, it will reveal Gamora knows Loki

Loki had to be in Thanos' world for awhile and was basically his agent, they have to have met. They may or may not have been friends, enemies or indifferent to each other.

• If Loki is working for Thanos and was tortured like Gamora was, she might try to convince Loki to join them that way.
• Jossed. Loki dies before Thor meets the Guardians.

Steve Rogers will have a new actor after this movie

Given that Chris Evans has stated that he wants to move onto directing after this, and that the character is important enough to so many stories that killing him off for good is not advisable. On the other hand, in later interviews he's indicated that he wants to continue in the role, so this may not be necessary.

• As of Endgame, he is now an old man.

A trilogy of follow-up movies entitled Infinity Crusade Part I, Infinity Crusade Part II, and Infinity Crusade Part III will be created for Phase 4, 5, or 6 once Marvel gets the rights back to all of its characters

While these movies will be based on The Infinity Gauntlet, the sequels will be based on the actual Infinity War and Infinity Crusade.

This movie will introduce a number of characters into the MCU

Mostly on the cosmic end.

• Do Thanos' forces count?

Many Avengers will be killed off

The new Avengers roster includes Cap, Widow, Falcon, War Machine, Vision, and Scarlet Witch. It seems Thanos would have to kill Vision to get the Mind Gem. Meanwhile, War Machine seems expendable (he was one of the rumored deaths for the last film). After that, Chris Evans' contract is coming up and since he died after Civil War in the comics and was replaced by Winter Soldier and currently, while alive, has given the Cap mantle to Falcon, it seems he might die as well. These deaths could be what brings Thor, Hawkeye, Iron Man, and Hulk back to the fold.

• Jossed. Cap, Widow, and War Machine all survive.

The Vision will become a Composite Character with Adam Warlock.

Adam Warlock: a space age Jesus constructed by an evil cabal who is intimately connected with an Infinity Gem. While they could easily put Adam in alongside the Vision, given the backstory they gave the latter, how could they make him different enough to justify including still another major character? I reckon Vis'll just pick up more aspects of Warlock's persona: Thanos' nemesis, the future conqueror of the universe, you get the picture.

• Furthermore, perhaps Ultron will turn out to be Not Quite Dead and become a Composite Character with Magus as the evil, future version of Vision. Ultron did manage to upload about 80% of his mind into the Vision's body, after all...
• Okay. Due to Adam being the new pet project of the Sovereign as of GotG2's Stinger, this isn't yet impossible but is somewhat complicated. Let's perhaps modify it to suggest that the Mind Stone will be taken from Vision's (likely dead) forehead and transferred into Adam's artificial body where Vision's personality will be reborn.
• Vision does identify himself as "on life's side", which serves as a rather good contrast to Thanos.

The Vision will NOT be a Composite Character of Adam Warlock.

However, he will take the Silver Surfer's role in the story instead, as Marvel Studios can't use the character. Also, that "the Vision is Adam Warlock because he's got a gem in his head" theory doesn't make any sense considering that Vision had a gem in his head to begin with, albeit not one powered by an Infinity Stone.

An Infinity Stone was/will be introduced in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

An option, since if the show manages to keep going for that long it will be popular enough that introducing an element there will reach a wide enough audience that viewers of the movie won't be confused. Most likely the Soul stone, since it would the the easiest to show on their special effects budget.

• Jossed.

There will be a Mythology Gag featuring the original Avengers from the comics

Kevin Feige recently confirmed that Marvel has plans for the Wasp to appear in future movies after Ant-Man, and Ant-Man himself met the Avengers in Civil War. Infinity War could have a scene where Iron Man, the Hulk, and Thor finally fight side by side with Ant-Man and the Wasp (albeit their successors rather than Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne), recreating the original Avengers line-up from the early comics.

• Jossed. Scott is only mentioned as being on house arrest and Hope is never mentioned at all.

Either the Soul stone or the Time stone (or possibly a combination of both) will be used to bring back several villain's and other characters as a method of tormenting the Avengers

• Each Avenger would then be forced to fight against someone from their past. The match-ups would go as follows:
  • Iron Man vs Iron Monger
  • Captain America vs Red Skull
  • Hulk vs Abomination
  • Thor vs either the real Loki or a facsimile
  • Black Widow vs Madame B.
  • Hawkeye vs himself when he was under Loki's Mind Control
  • Ant-Man vs a giant ant (what else?)
    • Yellowjacket is another possibility.
  • Scarlet Witch vs Quicksilver
  • Doctor Strange vs either the evil spirit resembling the Ancient One, Dormammu, or Baron Mordo
  • Spider-Man vs either Uncle Ben's killer or the Vulture
  • Black Panther vs either Zemo or Klaue
  • Captain Marvel vs Yon-Rogg
  • All Jossed.

The Time Stone will be used by the heroes at the end of the first movie to change things so Thanos can't gain control of the Stones, but it doesn't go quite right and changes snowball.

The first Infinity War movie will be an extended conflict and race to seize control of the already-discovered Infinity Stones, and Thanos will be on the cusp of controlling them all by the end of it. At the end, one of the heroes — maybe Scarlet Witch, whose powers were granted by one of the Stones and who might have insight? — rewinds along the time-space continuum to try to change things so that Thanos can't quite get that level of control. The changes enacted by those means are the genesis for new heroes coming into play — like Captain Marvel being influenced by the Kree.

• This will also be how Quicksilver comes back to life.
• Jossed. Doctor Strange gives up the Time Stone to save Tony.

The movies will adapt elements from Secret Wars.

Obviously, it's not possible to do a complete adaptation since the main villain of Secret Wars was Doctor Doom and the Fantastic Four were involved in its resolution. The screen rights to both still belong to Fox (and the sale to Disney was not finalized at the time of production).

The movie will get a Trilogy Creep

Marvel's just announced three new movies for 2020 that are all unlabeled. Odds are, one of them is Avengers: Infinity War - Part 3.

• Jossed.

The movie will feature a Passing the Torch

The higher ups have made cryptic statements about how this movie will close the book on a certain part of the MCU, and how they plan to reflect the Avengers' practice of constantly changing their roster in the comics. This movie could be the Grand Finale for some of the original founding Avengers, with the newer Phase 2 and 3 characters (Ant-Man, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch, ect.) carrying on as the new team.

• Jossed.

At some point, Thanos will give an A God Am I rant.

At which point Nick Fury will respond "Well, my god has a hammer!", followed by Thor coming to hit Thanos with a surprise attack.

• Rather followed by hilarious moment when Thor awkwardly explain he no longer has a hammer. But he's more of a god now, yeah. Followed by some eye-rolling.
• Jossed. Fury never meets Thanos.

The final scene of part 1 will be the Badass Fingersnap from The Infinity Gauntlet

• Alternatively, this is how Part 2 begins, giving audiences a taste of Thanos's power and what's to come in the film.
• Confirmed.

The movie will be a Distilled Adaptation of 40-50 years of Thanos stories.

In addition to the original Infinity trilogy, Infinity War will borrow elements from pretty much his entire history. Namely:

• His original 1970s arcs
• Thanos Quest
• Thanos Imperative
• Annihilation

Why? Because why not?

• Technically confirmed, as the film shows how Thanos got most of the stones.

Iron Man will get some nifty space armor

Like the one that was designed for Iron Man 3◊.

• Jossed.

The film will blend ideas from Infinity and Secret Invasion

Thanos' forces will attack earth like the former, causing a lot of death, and in the end, their forces will be defeated by a combination of heroes. However, as a result, Earth's governments no longer trust Tony Stark to run the superhumans (assuming he isn't outright dead or MIA following the film), so they place Norman Osborn in charge, as what happened in the latter. Phase 4 will be, essentially, Dark Reign.

• Jossed.

A founding Avenger will die

It's been said this film will close part of the MCU. One of the 6 original Avengers could die to lend stakes to the story.

• Jossed. They all live.

Black Panther won't officially join the Avengers — or at least he won't stay with them beyond Part II.

Chadwick Boseman is contracted to play Black Panther in five movies. Four of those movies will be in Phase 3: Captain America: Civil War in 2016, Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War Part I in 2018, and Avengers: Infinity War Part II in 2019. (Incidentally, the two parts of Infinity War must be regarded legally as two films.) Most other new MCU leads tend to get contracted for six or nine films at a time — a five-film contract seems like they have a particular plan for the character which doesn't involve him sticking around beyond one more appearance in Phase 4.

• Confirmed, in that there's no indication he ever officially joins.

Somebody will consider using the Infinity Gauntlet to remove all superhuman powers and separate Earth from all other worlds.

Because, seriously, has there really been a problem that superhumanity has fixed that it did not itself cause? Not to mention all the problems which have been caused by powers, aliens, and/or supertech that still haven't been solved yet. One could totally see either Rogers or Stark looking at that glove and thinking, "We could make it all normal again..."

Obviously, they won't use it for that, because then Marvel wouldn't be planning anything after the Infinity War movies; but you know they'll think about it...

• Jossed. Using the Infinity Gauntlet would kill most people.

There will be an Avengers vs. Guardians fight

In the grand tradition of the heroes fighting one another over a misunderstanding, the Avengers and Guardians will initially be at odds before working together. This could lead to some potential match-ups:

• Captain America vs. Star-Lord
• Thor vs. Drax
• Black Widow vs. Gamora
• Hulk vs. Groot
• Iron Man vs. Rocket Raccoon
• Black Panther vs. Mantis
  • Confirmed, albeit with different matchups - Iron Man, Spiderman, and Doctor Strange against Star Lord, Drax, and Mantis. Thor actually befriends the Guardians.

Scarlet Witch will cut loose against Thanos

The Russo brothers have said Scarlet Witch hasn't yet discovered the true scope of her abilities, and that she has the potential to become one of the most powerful members of the Avengers. She may finally get to cut loose and go all out against Thanos when he's armed with his Infinity Gauntlet, possibly helping turn the tide of the battle.

• Now that X-Men: Apocalypse is out, this is less likely to happen (it'd be "Jean goes Phoenix and curbstomps Apocalypse" all over again).
  • Not in Infinity War, but she does so in Endgame.

Wakanda will help fight Thanos' forces

Just like in Infinity.

• Confirmed by the trailer.

Part 1 will have two competing teams of Avengers

Assuming the Avengers don't reunite at the close of Civil War, there could be two rival Avengers teams at the beginning of the movie, similar to the Mighty Avengers and the New Avengers after Civil War in the comics.

• Jossed. Though the characters are separated throughout most of the film, there are no official teams.

Thor and Hulk will be the ones to warn of Thanos...

...Instead of the Silver Surfer. After the events of Ragnarok, Thor and Hulk will make their way back to Earth to warn the other heroes of what is coming, possibly after encountering or learning of Thanos in that movie.

• In the trailer, you can see that Bruce Banner landed in the New York sanctum. Maybe Thor and/or Loki send him there to warm everyone after their ship gets attacked by Thanos.
  • He is actually sent by Heimdall.

Ross will become the Red Hulk

And he will use it by getting someone to reverse-engineer the serum from the Abomination. They won't waste Red Hulk in Civil War since Hulk isn't in that movie, but here could be a more logical place to debut him.

• He becomes Red Hulk in a desperate attempt to stop Thanos on his own without asking the Avengers for help. There'll probably be a Let's You and Him Fight with the Avengers, specifically the Hulk.
  • Jossed - he doesn't appear much aside from telling Rhodes to arrest the wanted Avengers, who promptly shuts the monitor off.

The First Act Will Involve Putting the Band Back Together.

At the end of Captain America: Civil War, Steve put the Avengers in Tony's hands at the end, but at this point, all heroes are fugitives, crippled, off world, in Parts Unknown, or simply want nothing to do with him. It's unlikely he would be able to put a team together in the meantime. Once Thanos rears his ugly head, they will need to gather a team on the fly, which would probably take up a large chunk of the first act.

• Jossed. Steve and Tony never meet in the film.

Steve Rogers will next appear in Part 1 with a new shield given to him by Black Panther.

At the end of Captain America: Civil War when Steve goes on the run and abandons the Captain America mantle, he leaves his shield behind as it's government property. Remember, Captain America's shield is made of vibranium. In the mid-credits scene we see Steve is now in Wakanda, which is the world's source of vibranium. It's possible that King T'Challa will give him a replacement vibranium shield, this time without the Captain America paint job.

• Confirmed, although he is given arm shields.

War Machine will get another new suit of armor.

...One that compensates for his paralysis. It might even be gigantic transformable suit like the one he had in The Ultimates.

• Or Veronica/Hulkbuster with a gray paint job and conventional armaments added.
• Confirmed in that he gets a new suit.

The film will feature cameos from a Community cast member.

• So far, both the Russos' films have included a cameo appearance — Danny Pudi in The Winter Soldier, and Jim Rash in Civil War. We've even had Donald Glover in Spider-Man: Homecoming. It would make sense to continue the tradition with another cast member or two.
• Joel McHale and/or Alison Brie as part of a legal team negotiating something with Tony.
• Yvette Nicole Brown as Falcon's mom.
  • Close - Ken Jeong would've appeared in a poker game with Howard The Duck.
  • Both actors appear in Endgame.

The Guardians of the Galaxy will disapprove of the Sokovia Accords.

There will be a part of the film where Tony offers to help Peter reintegrate into Earth Society with help from the Government, but Peter will refuse as he doesn't want to be controlled, leaving him to withdraw from Earth completely, telling Gamora that he doesn't need it.

• Jossed. Tony and Quill do meet but it is on Thanos's ruined home world of Titan and there is no talk about Quill going back to Earth (I'm still wondering where this idea of Quill having any desire to return to Earth came from in the first place). Rocket and Groot are the only two Guardians who visit Earth and they're too busy fighting Thanos's mutant army to be concerned about any detail of humanity's sordid politics. The film establishes that the Sokovia Accords are still in play but by this point shit is going down and the superheroes refuse to abide by them — considering what happens by the film's end the Accords will probably be rendered null and void as the governments of the world will be desperate for the superheroes to set things right again in any way they can.

When Thor meets Tony, he will not be happy about Tony's role in the Civil War.

Obviously a warrior god like Thor would not agree with any sort of accords that would limit what he can and can't do. So when he learns Tony is responsible for breaking up the Avengers (that's how Thor would see it, at least) and almost killing Cap, he will give Tony a smackdown equivalent to what happened in The Mighty Thor, when the two first met post-Civil War. Though obviously there was no Thor clone involved in the movie version, so he'll be a bit less pissed off than his comic counterpart was.

• Thor and Tony don't meet in this film. There's still Avengers: Endgame...
  • In Endgame, however, the topic never comes up between them.

The Nebula plot twist from The Infinity Gauntlet will be used in the movie.

In the MCU, Nebula is not just Thanos' possible granddaughter who's never even met her, but his actual (adopted) daughter. So her going from Daddy's Little Villain to The Usurper would provide some heavy Shakespearean character drama, as well as a neat plot twist.

• Adding to this, Nebula will ultimately steal the Gauntlet and soon endure an overlap of With Great Power Comes Great Insanity and Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds after trying to invoke Reset Button against Thanos's damage and take Revenge on him, not unlike said comic-counterpart.
  • She grabs the Gauntlet from Thanos (who is content that his goal so he's no longer the villain), and tries to use it to both get revenge on Thanos and step into his shoes as Galactic Conqueror. She takes him with her when she teleports aboard Santuary and starts barking orders to the crew, all the while Thanos mocks her inexperience with power and says she's too flawed a being to properly wield it. She goes on trying to prove herself, resetting his erasure of half the universe and reshaping planets into monuments of herself. Meanwhile, the heroes have assembled a group of cosmic entities to fight her. Gamora's soul acts through the Soul Stone to cause Nebula pain through the Gauntlet and she loses it.
• Jossed. She never uses the Gauntlet.

Bucky and not Sam would become the new Captain America

• Sam already has a strong identity as the Falcon, while Bucky would probably do just about anything to shed his Winter Soldier persona.
• Bucky is the only person aside from Captain America to pick up and actually try to use the shield. It could count as foreshadowing: in The First Avenger, he picked up the shield to defend himself before being blown out of the freight train car. In The Winter Soldier, he caught it in mid-air in his Winter Soldier persona when Steve attempted to throw it at him. In Civil War, he and Steve actually threw it back and forth to each other as they were facing off against Iron Man. In each film, Bucky gets progressively better at holding the shield.
• In a way, by carrying the shield that Howard Stark built, Bucky might feel that he's making amends for the Winter Soldier's murders of Howard and Maria Stark. And of course, honoring his best friend Steve "til the end of the line".
• Also, as one of the first people officially rescued by Captain America, as well as being from the original era in which Captain America was born, it would be poetic for Bucky to later become him.
• Jossed. In Endgame, Cap passed the mantle to Sam.

The U.N. will have a new Avengers line-up

With the Accords are in effect, the UN may want an Avengers team on standby even if Civil War seemed to end with it ambiguous as to whether or not Tony was still gonna continue the Avengers.

• Jossed.

Part of the plot will be similar to the Avengers/Defenders War...

...But with the Guardians of the Galaxy replacing the Defenders. Two unrelated teams of superheroes vying for a set of powerful MacGuffins with the fate of the universe at stake, circumstances cause the groups to come into conflict with one another, and they eventually come together to take on the bigger threat.

• Jossed.

Part 1 will end with the heroes suffering incredibly ironic beatings

Like for example,

• Captain America being stabbed with the broken shards of his shield
• Iron Man being locked in and suffocating inside his own armor
• Thor having his ribcage crushed by Mjolnir (that is, if he survives Ragnarok)
  • Or, alternatively, being Tasered or struck by lightning repeatedly.
• Hulk getting slammed into a nearby building
• Black Widow being electrocuted with her staves
• Hawkeye being shot with his own arrows
• Scarlet Witch being compelled to telekinetically rip the Mind Stone out of Vision's head
• Bucky's (replacement) metal arm strangling him
• Groot being forcefully morphed into a sword which Thanos uses to reduce Drax to Ludicrous Gibs
• Spider-Man getting tied up in his webs
• Doctor Strange being trapped in a time-loop
• Loki being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice on the horns of his helmet.
• Ant-Man and/or the Wasp shrinking into oblivion
• Gamora and/or Nebula and/or Rocket having their cybernetics ripped from their bodies.
  • All jossed. Bucky, Groot, Spiderman, Dr. Strange and Scarlet Witch are disintegrated after Thanos snaps his fingers with the Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos kills Loki by snapping his neck and tosses Gamora over a cliff as a sacrifice to get the Soul Stone. Hawkeye, Antman and Wasp are not even in the movie (the latter still has to make her debut in Ant-man and the Wasp) so their fates are unknown. The rest of the heroes in the list survive but they witness watching their friends and rest of the universe die.

Possible titles for the second movie

• Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet
• Avengers: Infinity Crusade
• New Avengers
• Avengers: Secret Wars
• Avengers: Eternity War
• Avengers: Rise of Thanos
• Avengers: The Thanos Imperative
• Avengers: The Final Threat
• Avengers: Infinity
• Avengers: Assembled
• Avengers Forever (given the rumors of a time travel plot)
• New Avengers
  • All Jossed. The title is Avengers: Endgame.

There'll be a scene where Thanos is about to delve the final blow against the Avengers only for the people to defend them.

Stan Lee will cameo among the crowd. The woman who lost her son during the Ultron incident and blames Tony for it, will be among the people as well.

• Marvel would probably shy away from so much civilian carnage.
  • Jossed. So civilians are present in the battle.

Similar to the above, the films will deconstruct the Thou Shalt Not Kill and/or If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him! tropes

In the first Avengers film, the Other tells Thanos that challenging the Avengers is "to court Death". Obviously, this causes an ethical dilemma for the anti-Thanos coalition: If they kill Thanos, they would be giving him what he wants. If they don't, they allow him to commit more atrocities across the galaxy.

• Jossed. No one has any qualms over killing him.

The reason for it being touted as two separate films and not a two-part movie

Much has been made from the Russos and Feige about how the two movies will be two complete, separate films that just happen to contain the same running story arc. Additionally, there will still be two movies released in between the two Avengers movies, indicating that there will be a Time Skip between them rather than the second installment immediately picking up after the events of the first. And of course, there's the fact that they felt Part II necessitated a new title to better reflect its status as a separate film, with said new title kept under wraps.

The reason? The first movie will feature most of the original Avengers from the previous two movies, while the second one will have the main protagonists be a brand new team. What if part one ends with the original Avengers seemingly defeated or captured, leaving the remaining, more recent heroes like Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Wasp, Valkyrie and the newly-introduced Captain Marvel to band together and rescue them?

• Jossed. The original Avengers all survive the first film.

The movie will have a Mythology Gag about Cap's Kooky Quartet

In the aftermath of Civil War, we could see Cap leading a team consisting of himself, Falcon, Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye, with the roster serving as an equivalent to the Cap's Kooky Quartet era from the comics (with Falcon substituting for Quicksilver, who can't appear as part of the team for obvious reasons).

• Jossed. Hawkeye is only mentioned as being on house arrest.

The first installment will end with a cliffhanger

All the heroes have gathered, Thanos has all of the Infinity Stones in the Gauntlet. The heroes all charge, we get an awesome shot of them ready to attack Thanos and then...a bright white flash and a fade-in later, we show up back in New York or wherever. We hear news broadcasts but they sound odd: Sam Wilson is Captain America, the world's leading tech company is no longer Stark Industries but Alchemax, and everyone seems to have superpowers thanks to something the broadcast calls a "Terrigen Mist." Spidey suddenly pops into frame, freaking out and looks over the different world. Then we just cut to black and roll credits.

No mid-credits scene, no stinger. Just a title card that says "To Be Continued."

• Seems a bit redundant to have a Mass Super-Empowering Event with Terrigen Mist when we've already had Terrigen Fish Oil.
• Confirmed. However the cliffhanger is that Thanos wiped out half of all life in the Universe.

The fights we're likely to see

Add here all the fights you wish or expect to see in this movie!

• Hulk vs. Thanos (Thanos wins)
  • CONFIRMED.
• Thor vs. Thanos (Thanos wins)
  • CONFIRMED.
• Hulk and Thor vs. Thanos (Thanos wins)
  • JOSSED. The Hulk and Thor never fight Thanos at the same time.
• Captain America vs. Star-Lord (draw)
  • JOSSED. Captain America and Star-Lord never meet.
• Scarlet Witch vs. Doctor Strange (draw)
  • JOSSED. Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange never meet.
• Iron Man vs. Star-Lord (draw)
  • CONFIRMED.
• Black Widow vs. Gamora (draw)
  • JOSSED. Black Widow and Gamora never meet.
• Gamora and Nebula vs. Thanos (Thanos wins, Nebula dies, Gamora barely escapes)
  • JOSSED. Although Gamora fights Thanos and loses, and Nebula fights Thanos and loses, the sisters never fight him at the same time. Also, Nebula survives the events of the film while Gamora does not.

At one point, Rocket will see Bucky's potentially replaced arm and will want to steal it.

Come on, that's comedy gold waiting to write itself.

• CONFIRMED! Of a sort. He actually offered to buy it.

At one point, Bruce Banner will meet up with Thunderbolt Ross again.

Expect the following exchange.

Ross: Banner, you look different.

Banner^note Played by Mark Ruffalo: I was a different man since Harlem. I see you haven't changed^note In reference to how Ross' actor, William Hurt, has been one of the few actors from TIH to reprise his character in future MCU installments.

• Jossed

Thanos will pull a MacGuffin Delivery Service

Thanos already had access to the Mind Stone, since he gave it to Loki. But why would he give up one of the Infinity Stones? To draw out the rest of them out and get everyone on alert.

Loki briefly got access to the Space Stone by using the Mind Stone in his scepter. Thanos is, behind the scenes, making sure everyone knows the Infinity Stones are dangerous. The Stones will end up together as the heroes attempt to compile them into Odin's right-handed Infinity Gauntlet to keep Thanos from getting them. Thanos will swoop in with his left-handed Infinity Gauntlet and take all the Stones that the heroes have unwittingly compiled for him. He won't have to overpower all the people who are "protecting" the stones. Just whoever compiles them.

• Jossed. The right-handed gauntlet was revealed to be a fake in Thor: Ragnarok.

Peter Dinklage's character speculation.

• Pip the Troll (Cue Game of Thrones jokes.)
• Starfox: He's the brother of Thanos in the comics.
  • If this happens, then there should be someone that can't let him do something.
• MODOK
• Adam Warlock
  • Jossed
• Eitri
  • Confirmed.

Thanos will make a Call-Back to the "my turn" scene from Iron Man

What better place to put an Ironic Echo from that film than the film that celebrates it's tenth anniversary.

• Jossed.

If Coulson returns, it will be to bring the heroes back from the Despair Event Horizon

He will use his experience in the Agents series to motivate them, mainly using Season 3 to tell them that if a group of relatively normal people can defeat an almost-invincible godlike being, then the Avengers can defeat Thanos too.

• Alternately, they will be motivated by Zendaya.
• Jossed. Coulson never appears or is mentioned.

Thanos will fight Dormammu after the gauntlet is complete, and Thanos will humiliate him.

After the events of ''Doctor Strange, Dormammu will want to be the one to defeat him first, but he's unaware that Thanos has the stone that beat him the first time, allowing Thanos to curbstomp a god.

• Jossed. Dormammu never appears or is mentioned.

Thanos absolutely will kill Somebody!

Right now, Marvel has a problem. Since The Stinger from the Avengers, Thanos has been all show and no go. His actions have consisted of:

1. losing the Mind Stone (ie: the stone he already had)
2. failing to get the Space Stone
3. failing to get the Power Stone, because he relied on agents who hated him enough to betray him almost immediately
4. picking up his Infinity Gauntlet

So not exactly an impressive run from the Mad Titan. If Thanos is going to be the Big Bad of the MCU for two movies, to be worthy of the buildup that he's had, then he has to establish his villain credentials. And there's no better way to do that than with a Sacrificial Lion. So, let's run down the possibilities:

• Tony Stark
  • He was the very foundation of the MCU. Killing him off, particularly in spectacular fashion, would signal both a dramatic shift in the MCU and establish Thanos as capable of pretty much anything. It would also act as a huge punch to the audience, since pretty much nobody would expect it. Also, you can always create a new Iron Man. The downside is no more Robert Downey Jr.
  • Jossed.
• Steve Rogers
  • Lots of people are attached to Cap as a character. So killing him off would impact the audience. And like Stark, you can always create a new Captain America to replace him. The downside here is that... well, he's not exactly one of the stronger Avengers, so killing just Cap would be a weaker way to establish Thanos's villain cred. However, he's also one of the main leaders of the Avengers (vies with Tony for that spot), as well as being the official First Avenger.
  • Jossed.
• Thor
  • From an out-of-universe standpoint, this is a good move. Thor's movies have been the weakest of the Avengers, so killing him off would be a good move. Not to mention, unlike Tony or Steve, you cannot just kill him off and replace him with someone else; there is and can only be one Thor. Not one Thor at a time, one Thor period. Furthermore, Thor is a powerhouse, so killing him off does establish Thanos as a force to be reckoned with. In addition, a movie about Asgard without Thor would be extremely difficult to sell, which was apparently why Thor: Ragnarok had much of the main aspects of Thor's mythos destroyed. Not only is Mjolnir destroyed, but so is Asgard, soil and all. Most of Thor's Asgardian supporting cast from his solo movies is either dead (Odin, Frigga, the Warriors Three), missing (Jane, Darcy, Selvig, and Sif), or redeemed (Loki), leaving only Heimdall and Valkyrie.
  • Jossed.
• Hulk
  • As the most physically powerful of the team, killing him would definitely put Thanos into the top-tier of the MCU villains. However, a lot of people really like the Hulk. And unlike Iron Man or Captain America, you can't just slot someone in to replace him. There is only one Hulk; he's unique in the MCU. So killing him off takes away something that a lot of people really like. Also, from a Doylist perspective, this would make sense, as the Hulk's solo movie distribution rights are with Universal. Hence, the MCU has to make the most out of what little that they can do with the Hulk. If he does survive Infinity War, where else can he go?
  • The Hulk can guest star in Spider-Man movie, since the teenage Spider-Man did run into him in a very memorable early issue (#13 where he met the Green Goblin). And killing off big guns is too drastic a move for a Continuity Reset post-Phase 3. There would need to be some survivors, and keeping Ruffalo's Hulk around, and pairing him with Spider-Man would be cool. Tony Stark won't be there in Homecoming 2 apparently, so there needs to be another marquee name to highlight Spidey's Shared Universe status and what better than the Hulk, especially if it involves recreating a classic pair-up.
  • Jossed.
• Nick Fury
  • He was the In-Universe creator of the Avengers, making him the Designated Big Good of the MCU. Thanos killing him off will shock the Avengers to the core. Furthermore, SHIELD more or less exists on paper in the MCU anyway, depriving him of his main character trait. Not to mention, it will herald the end of the Avengers era in the MCU.
    • Of course they could do what they do in the original Starlin Story, Have the deaths undone by a World-Healing Wave and do a Crisis-esque continuity reboot that allows room for some changes and recasting.
    • If Mark Ruffalo's recent comments about the film prove true, then ALL the heroes will be dead by the end of the film. However this may just be misleading info as the footage was allowed to air later on which would be very unlikely if true. Also assuming the above is true the sequel to Infinity War may undo any deaths that occur on the heroes' side in Infinity War via the Time Stone or the Soul Stone or possibly intervention from the Living Tribunal or it's master The One Above All.
    • Confirmed. In The Stinger, he and Maria Hill are disintegrated into dust after Thanos use the Infinity Gauntlet. But on his last moments, Fury is able to send a distress signal to Captain Marvel.

Ideas for Jim Starlin's Creator Cameo

• The first human who Thanos encounters on Earth, who he then kills. Ironic, isn't it? Jim Starlin created Thanos, who would then kill him.
• A cosmic deity featured in a flashback battling Thanos.
  • Jossed. He doesn't cameo in Infinity War. He does have a cameo in Endgame, however.

At the end of the films, Star-Lord will receive a new mix-tape from Earth, which will explain how there can be new music in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

He got Zune. With 300 songs, no less. That oughta last him 'till GotG vol.5 at least.

• Jossed.

The first inter-team meet-up.

Iron Man: Who are you?
Star-Lord: We're the Guardians of the Galaxy. Who the hell are you?
Iron Man: We're the Avengers.
[beat]
Star-Lord: Yeah, our name's way better.

• Jossed. They don't compare their names.

Tony's New Suit Is Retro Fitted Wakanda Technology?

In some trailers, we see the Iron Man Sui seem to grow about Tony's body, vry similar to the nw Black Panther Suit.Considering how in the Black Panther Film, T' Challa begin to share information about Wakanda with the World, is it possible that Tony learn about the Suit Technology and retrofitted it in to his Iron Man suit, as shown in the Film?

• Jossed. It's nanotechnology.

Tony interacting with Starlord is what inspires him to make up with Steve and the others.

Considering how Starlord fully believes in the idea of Family of Choice and doesn't want to ever leave his own group of freaks, them talking will inspire Tony to realize he can't abandon his own group of freaks, allowing him to regain his friends.

• Or, alternatively, Drax gives Tony and friends the same brief lecture he gave Nebula.
• Tony does interact with Star-Lord, but it's essentially Peter's constant pop-culture references turned up to eleven from Star-Lord's end, much to Tony's dismay.

Tony will mock Quill's Zune

Before learning of how Peter got it.

• Alternatively, he will not recognize it, instead geeking over it thinking its some extraterrestrial artifact, only with Peter to cut him down with "Isn't that what everyone on Earth listens to these days?"
• Jossed. The Zune only appears in a deleted scene.

Everyone who has been killed in the MCU will reappear through means of either the Time Stone or the Soul Stone

Whether they're permanently brought back or they briefly appear to help the heroes, the Infinity Stones will allow the heroes to once again see these characters, possibly including Quicksilver, Howard/Maria Stark, Peggy Carter, Yondu, Uncle Ben, the Ancient One, probably some of the villains they killed, and some more.

• And at one point, one of the living heroes will be like, "Wait, where's Phil?" and Nick Fury & Black Widow will share an awkward glance.
• Jossed.

The first half of Part 1 will have Team Iron Man be Curb Stomped by Thanos

Iron Man, Vision, and maybe Spider-Man (depending on how Spider-Man: Homecoming ends) will try to defend the Earth from Thanos, with Iron Man in particular coming off as a Death Seeker. They will be utterly thrashed, maybe Vision gets "killed" by Thanos and has his Infinity Stone taken. Watching Team Iron Man get defeated will demoralize Earth's defenses and cause Team Cap to come out of hiding.

• Jossed. None of them meets Thanos himself until the third act.

The Guardians will teach Mantis to fight in the time skip between Volume 2 and this movie

This way she'll be able to have a more active role in the fight against Thanos.

• We'll call this one jossed. Mantis didn't seem to have much fighting prowess at all. She jobbed hard against anyone she "fought" in the film (Thanos and Spider-Man). True, she was the linchpin in the plan that very nearly defeated Thanos, but she required a ton of assistance to get into position to mind-zonk him, and he tossed her away like a rag doll when her mental hold on him was broken.

Infinity War will be a villain movie.

Thanos will be the actual protagonist and primary PoV character for Infinity War, which will follow him clashing with the Avengers and Guardians as he reclaims the Infinity Stones. Then, the to-be-retitled part two will focus once again on the heroes. It would be new, different, and if it works, a gigantic middle finger to DC after the absolute dumpster fire that was Suicide Squad.

• CONFIRMED. This is absolutely Thanos's movie. It even ends with him accomplishing all that he sets out to do and triumphing over our heroes.

The movie will end with the heroes defeating the Black Order.

Once the Black Order is destroyed, Thanos finally manages to get his hands on the Infinity Gauntlet and all its stones just after the climax, setting up the next movie.

• Semi-confirmed - the Black Order die in the movie (assuming Supergiant was Adapted Out), but Thanos snaps his fingers in the film.

Vision will become emotionless once he loses the Mind Gem

In the comics, he "died" and lost the brain waves of Wonderman, turning him into an emotionless, pale shadow of his former self. Something similar will occur once the Mind Gem is removed.

• Jossed. He is killed when the stone is removed from him.

Star-Lord's Zune playlist will be the movie's soundtrack.

• Jossed. We only hear one song from it.

There will be a Running Gag involving Starlord and Spider-Man.

Say, every so often someone will try and get either Peter's attention by saying their name, and both of them will respond.

Iron Man: Peter!

Spider-Man and Star-Lord: What!?

Iron Man: No, you! The other Peter!

Spider-Man and Star-Lord: [Beat] What!?

• Jossed. Their shared name is never mentioned.

Tony will invoke One-Steve Limit.

Perhaps in response to the above, or maybe with one of the other pairs. With his signature dry style, he's the only one who would be able to do it without it obviously coming across as Leaning on the Fourth Wall. Even though it would still be that, of course.

• Jossed.

Nebula will get killed off by Thanos early on

At the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Nebula storms off to seek out Thanos on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. It seems like a distinct possibility that, in an Action Prologue to Infinity War (or maybe a Post-Credits Scene in advance), she could be the first one to encounter Thanos on his quest to assemble the Infinity Stones and, in a case of Revenge Before Reason, will pull a Leeroy Jenkins and rush in to confront him — only to be on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle that serves to demonstrate Thanos' power with the Gauntlet (and any stones he has amassed by that point) to the audience while leaving the Avengers and their allies unaware.

• Even worse — Thanos doesn't need the Infinity Gauntlet to kill her when the Black Order's with him in this movie.
• Jossed. She survives but she lost Gamora and witnessed half of the universe destroyed.

Avengers 4 may feature Skrulls as one of villains

Joe Russo states both IW and Avengers 4 will have 2 different stories from each other and Kevin Feige says the title of Avengers 4 would be a BIG spoiler for Infinity War. What if Infinity War could see the surprise appearance of Skrulls because Samuel L. Jackson slipped about Nick Fury hunting down Skulls during one of his interviews. What if he actually meant SKRULLS?! I doubt Red Skull will appear for IW because Hugo Weaving has NO interest in reprising his role for future MCU films. It could explain what happens to Skrulls after 20 years after the event of Captain Marvel.

• Jossed. Captain Marvel reveals that the Skrulls were good.

Proxima Midnight will be a Composite Character with Moondragon

Long shot, but in this iteration of the story, Proxima is another of Thanos' adopted children. Since we know Thanos has a habit of adopting offspring from the planets he ravaged, it is possible that Drax's daughter somehow survived her apparent death at Ronan's hands, and was raised by Thanos to be another of his assassins.

• Proxima is a Horned Humanoid, which likely means she's intended to be of a different alien race than Drax's.
• Jossed.

Hulk will be the villain for IW

Mark Ruffalo says Hulk will play a larger role for IW and Avengers 4 and says Hulk's arc is more complex than ever. In addition, Scarlett Johansson said filming a scene with Mark Ruffalo left her devastated. Does that means Hulk will go against the Avengers?

• Jossed. Ruffalo was likely a Lying Creator (at least for IW, since aside from appearing in the first

Characters who are likely to survive Avengers 4.

• Black Panther: No-brainer. He's the MCU's first person of color to headline his own movie, and Boseman has one or two more movies in his contract.
  • See the entry below Spiderman.
• Spider-Man: Again, a no-brainer. Do you think Marvel would spend so much time and energy negotiating with Sony to get Spidey in this franchise just to kill him off.
  • Surprisingly jossed. He's going to come Back from the Dead, but he gets dusted by Thanos's Badass Fingersnap.
• Winter Soldier: First, Stan will have four more movies in his contract after Avengers 4, and Bucky is far too popular.
  • And he gets snapped. Jossed.
• Gamora, since rumor has it that the third GotG will focus on her.
  • Jossed - Thanos sacrifices her to get the Soul Stone.
• Groot, since he's heroically sacrificed himself once already.
  • Jossed. Dusted like a good chunk of the heroes.
• Black Widow: It's been reported that she might finally get a solo film in 2020.
  • Confirmed
• Thor: The character went through big and meaningful changes in Ragnarok, killing him off in IW would be a massive waste of amazing new potential.
  • Confirmed.

So... we know "dead" is a possibility for everyone, but for those who survive, what happens to them in the end?

• Tony will...
  • Become Secretary of Defense
  • Give up being Iron Man for real this time
  • Have an utter breakdown and retire, remaining in Pepper's care and locked away from the outside world
    • All Jossed. He dies in Endgame.
• Steve will...
  • Become a major diplomat for the US (assumes eventual resolution for his crimes in Civil War)
  • Become the director of SHIELD, working from the shadows like Fury.
  • Voluntarily go to prison to resolve his crimes in Civil War.
  • Assuming death, will be implied to have ascended to Valhalla by Thor, at which time his shield gets the same spell cast upon it as Mjolnir.
  • Pass the shield down to Bucky or Falcon.
  • Romantically pursue Sharon.
    • All Jossed. He goes back in time to be with Peggy.
• Thor will...
  • Take his place on the throne of Asgard.
    • Jossed: He has already become King of Asgard as of Thor: Ragnarok.
  • Become a human being and enjoy a mortal life with Jane.
    • Also Jossed: Jane broke up with him.
    • If Tony and Pepper can get back together, so can Thor and Jane.
• Banner will...
  • Finally get his cure.
  • Become the Hulk permanently.
    • Both confirmed in a way. In Endgame, it's revealed that he now saw the Hulk as the cure and merged with him.
• Thanos will...
  • Decide Godhood isn't what it's cracked up to be and settle down to start a farm.
    • Probably Confirmed. He did retire to a simple life. Whether or not he started an actual farm like he did in the comics is yet to be seen.
  • Live, imprisoned somewhere, without the Infinity Gauntlet. And sulking because Lady Death isn't by his side anymore (watch, she'll probably show up in Deadpool 2 or something.)
    • Lady Death seems to have been Adapted Out.
  • Be Taken for Granite and chucked across the universe where he can't harm anyone anymore. Until someone finds a way to bring him back for a future film.
    • All Jossed. He dies.
• Star-Lord will...
  • Fully access his powers, become full Celestial, and retreat into the depths of space. The other Guardians sink into depression but every so often the Milano's radio will start up unexpectedly, to one of Pete's favorite songs, causing them to suspect he's still with them in spirit.
    • Likely Jossed: Ego's death meant that the "light" has gone out, meaning that Peter no longer has powers.
  • Get ahold of the Infinity Gauntlet but only have the chance to do one thing with it. Instead of bringing back his mother he brings back Drax's family.
    • Jossed. He never uses the Gauntlet.
• Peter Parker will...
  • Snag some shares of Stark Enterprises, put the dividends into creating his own tech company, and get filthy rich.
  • Return to his normal life of balancing school with being a superhero and maybe even hit the jackpot.
    • Confirmed by Far From Home.
• Dr. Strange will...
  • Become a spirit advisor to someone after losing his own body. Possibly Tony.
  • Become the Sorcerer Supreme and start training Scarlet Witch.
    • Confirmed if Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is any indication.
  • Take a trip to Asgard and possibly be better accepted there as a sorcerer, thereby driving Loki mad with jealousy.
• Hawkeye will...
  • Finally retire and spend more time with his family
    • Confirmed, at least until his Disney+ series.
• Captain Marvel will...
  • Lead a new team of Avengers
    • Jossed. She seems to be continuing on her own.
• Scott Lang will...
  • Become the new CEO of Pym Technologies while Hank and Janet leave to rekindle their love.
  • Become one of the new leaders of the Avengers.
    • No indication either way.
• Wanda will...
  • Marry Vision
    • Jossed. Vision dies.
  • Train under Doctor Strange to find a way to bring Quicksilver back to life.

Ideas for The Stinger

• Peter and Rocket walk into a music store to find some new stuff to listen to.
  • Or they try to find another Zune so that Rocket can have his own.
  Salesperson: “What’s a Zune?”
• Tony and Steve making amends, assuming both of them survive.
• Steve finally meeting Peggy again in the afterlife, if he dies.
• Everybody eating shawarma.
• Something in which Kevin Feige finally gets his Creator Cameo.
• A horrifying revelation that one of the heroes has turned traitor and is serving Thanos now.
  • Perhaps that someone could be Tony, and he could be doing it out of a misplaced attempt to save his friends. Possibly by making a deal with Thanos, because he's scared of his friends separating again (like in Captain America: Civil War) or dying (like in his vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron).
• The Avengers will be together discussing current events. And when someone brings up Phil Coulson's death, Coulson himself will spin around in a chair or step out from a dark corner to state that the reports of his death were greatly exaggerated. He'll then gush over how he's been waiting a long time to say that.
• Wanda encounters a man with magnetic powers who seems to know a lot about her and claims that there are more people out there like her than she knows.
• Thanos's invasion of Earth catching the eyes of a certain Devourer of Worlds and his herald.
  • All Jossed. The Stinger is Maria Hill and Nick Fury being dusted, but not before he sends a message to Captain Marvel.

Tyler Bates will contribute to the score with Alan Silvestri

Assuming Silvestri doesn't incorporate it himself, it would seem somewhat unjust for the Guardians to finally meet the Avengers without their leitmotifs coming together as well.

• Jossed.

Thanos already has the Soul Stone

• Thanos seemed not to have problems with lending Loki the Mind Stone within the scepter. Why would he lend out the only stone in his possession?
• On that note, perhaps one of the missions of The Team involves trying to steal the Soul Stone back from Thanos.
  • Presumably Jossed, since trailer features the Gauntlet with just Power and Space gems.
    • Completely jossed, since the Soul Stone isn't even formed until midway through the movie.

Thanos will send out his children to fight the heroes while he retrieves the Stones personally.

• Thanos will walk through the wreckage wrought by Hela and take the Space Stone from Asgard without much resistance.
  • Jossed: Asgard was utterly destroyed, and we see Loki took an extra-long glance at the Tesseract on his way to the Eternal Fire... Knowing Loki, he probably grabbed it. Meaning that Thanos would be coming for Loki again
    • Confirmed. Thanos hunts the Tesseract down (bringing him right to the Asgardian refugee ship) and obtains it from Loki, who is killed shortly thereafter when he tries to stand up to Thanos.
• The Collector will offer the Aether willingly to Thanos in exchange for his own life. Thanos may or may not spare his life.
  • Possibly jossed. If Thanos's Reality Stone illusion was an accurate retelling of events, the Collector attempted to keep the stone from Thanos by lying about selling it. The Collector's ultimate fate is currently unknown, but considering the reveal of what Thanos did to all of Knowhere when his illusion dropped things are not looking good for the Collector's survival.
  • Or it will be revealed that the Collector was an agent of Thanos all along.
• Dr. Strange will be off on some solo mission, or perhaps off letting his pride be his downfall somewhere, and Thanos will come to him alone and take the Time Stone from him. He will leave Dr. Strange alive out of some twisted respect.
  • Strange does come out of it alive, but he voluntarily gives up the stone for Tony's life.
• Thanos will have the hardest time getting the Mind Stone. Once The Team realizes that Thanos is going after the Infinity Stones personally, they will guard the Vision and ensure he isn't left alone. In a display of massive force, Thanos will confront a group of heroes personally, best all of them in combat, and then rip the stone directly from Vision's head, killing him. Others will also be left dead in the skirmish, notably Captain America.
  • Parts of this are confirmed, parts are jossed. Many of the heroes do guard Vision and take on Thanos when he appears, and Thanos does eventually get to Vision and kills him for the stone. No one but Thor with Stormbreaker is able to stand up to Thanos who has all the other stones by that point. No one who confronts Thanos in this scene dies until the infamous finger-snap. Captain America survives the events of the film.
• Thanos will decimate the Nova Corps to reach the Power Stone, or alternately he will enslave members of the Nova Corps with the Mind Stone and force them to bring the Power Stone to him.
  • The first part of this is confirmed, though it happens off-screen. Everything else is jossed.
• Thanos already has the Soul Stone.
  • Jossed. He travels to Vormir and sacrifices Gamora to obtain it.

Or, going by a popular online theory, Heimdall is wearing the Soul Gem.

• Jossed. The Soul Stone was on Vormir and required the sacrifice of a loved one. Heimdall had nothing to do with the stone.

Thanos will torture the shit out of Loki.

When The Other threatened Loki should he fail to conquer Earth, those weren't empty threats. Thanos will catch up to Loki, torture him for failing him, and possibly discover the Tesseract on Loki's person. Then he'll leave Loki for dead; Loki will get one last warning out to Thor before dying in Thor's arms for real this time.

• Jossed. He kills Loki.

Scarlet Witch will get an Infinity Stone

Or even the Infinity Gauntlet, a Mythology Gag to her being a Reality Warper in the comics. Maybe she uses it to restore Vision when he inevitably gets the Mind Stone ripped out of his head.

• Jossed.

Similar to the Awesome Mix Vol. 1 cassette, Star-Lord's Zune will be Defictionalized.

• Does this count?

Nebula will take the place of Starfox.

In Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos had Starfox restrained and forced to watch most of the battle while Nebula was a zombified version of herself left to wander around. For the sake of pragmatism, Nebula will be restrained and forced to watch and not be turned into a zombie.

• Jossed. Nebula is initially captured, but escapes.

We get a more traditional looking Spider-Man costume

When he see Peter again, he's wearing a new homemade suit that looks like the one Tony gave him. The only thing it retains is the moving eyes, but not even Karen is a part of it. When Tony rudely questions what happened to his suit, Peter explains that Aunt may found out his identity and was only willing to let him be Spider-Man if he got rid of Stark's suit since, as it turns out, she isn't fond of Tony Stark at all. Pretty much everyone else can identify with this.

• Jossed by the trailer. Peter sees UFO over New York, and then we see him in Iron Spider outfit climbing said UFO.

Who will Groot's mentor figure be?

According to motion-capture actor Terry Notary, who has recently been announced as Teen Groot's on-set actor, "I can't say too much about him, but he's coming of age, so you'll see the teenager find a mentor to look up to and to model himself after." So who is that mentor?

• I'm assuming it's going to be someone outside the Guardians. Right now I'm guessing Rhodey.
• Or possibly Hulk. Green beings with rage issues and limited vocabulary?
• Groot's limited words (though not limited meaning behind said words) might be somewhat of a language barrier for most of the Avengers. Scott Lang might be able to look past it, having previously had a camaraderie with the non-verbal Ant-thony (plus he could ride around on Groot in his smaller size, just like he used to ride Ant-thony); Thor might not have a problem depending on what other realms he's been exposed to, plus he had his own "angry rebellious teen" phase of sorts at the beginning of his character arc and might related; or, as a later member of the Guardians, Mantis could connect on an empathic level with Groot, thereby also teaching him the compassion his older self was known for.
• Because the mentor-mentee relationship is often seen as reciprocal in Marvel, who would stand the most to gain from a character-arc perspective by mentoring Groot?
• Or possibly Black Panther. Both Black Panther and Groot's older self are protectors.
• This article seems to suggest that it will be Thor. Mentor Occupational Hazard, perhaps?
  • Confirmed for Thor, although Mentor Occupational Hazard gets inverted.

Bradley Cooper and/or Vin Diesel will have live-action cameos somewhere in the film.

They're already part of the project as voice actors...

• Bonus points if Cooper, as some anonymous civilian, annoys Rocket somehow and earns either a Death Glare or some snarky remark. Because Rocket is portrayed on-set by Sean Gunn and Cooper uses a different voice for the character than his natural one, the scene will avert Acting for Two, leaving just a really fun Easter egg.
• Jossed.

There will be a hilariously awkward Furry Reminder scene involving Rocket interacting with stuff on Earth.

If it’s true that Rocket really is based on the genetics of an honest-to-goodness Earth raccoon, then this will be the first time that he’ll be experiencing factors related to his “natural” environment, and he won’t exactly know how to respond:

• Someone will be walking a dog, and the dog will bark at him and tug on its leash, which will really unnerve him.
• Or he’ll smell something unfamiliar and think he’s in danger.
  • Or, perhaps, we’ll get an inversion where his sensitive animal sense of smell really does alert the team to danger.
  • Or maybe even a double subversion where everyone thinks he’s just being paranoid and it turns out he’s right.
• Everyone will be eating together, and he'll take a roll or something and dip it in his water glass before eating it ^note  since raccoons in the wild frequently wash their food , earning confused glances from everyone else. And he won't even realize he's doing it. Someone will point it out, and he'll be really embarrassed.
• If he ends up spending time hanging out with Tony Stark and/or Bruce Banner to talk shop, chances are good we’ll get something like this.
  (Tony wanders into the kitchen and notices Rocket digging through a trash can.)
  Tony: Rocket, what are you doing?!
  Rocket: (holding a half-eaten hamburger bun or something) I was hungry.
  Tony: You’re eating trash?
  Rocket: It’s not trash! It’s food! I watched Pepper take this off her plate and put this in here earlier. I can’t believe you just throw good food away—you humans are so picky! (Holds up some plastic wrapper thing) This is trash. I know better than to eat that. 

  Tony: (facepalm) Rocket, if you expect me to take you seriously, you need to take yourself seriously. You know you’re welcome to my fridge if you’re hungry, right?
  Rocket: I already tried that. It took all my strength just to pull the door open, and there was nothing I could reach without climbing the shelves. And I knew you’d really be yelling at me if I broke something, so...
  Tony: (sigh) Okay, just make sure you clean up after yourself, alright?
  • Actually, this would be hilarious with just about anybody outside of Rocket’s inner circle. Snark-to-Snark Combat between Tony and Rocket would be excellent comedy, but the Vision’s friendly innocence, for example, could make this absolutely epic.
• At the end of a long day, he’ll take off his belt and drop it somewhere. Peter will pick it up to put it with his other stuff and be surprised that it’s unusually heavy. Upon opening the pouch, it will be absolutely chock-full of loose pennies and other change that he apparently couldn’t resist scooping up.
• He’ll inadvertently eat something that raccoons aren’t supposed to eat and it’ll make him sick.
• He will encounter a regular raccoon, which could lead to either a funny moment as he tries to interact with it or a compelling character moment in which he finally gets some first-hand context to his existence, kind of like Bucky's visit to the Smithsonian.
  • In March, Sean Gunn (Rocket's stand-in actor) was directly asked about this one during an interview. His response was simply, "No comment," so this one's looking pretty likely.
• He'll get covered in prickly burrs from running through the jungle in Wakanda.
  • Jossed. The most we get is a comment in Endgame about eating garbage.

At any rate, we can be absolutely sure that he will want to steal something from someone.

• Probably Bucky's metal arm, for one (as mentioned above).
  • Close. He tries to buy Bucky's gun first (getting told said gun is not for sale), then tries to buy the arm.
• Or possibly, if they make a trip to Earth, one of Tony's robots. Stealing Dum-E would invite Tony's wrath, so probably Butterfingers.
• Or possibly one of the other Infinity Stones.

Each Avenger will have a friend in the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Revengers

• Iron Man: Mantis (or Rocket along with Hulk)
  • Jossed. He doesn't meet Rocket in this film or have any significant interactions with Mantis.
• Captain America: Valkyrie
  • Jossed. Valkyrie is absent in this film.
• Thor: Starlord
  • Not yet confirmed, but likely.
    • They actually become rivals somewhat.
• Hulk: Rocket
  • Confirmed.
    • Banner and Rocket don't even speak to each other in Infinity War. If this relationship comes to fruition, it has to be in Avengers 4.
    • They only have a few minor interactions in Endgame.
• Hawkeye: Groot (or Drax or Kraglin)
  • Jossed. Hawkeye doesn't appear.
• War Machine: Korg
  • Jossed. They never meet.
• Scarlet Witch: Loki (or Doctor Strange)
  • Jossed. Loki dies before getting to Earth.
• Winter Soldier: Gamora (or Mantis)
  • Confirmed with Mantis.
    • Or not. Bucky and Mantis never even meet in Infinity War. That promotional cover was just that.
• Ant-Man: Miek (or Groot)
• Jossed. He doesn't appear.
• Black Widow: Gamora
  • Jossed. Gamora dies before they can meet.
• Loki: Doctor Strange (or Gamora or Iron Man)
  • Jossed. Loki dies before getting to Earth.
• Vision: Groot
  • Jossed. They never get to interact before Vision's death.
• Black Panther: Starlord (or Valkyrie)
  • Jossed. He doesn't meet either of them in this movie.

Tony will come up with nicknames for the Guardians of the Galaxy (and Valkyrie also).

• The nicknames will all be references to cartoons, movies, and books, confusing the Guardians who don't know about human pop culture. Rocket will be Rigby, Groot will be Truffula, Gamora will be Wally the Green Monster, Drax will be Gully Foyle, Mantis will be Jiminy Cricket and Star-Lord will be Samus. Peter will vaguely remember Samus and be surprised when he finds out the character is female.
• Maybe he'll call Groot "Giving Tree", leading to Star Lord making a comment about how it was his nickname for Groot first. Or he could call him the Angry Ent. Maybe he'll call Gamora "Green Space Hottie". Maybe someone's nickname will double as a Celebrity Paradox. Drax could be "Terminator". Mantis could be "Touchy Feely" or something. Who knows what he'll wind up calling Thanos...
• He'll give Rocket a nickname that will invariably lead to Rocket attacking him ("Ranger Rick" has already been taken, so that leaves... Meeko from Pocahontas? Or Rocky Raccoon like that one Beatles song). Or even Star Fox. Bonus points if Nebula happens to be present for that last one:
  Nebula: Oh my God...he's not a fox.
• Perhaps Rocket will come up with an equally hilarious nickname for Tony!
• Confirmed. He calls Star-Lord "Flash Gordon" and Drax "Mr. Clean". In Endgame, he calls Rocket "Ratchet" and Nebula "Blue meanie".

Rocket and Tony will become new BFFs.

Among other things, Rocket and Tony will bond over cybernetics, Tony might help Rocket get over his self-loathing and see his cybernetic enhancements as a "terrible privilege", they'll go on a nick-naming competition, or possibly a shooting-baddies competition like Legolas and Gimli... And everyone else will get a headache over the two Insufferable Genius jerks with hearts of gold.

• Though it already looks like Hulk and Rocket are becoming friends — hey, more Science Bros, maybe!
• If we do get a montage of Rocket and Tony doing cool stuff together, it's pretty much a given that Rocket will have some badass music lined up for the occasion...how about "Bound to Be" by The Dream Academy? ^note  Not only does this track sound awesome, look at the lyrics: it's about two people coming together and realizing that they were meant for each other all along!
  • Jossed. They don't meet in Infinity War and only have a couple of minor interactions in Endgame.

Nova Corps will bust out a badass move with the Power Gem.

Specifically, the Nova Corps will band together to collectively hold and direct the power of the Power Stone, just like the Guardians once did. Depending on how many of the Corps were left alive after their skirmish with Ronan, that could mean hundreds of people coming together to wield the power of the stone against Thanos, instead of 4-6 people. Stability in greater numbers?

• We have already seen from the first Guardians film that Nova Corps has incredible teamwork — it took great skill to coordinate their ships to form that shield against the Dark Aster without a single pilot crashing into one another. We also know that Nova Corps are dedicated and will lay down their lives for a cause. Plus, they already have the Power Stone in their possession. So why wouldn't they take advantage of that opportunity, especially knowing that Thanos wants that stone, to learn a workable way of using it?
• Thanos will probably beat them anyway, especially if he already has some of the other stones by then. Either way, for Thanos to take on the whole Nova Corps while they're powered by an Infinity Stone and win would be a great testament to his power.
• Appears Jossed, but the movie will have to reveal whether or not they put up a fight. Watch the first official trailer; at one point Thanos holds up the Gauntlet to show off that he has accumulated two of the Stones. They are blue — the Tesseract or Space Stone, presumably the same being offered up by Loki earlier in the trailer — and purple, the Power Stone. Right before that, Thanos is shown adding the blue Space Stone by hand, free of the Tesseract cube, indicating that the Power Stone is the first one he obtains.^note And the yellow Mind Stone has not been added yet, indicating that the scene where it gets torn out of the Vision takes place later on, and same goes for the red Aether or Reality Stone, though it's unclear how Thanos will go about seeking it. It certainly seems more likely that the Nova Corps suffer a Curb-Stomp Battle offscreen, or if they're relatively lucky in an already crowded movie, they get a dose of The Worf Effect in an Action Prologue or a flashback.
• According to Kevin Feige, the opening scene of the film will be an utterly devastating demonstration of Thanos's power. Combining this with the above information, it looks like Thanos is going to wipe the floor with Nova.
  • In the film, it's mentioned that Thanos decimated Xander before the movie.

We will get a House of M-like plot at one point, with the Reality Stone being used to manipulate the heroes

Possibly creating an alternate timeline or warping reality in some manner meant to pacify the heroes and keep them out of the fight.

• Jossed. Thanos uses it in order to fight.

Doctor Strange will use his time-bending powers to restore Mjolnir

Same as when he moved that apple back and forth through its timeline.

• Jossed. Still could happen in Avengers 4.
  • Jossed as the Time Stone is destroyed.

The Infinity Stones and/or Infinity Gauntlet were responsible for retconning X-Men and Fantastic Four out of the MCU.

During the 80s, the first space program was about to commence with a team of explorers as the first pilots led by Reed Richards. The shuttle launched but the destination took a different course and it sent them to an unknown planet where there was a city. That city was Genosha. Among the leaders of Genosha were Charles Xavier and Magneto who decided the explorers had to be detained until there was a decision what to do with them. As the explorers awaited, it turned out that Victor Von Doom was aware about the Mutants and had hidden an AI named Master Mold in the shuttle that created Sentinels to attack the city.

Victor left his team who would encountered Xavier and Genosha's Royal Guard (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Ice Man and Angel). Reed and the team learned about the Infinity Gauntlet and it was the duty of the Mutants to guard the relic. Realizing what Victor was doing, Reed and Charles allied themselves to stop this. Victor gotten hold of the Infinity Gauntlet but was stopped by the combined efforts of Reed's Explorers and the Genoshans. However, the battle caused the Infinity Gauntlet to create new universes for the Explorers and the Genoshans creating the X-Men Universe and the Fantastic Four Universe.

The Soul Stone is hidden in Wakanda.

Thor: Ragnarok had little interest in furthering the Infinity Stone subplot outside of Loki stealing the Tesseract; Thor himself failed to find a single one, as stated in the film's opening, Hela dismisses Asgard's Infinity Gauntlet as a fake, and both she and Mjölnir (two of the three most likely guesses for the Soul Stone's owner, Heimdall being the third) were destroyed by the end of the movie, and while Heimdall survived the events of Ragnarok, the stinger shows Thanos' ship overshadowing the Asgardians', so if he knows where the Space Stone is, then taking the Soul Stone would not require raiding Wakanda. Meanwhile, Black Panther (2018) has been stated to be an important tie-in to the events of Infinity War, and some aspect of Wakanda's mysticism is likewise featured. The armies of Thanos are prepared to invade Wakanda for the Soul Stone, hidden in the country's spirit world, which T'Challa is fully aware of.

• Jossed. The Soul Stone was on Vormir and required the sacrifice of a loved one.
• Alternatively, Heimdall really is the Soul Stone's owner, brought to Wakanda for safekeeping after barely surviving Thanos' attack on the Asgardians' new ship.
  • Jossed. Heimdall dies very early in the film and had nothing to do with the stone.

The plot of this movie is about keeping Thanos from getting his hands on the Soul Stone.

Tying into the above theory, the Soul Stone may be on Wakanda. But due to it being the final stone, Thanos is coming after it, which may explain the motivations of the attack there. Maybe Thanos retrieves all the stones BUT the Soul Stone with ease, leading to a climactic battle on Wakanda to keep him from getting it.

• Jossed. The Stone isn't in Wakanda.

Loki handing over the Tesseract.

He's offering it to Thanos to try and spare Thor's life, the D23 teaser had Thanos grabbing Thor by the head and squeezing it, and the lives of the rest of the people on the ship. Thanos will accept the deal and take it before turning around and killing everyone anyways.

• There may be a small chance he's giving it to someone else, like Tony or Steve, as a peace offering to show that he's honest in his intentions to help fight against Thanos but it gets stolen since we do see it on the Infinity Gauntlet later on.
• Confirmed. However, Thanos already killed everyone on the ship.

Ebony Maw will force Loki to give the Tesseract away by manipulating him

The person stepping over the dead Asgardians and Gladiators is clearly Ebony Maw, as you can tell by his pants. The Tv Tropes character sheet for Ebony Maw says that he was the ability to manipulate and persuade. When Loki holds the Tesseract up in the trailer, he looks petrified and beated up, and after Ragnarok it seems unlikely that Loki is betraying Thor again, especially after they were hanging a lampshade on how predictable Loki has become. So it's highly doubtful that he does it willingly. It's also maybe unlikely that Loki gives Thanos the Tesseract to save his own life, or the lives of Thor and the others. Loki knows Thanos, he maybe even met Gamora and Nebula, so he knows that there is no guarantee that Thanos will spare them even if Loki tries to negotiate. Even more so, Thanos would maybe even more likely try to kill everyone when he realises how much Thor and the other Asgardians mean to Loki. The Other promised Loki that Thanos will make him long for something as sweet as pain if he should fail or keep the Tesseract for himself, and how to fulfil this promise better that killing his entire people in front of him while he can do nothing but helplessly watch? And if Ebony Maw is said to have such abilities he'll most definitely make use of them at some point.

• Jossed. Loki gives it up to save Thor.

When Loki hands over the Tesseract, he'll pretend he's still been working for Thanos the whole time.

It'll be something along the lines of apologizing for how long it took him to recover the Tesseract, while claiming he'd been searching for it ever since his defeat in The Avengers.

• Jossed, though he pretends to offer to work for him before trying to kill him.

The Spider-Man movie set after this is really more of a Interquel from before the Infinity War...

...because Spidey doesn't make it out alive at all. Cue The Stinger:

Miles Morales: I will finish what you started.... Gawd I always wanted to say that.

• Jossed. Far From Home has been confirmed to take place after Avengers Endgame.

Thanos was biding his time for his invasion.

Fans may remember at the end of the first Avengers stinger that Thanos' servant told him that "Humans were a dangerous species and to count them would be to count destruction" to which Thanos just smiled in returned. It didn't seem it was for a challenge (though likely too) but because he may have wanted to wait and see what happened. Indeed, most of the conflicts after the first movie were done by human hands (HYDRA regrowing in SHIELD and nearly shooting up most of the US with it's helicarriers, Tony and Bruce building Ultron and him nearly causing an extinction event, a single normal human causing the Avengers to break up, not to mention most of the isolated incidents with Ant-Man, Dr. Strange and Spider-Man). And with Asgard now gone, that means a cosmic defense to one of the realms is out of the way. It's likely he was waiting for them to weaken themselves and do the clean up. If his minions got the gems, then hey less work for him. But since they didn't, he figured he might as well get his hands dirty.

Unfavorite children of MCU will get cameos

At some point there will be a "various factions around the world braving the onslaught of mooks" montage, which would include brief shots of Team Coulson, Inhuman Royal Family, Defenders, maybe even surviving villains who don't want to see the world destroyed — Abomination, remaining Hydra operatives, Zemo, Ten Rings, remnants of Vulture's gang, etc.

• Jossed.
• Or...

Avengers 4 will be titled Avengers: Defenders

Please let me have this.

• Jossed. It's called Avengers: Endgame.

Thanos will either un-Hulk Bruce Banner permanently, or at least make it very hard for him to Hulk-out again

In the trailer we see Bruce, who though his last transformation would be the final one, in human form and absolutely terrified. Coupled with the fact that Asgardian arkship is probably getting wrecked by Thanos, it is likely he fought Thanos and the Mad Titan, recognizing his strength, took it from him. He will then contemplate living a Hulk-free life but then decide to undergo gamma treatment again to release the Hulk.

• Jossed (at least as far as it occurring in space) as we see Hulk on Earth with several other heroes, and the Wakandan army, charging at Thanos' forces.
• I meant he will re-Hulk for the final battle after considering living a Hulk-free life. Kinda like the Thing in one of them Fantastic Four movies.
• Since Banner spends part of the battle in Wakanda in the Hulk Buster armor, this theory holds weight.
  • Thanos has nothing to do with it directly, but Bruce Banner does un-Hulk after Thanos beats Hulk. The scenes from the trailers showing Hulk on Earth were Missing Trailer Scenes..

Spider-Man will die

The D23 footage shows Peter apologizing profusely to Tony while laying on the ground, which in films is usually followed by death. Combine this with him getting slammed on the ground by Thanos, and his death is looking more and more likely. It seems stupid to waste him, but remember Miles Morales, who has been confirmed to exist.

• Mostly confirmed. Spidey is the last hero to kick the bucket in the film, but he dies from Thanos' Badass Fingersnap which is likely to be undone in Avengers: Endgame, and he's also got 2 more solo films in the works; jossing the Miles Morales part.

Possible plot for the movie

It will begin with an Action Prologue where Thanos briefly but efficiently plows through the Nova Corps on Xandar to recover the Power Gem. A while later, his forces attack Thor's refugee ship. Thor and Hulk would be blow away into space during the fight, Heimdall would suffer The Worf Effect and dies fighting Thanos, while Loki uses the Tesseract to open a portal to send Valkyrie, Hulk and possibly as many refugees as he could through to escape. While he attempts to send Hulk through, he got distracted by Thanos's forces who destabilizes the Tesseract, causing it to instead hurl Hulk to Earth, where he is found (as Bruce Banner) by Doctor Strange and Wong. Loki would attempt to negotiate the Tesseract with Thanos, who might not buy it and kills him after taking the artifact from him.

Thor would be recovered by the Guardians, who after listening to Thor's story, realizes that Thanos is after the Infinity Stones, and so they go check on The Collector's base at Knowhere when Thor remembers that Sif put the Aether, or the Reality Stone, there. They instead find the base in ruins with Aether nowhere to be found, and learned that Thanos has also devastated Xandar. Picking up to this, Thor and the Guardians then race back to Earth as fast as possible.

On Earth, Thanos launches his invasion by opening a portal above New York. Spider-Man is the first to the scene, followed by Iron Man and Doctor Strange, while Banner gets send to find the New Avengers/Cap's team. They fight off Thanos's forces into the portal that leads to an alien planet, where Thanos is waiting to ambush them. Thor and the Guardians arrive in time to help the team fight Thanos, but it would be futile as Thanos curbstomp all of them easily. Thor, Doctor Strange, and some of the Guardians probably die, while Iron Man rescues Spider-Man and barely escape back to Earth. Thanos takes the Eye of Agamotto/Time Stone from Doctor Strange.

Meanwhile, Children of Thanos ambush Wanda and Vision somewhere else, and take the Mind Stone from Vision's head, which might or might not kill him. Banner finds Natasha, who takes him to Wakanda to reunite with the hidden Avengers (Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Captain America, Bucky). The surviving Guardians mourn their losses, before briefly wonder why Thanos haven't got the Reality Stone in the Gauntlet yet, before they get contacted by Sif, who's revealed to have survived the destruction of Asgard, and she stole the Reality Stone from The Collector before Thanos got there. Valkyrie and the surviving Asgardians are also revealed to have been with her as Loki sent them there (Remember, he's the one who 'banished' Sif in the first place, so he knew where she was).

In Wakanda, Banner explains the situation to T'Challa. The Children of Thanos sneak into the city to recover the Soul Stone that's hidden there, but they were stopped when Steve Rogers and Bucky join the fray. Thanos then decides to launch a full-scale assault on the city instead. Tony, Rhodes, Wanda, and Vision (if he survived) join the team while Peter returns home, having been too injured to fight on, and the surviving Avengers assist T'Challa in mounting defense agaisnt Thanos's Outrider Army. Eventually, they are overrun (possible casualties include Hawkeye, Rhodes, Black Widow, Iron Man himself), especially when Thanos himself joins the battle proper. Steve will sacrifice himself holding Thanos off while the rest of the team escape with the Soul Stone, and Wakanda would fall.

And on that note, Infinity War ends with a mostly Downer Ending, with most heroes dead and Thanos recovered four out of six stones. But hey? Maybe the Soul Stone and Time Stone could bring them back in the nesxt Avengers film, who knows?

• I agree that the movie has to end with Thanos getting all the Infinity Stones, into his Gauntlet. Anything less than that is pointless. I think the final shot of the film's ending will be, Thanos putting on the Gauntlet, and then snapping his fingers, and then either Fade to Black or so on. Or it will be the climactic moment, and as a result of it characters die. Either of those two has to happen. I'd say the plot outline above is solid, except I'd disagree with a few points. I don't think Lady Sif or any Asgardian other than Thor and Loki will have any role in the plot. The film is overcrowded as it is without some random supporting character who sat out of the last Thor film coming in. I'd say Spider-Man dies early in the film. I don't see him going to any alien planet, and I think it would be a suitably heart-breaking moment in the mid-point of the film, and of course it would break Tony as we see in the trailer. Thor will die as well, as will all the Badass Normal Avengers. I see Doctor Strange lasting longer than others. I see Iron-Man and Captain America being the last to die in the film, mostly because Captain America facing Thanos in a Hopeless Boss Fight Defiant to the End is one of the all-time great Cap moments from Infinity Gauntlet.
• I actually would like Spider-Man to die as well, and would love to see Disney pull a Rogue One on us and killed almost everyone off as well. Sure, they can come back to life by the next movie, but imagine the shock it would have on viewers if they start seeing characters they've known for years dropping like flies. Heck, a full-blown Downer Ending is what this movie deserves, but at least someone has to make it out alive in order to get their hands on an Infinity Stone to reverse all of this, right? Unless somehow Marvel got their acts together and finally bring their TV shows elements into the main MCU proper and make them the new hope for the main heroes. Would love to see Coulson back on the silver screen as well.
• No the break between Movies and TV is permanent. Runtime in the movies especially big ensemble movies is precious and they aren't going to waste time on TV shows. Doylistically they won't do it. Feige is clearly, and obviously, not a fan of the TV Shows for a variety of reasons, and he's not going to go out of his way to bring them in to what is clearly the capstone of his career. The problem with ending Infinity War, is that it's followed by Ant-Man and the Wasp and then Captain Marvel before Phase Three ends. So ending with a total cliffhanger is going to be hard to pull off. Not impossible but hard. The way they can do it is if the climax happens in outer space, and the heroes go to a battle and Earth looks on not knowing if they will come back or not. So that allows Ant Man and the Wasp to work, it allows Captain Marvel (who will be there in the last Avengers film) and that will work. I think there's a situation where the Avengers and others die, others survive and hide, and some might be enslaved or mind-controlled by Thanos. That might happen, so that creates tension for Avengers 4.
• I can understand Captain Marvel as it takes place in 1990s if I'm correct, when Nick Fury still has both eyes. If it's a flashback episode like The First Avenger then the ending of Infinity War wouldn't affect it. Still wondering about Ant-Man and the Wasp, though. The synopsis on Wikipedia at the moment said that the film definitely take place after Civil War, but doesn't state if it happened after Infinity War or not. If it's the former, then it's fair game, but if it's the latter then it gets interesting. The two trailers of Infinity War so far also interestingly lack Ant-Man in them, so there's a high chance that Scott Lang will sit this fight out for the moment. He might has roles but not too big, as he still has to deal with the consequences of the aftermath of Civil War himself as well. Maybe he'll conveniently 'missing out' on Infinity War's final battle so that he's guaranteed to survive to his movie sequel. Problem is, how would that movie addresses the events of Infinity War, then? The synopsis said the film's going to explore the MCU's multiverse, so maybe Scott will spend most of his time travelling between multiple universes that the events of Infinity War won't directly affect him very much. Heck, maybe he could turn out to be a surprise important character who has a key role in fixing the messes Infinity War will inevitably leave behind.
• Some details are confirmed. Others are Jossed.

Banner and Hulk's Plot in the Movie

As per Kevin Feige and Mark Ruffalo, Banner has a major Story Arc in Infinity War and the sequel. The trailers set him up as the linchpin, i.e. the guy who rides alongside Thor and the Asgardians Refugee ship, the guy who crashes in the Sanctum Santorum, and later shows up in Wakanda. He's the one common thread in the multiple theaters of action. So what is his big arc in Infinity War that everyone likes so much. Well Thanos and his Children, will somehow...split Banner and the Hulk into separate beings and characters. Yes, that's right, both of them are split apart and made into two separate beings. In the process, either through spacetime magic, or Loki shenanigans or something, Banner gets hurled into Earth into Dr. Strange's house. The Hulk stays with Thanos and the Black Order, and used as a weapon against Earth, mostly through Ebony Maw's mind-control magic. Think about it, why would Banner be used as a messenger to send to Wakanda and others to warn them about Thanos' arrival since he's a major Hulk-risk. The only reason for him to take that role if there was no immediate risk of him Hulking Out. Once in Wakanda, he rebuilds the Hulkbuster armour we see him standing in front of when he meets Natasha again. He will don that suit of armour in the Big Badass Battle Sequence between the Wakandans and the Outriders.

Now the Hulk eventually makes it to Earth, and in the same time Banner is off to Wakanda, Hulk will rampage across the Earth, creating trouble for the heroes and others. Without Banner there's no way to get Hulk back to normal and he's more dangerous and unhinged than ever. There will be danger, tragedy, and maybe some grief, but eventually Doctor Strange or others will manage to cancel the enchantment that binds the Hulk and gets him to calm down, and they then send him to Wakanda to fight alongside the rest in the Battle (as we see in the trailer money shot). Now here's the big tragic finish. Ebony Maw in the comics is famous for hypnotising his subjects and prey in such a way that once he succeeds, a part of him stays in their mind like a dormant virus waiting to snap again in the future. To demonstrate this effectively, Hulk will get hypnotized in the final battle and just when the Heroes seem to win against the Outriders, the Hulk goes berserk and turns on the heroes in a sudden Red Wedding-esque heartbreak. And in the big moment, he will fight Banner-in-Hulkbuster, and kill him. That's right, Hulk will kill Banner at the end, just as Thanos wins. This will be the big tragic heartbreak that Scarlett Johanssen talked about being difficult to film, and this explains the rumors of Banner donning the Hulkbuster suit, and both the suit and Hulk being seen in the climactic battle sequence. It also explains the big tragic role Hulk will have in the final films.

In Thor: Ragnarok, Hulk is growing a personality but he hates Banner, and Banner is worried about the Hulk taking over permanently. In Infinity War that internal conflict gets externalized. Splitting apart Banner and Hulk will also make the finale more heartbreaking, because for the tragedy to have any meaning, the hero has to have a moment that looks like he could turn out fine, that he could have his Happy Ending only to be cruelly crushed. A Hulk-free Banner who is finally making a difference as a hero, and whose relationship with Natasha is now free of the very large hurdle it had, only for that to be cruelly snatched in the most crushing way...that's going to break hearts. And the fourth and last Avengers will be the big conclusion, Hulk's redemption. The big green baby of Ragnarok will start as Thanos' servant but will eventually turn against him, and then in the finale become a hero before facing his end.

• Jossed. Thanos beats Hulk and he doesn't come out again.

How the introduction between Thor and the Guardians will go.

Look closely at Rocket's expression. The last time we saw a confrontational scene (when the team met Ego), Rocket was absolutely ready for a fight. This time his expression is more, "Hm." However, he won't be impressed with Thor.

Thor: Who the hell are you guys?
Star-Lord: We're the Guardians of the Galaxy...who the hell are you?
Thor: I'm Thor. God of thunder. I—
Rocket: Yeah...right. Can you actually make thunder? It better not be some (gestures) "metaphorical" nonsense. 'Cuz I'm not doing that again.
Thor: Yes. Thunder and lightning.
Rocket: Okay, Thunderface. I'll believe it when I see it.

• The shot in the second trailer of Rocket staring in breathless awe may very well be the moment that he finds out his new friend wasn't kidding.
  • Jossed. After the "Who the hell are you guys?", it cuts to later.

Thanos will be deathly afraid of Rocket until he finds out that Rocket is a raccoon.

Because Thanos was defeated off screen by Squirrel Girl at one point.

• Jossed. Thanos showed no fear of Rocket or anyone else in the film.

The Tesseract wasn't the only thing Loki stole from Asgard's vault...

He also stole the fake Gauntlet, which he'll use in the film in an attempt to trick Thanos.

• And he also stole the Casket of Ancient Winters, giving us another look at Jotun Loki.
• Jossed.

Contrary to popular opinion, Steve won't die fighting Thanos

However, Thanos will use one of the Infinity Stones that he has, possibly the Time Stone, to reverse Steve into his pre-Super-Soldier serum body. That way, he can still remain alive but in no shape to continue fighting Thanos anymore, and the mantle of 'Captain America' can also be passed down to either Bucky or Sam instead.

• Confirmed at least for this movie.

Thanos and Hela sitting in a tree...

Thanos will at some point mention his love/obsession for Lady Death, leading to a moment of confusion and Thor and/or Loki asking him if he was romancing their sister. Which will then lead to an awkward explanation that she's (maybe) dead, and then Thanos will clarify that he doesn't mean Hela (though perhaps they've met).

• Jossed. Thanos' motivation is solving overpopulation.

Either Hawkeye or Bruce will talk sense into Tony about Bucky.

• Clint could empathize with Bucky because of his experience being mind-controlled by Loki. If Loki is present, he could make some snarky comment towards Clint, and Clint could aim his arrow for the space between Loki's eyes in response.
• Bruce could ask Tony if he judges him for any of the destruction he wrought as the Hulk. When Tony reassures him that Bruce and the Hulk are not the same person (especially if Bruce discloses that he was stuck as the Hulk for two years), then Bruce might ask if it's not the same with Bucky and his alternate "personality", Winter Soldier. Then Tony could tearfully embrace his Science Bro and ask why he wasn't there earlier to do the rational thinking for him.
  • Would require some retconning though given Tony seems to have always seen Hulk as part of Bruce and not had any particular dislike for Hulk. Arguing for the brainwashing aspect would make more sense (but even then Tony was aware of this and it didn't matter as he had just watched his parents get murdered).
• Jossed. Clint doesn't appear, though Bruce does convince Tony to contact Steve, which he doesn't get a chance to do.

Tony and Bucky working together on the same team to stop Thanos will cause a significant hiccup.

Either Tony hesitates to trust Bucky or outright tries again to kill him, and their issues or confrontation lead to a moment of extreme disaster and peril for the entire team.

• Jossed. They never meet in the film.

Hawkeye will be ridiculously jealous of Kraglin's (inherited) trick arrow

...And it will also reveal that Kraglin has improved in using it significantly (or it could become a running joke instead of Kraglin repeatedly missing what he was aiming at).

• This would be fun, but it doesn't look like Kraglin is going to be in this movie.
• Jossed. Hawkeye doesn't appear either.

At some point, there will be a convoluted discussion about daddy issues.

Someone will ask if Odin can fight against Thanos. Thor will sadly say that the All-Father is dead, and that they were lucky enough to make amends before he died (and he'll be cut off mid-story about the bizarre family reunion that followed). Then Tony will chime in like it's the Pain Olympics and say that his dad was murdered by that guy over there (Bucky), and when he was alive he couldn't stop talking about that other guy over there (Steve), who is the murderous guy's best friend. Black Panther will try to say something about mistaking Bucky for his dad's killer, but Tony will shut him down. Finally, Star-Lord will do him one better and say that his real dad was a murderous planet who he and his friends recently killed, while his adoptive dad saved him from his biological dad before dying as well. Everyone will agree that Star-Lord "wins" the Pain Olympics, or rather has the most tragic backstory in the crappy father category. Whatever that means. And then Gamora will shut all of them up by pointing out that her adoptive father is Thanos.

• Then everyone will sit there morosely missing their dads.
  • Jossed. There is only a brief conversation where Gamora, Thor, and Quill mention some issues.

Tony's PTSD-fueled breakdown will come to a head.

Tony will make a huge mistake of some kind, which leads to his vision of his friends dying and Captain America blaming him (the one from Avengers: Age of Ultron). This will become Tony's darkest moment, especially if someone or multiple people die. Then somehow, it will lead to Tony getting his heroic second-wind and overcoming (at least temporarily) his crippling PTSD triggers.

• Jossed, though he is motivated by Thanos being his in head.

Tony will forgive Bucky for killing his parents, and as a sign of reconciliation, he will give Bucky his father's/Captain America's shield.

...Probably because Steve will already be dead. Tony might be motivated by Steve's death to reconcile, or some other big thing happening.

• Jossed. They never meet in the film.

The X-Men will be the Big Damn Heroes

The heroes will be losing badly, so Dr. Strange will open one of his portals, to summon heroes from another universe... and the X-Men will show up and turn the tide of the fight, as the fandom rejoices.

Perhaps not in the first film (time is against it), but in the sequel. At the end of the story, reality is altered, and the MCU and the X-Men film series are combined in Broad Strokes. This would allow the X-Men to have a grand entry into the MCU, and prevent the complaints about the absence of mutants during all this time.

• Jossed. The Fantastic Four and X-Men are off the table for at least most of Phase 4 (and considering that Dark Phoenix is still happening, Disney likely won't tread on Fox's toes by having the X-Men debut in this movie).

Thanos' "In time, you will know what it is like to lose" speech will actually be from the end of the movie.

Thanos will doubtless be stopped/stalled in some way, and this will be his parting words to let the Avengers know that their victory will not last, and that he is destined to get the full power of the Infinity Gauntlet eventually, i.e. in the movie that will continue this part of the plot.

• Jossed. The quote is at the beginning and slightly different

The Time Stone will be used to bring back every hero who has been killed by Thanos at the end of the second film.

Seriously, can you believe the promise of death in the first film, given Marvel's track record for fake hero deaths? Some heroes are so popular, they may survive.

• And yet, many actors are ending their contracts, and would be killed off.
• Actually, yes, it can be believed that at least one character could die. It's called "stakes" and "consequences", things that huge movies tend to need to have to the story not be totally pointless.
• Yup, no characters have ever died in the entire film series! Just ask Quicksilver, Peggy, The Ancient One, Yondu, Odin, the Warriors Three, any number of supporting characters...
• Partially confirmed. They uses the Gauntlet to bring back those killed in the Snap, but those killed before stay dead.

The Infinitely Gauntlet will be used to create Secret Wars/Battleworld

This will allow a combination of X-Men verse and MCU.

Silk will make an appearance to help Spider-Man.

With Cindy Moon in the movie despite her role in Homecoming having been so minor, and the fact that it just seems unlikely they'd put an established superhero in the story and not do anything with her, it's logical that they would have her appear as Silk in this movie. Given the Crisis Crossover high stakes of the story, this would be the perfect time to don the identity. Her role, given the sheer amount of characters they have to work with, would likely be minimal overall where she assists Spider-Man during a battle or emergency, but would set her up for a larger presence in Homecoming 2.

• Jossed.

Abomination, Justin Hammer and Baron Mordo will make a mention or guest appearance that will tie in to the MCU Fantastic Four and/or the Masters of Evil

Tony have since begun rebuilding the Hulkbuster Armor. General Ross appears on the lack of activities with the Avengers. However, Tony counters Ross that he has been building contingencies ever since learning that Abomination had been transported to Latveria since he heard about the King that rules there, which got him worried. Ross explains his actions that Latveria had the facilities needed to restore Abomination to Emil Blonsky. Although, the final straw Tony had with the government was when learning that Justin Hammer had been released from prison so that they could reverse engineer all the tech gathered, including Ultron. Seeing that this would lead to the vision that he saw, he left the government so that the Avengers won't be part of this madness. Meanwhile, Doctor Strange has been gathering all the Sorcerors to prepare for an upcoming battle but learn from Wong that Mordo hasn't been found yet. It would be revealed that Abomination, Justine Hammer and Baron Mordo are meeting Doctor Doom who is proposing to form a group that would be the necessary evil needed to protect Earth.

• Jossed. They are never even mentioned.

The film will start with a Previously on…

After all, being a film with a decade of setting up, that would be completely justified.

And, for awesome bonus, the Previously on… should be narrated by Luis.

• There is something like that at El MCU narrado por Luis (el de Ant-Man) (in Spanish)
  • Jossed. Luis doesn't appear.

Infinity War and Avengers 4 will set up a Young Avengers movie in the future

A casting call for a pair of twin boys, age two, was made for Infinity War. In the comics, Vision and Scarlet Witch also had two twin sons, known as Speed and Wiccan. Given the confirmation that Phase Four will explore new places and times, with two distinct periods of before and after Avengers 4, and that the two have shown to be romantically involved here, it's pretty safe to say that this isn't a coincidence, and we could be seeing the Young Avengers starring characters like Patriot, Kate Bishop/Hawkeye II, Stature, and more on the big screen in the future. It helps that Marvel can do a proper YA movie now, seeing as how Disney now owns 20th Century Fox and thus has the rights to use mutants, Fantastic Four, and Kang the Conqueror.

• Made even more likely by the recent revelation that Patriot was indeed going to be in Black Panther but was cut to not distract from the star. It seems that Young Avengers is indeed something Marvel is at least considering.
• Abby Ryder Fortson is only nine at the time of this movie shooting, so I think you may be overshooting here. The boys could certainly be the MCU Speed and Wiccan, but it will probably be quite a while before they flat out become the Young Avengers. Also, despite what so many are saying, Disney doesn't own Twentieth Century Fox, at least not yet. The deal is still be being discussed and Kevin Feige has said it will likely be a significant amount of time for Fox's Marvel properties start to mesh with Disney's, certainly not to affect movies that have already been mostly written and made before the deal became an announced possibility.
• *Ahem*, Feige explicitly said that Phase 4 would explore different eras after Avengers 4, which definitely fits Young Avengers.
• If they set it in the future, all the other movies will have to be executed in ways as to not contradict that future. That's very limiting to creators.
• All I mean is that it'll take more than Cassie existing and the twins being born/created to set it up. They'll have to introduce some of the others in future films.
• This may have just gotten likelier: Avengers 4 will have a Time Skip with Cassie as a young adult, roughly the age of her comic book counterpart complete with a Time-Shifted Actor (Abby Ryder Fortson to Emma Fuhrmann). It's unclear if she'll appear as Stature at this point, but the possibility of an MCU equivalent to Young Avengers definitely exists.

Earth will be destroyed

He's Thanos. Don't tell me you didn't saw that coming. At the end of the film, Thanos will have all the gems, and will display his power by destroying earth with just a gesture. The film will end with a view of the space, with earth blown to pieces.

The End... Or Is It?

A small subtitle will say "Earth will return", "The MCU will return", or something like that. But how? Let the wild mass guessing start!

• Jossed. Earth's population suffers drastically, but the planet itself is just fine.

Quake will show up

In relation with the previous entry. All the heroes will stay in the ground defeated, and then Quake will show up, as fans have so long expected. She will use her powers against Thanos, to no avail. Thanos will say "Do you think that's a earthquake? This is a earthquake!" and then destroy the planet. Which leads to the future from Agents of SHIELD season 5.

• Jossed. She never appears or is mentioned.

Valkyrie will die in the first act

Despite Tessa Thompson being confirmed to appear she has yet to appear in any trailers. Likely, she will be one of the first to attack Thanos when he attacks the Asgardians and is felled, with Thor attempting to avenge her death.

• Expanding on this a bit, all the Asgardians will die in the first act. Thor's trilogy is done, there's probably not much mileage the MCU can get out of them. Plus, given The Stinger of Ragnarok, Thanos will be coming for them first.
  • Valkyrie doesn't show up at all.
  • Endgame shows that she survived.

The Nine Realms

• At some point in the duology, some of the Avengers will visit one of the other nine realms thanks to the power of the Space Stone, whose inhabitants will be able to restore Mjolnir and grant other Avengers mystic costumes similar to their appearances in the comics, like Falcon and Scarlet Witch. Then, these Avengers will return to Earth after the Darkest Hour to defeat Thanos in Tokyo once and for all.
• Jossed. However, Thor, Rocket, and Groot travel to Nidavellir.

Tony and Happy will be receiving a Take That, Scrappy! moment for their actions in Spider-Man: Homecoming

It would be satisfying for them to get what's coming to them for essentially causing all the negative actions in the film. Doubly so if its Spiderman himself taking them up to task.

• Jossed. Happy only appears in a deleted scene.

Shuri will remote into an Iron Man suit

The tech she used in Black Panther would probably be compatible with one of Tony's suits. For one thing it would be awesome to see how she operates it, and it would also serve as a great distraction since she can go all out without having to worry about the suits damage (since she's not inside it). While she and Thanos do a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on each other, the others are getting rid of his henchmen and preparing their own final strike. Imagine Thanos' reaction when he tears the armour open, finds no one inside, and is then struck down by the other Avengers.

• Jossed. Shuri never gets her hands on a suit.

Related to the above; if Tony Stark dies or retires, Shuri will take on his mantle.

Shuri will become Iron Woman, or perhaps Vibranium Woman. She's been confirmed to be as smart as Tony Stark, if not smarter — and like him, she's a Gadgeteer Genius. Foreshadowing includes her fighting Killmonger with wrist cannons that discharge energy blasts... sound familiar?

• Jossed. In Far From Home, Spider-Man is expected to take up the mantle.

Bucky will inherit one of the suits Shuri made.

When Shuri showed T'Challa her suite of suits, one of them was white. Later, she called Bucky 'White Wolf'. She made that suit specifically for Bucky, and we'll be seeing him wearing it in the upcoming film.

• Jossed. However, he does get a new vibranium arm.

Avengers: Infinity War will end in a very dark "Ray of Hope" Ending

By the end of the film, our heroes are dead or dysfunctional, Thanos managed to collect the Infinity Gems, uses it to exterminate half of the univers and Earth is in ruins. However, there is a ray of hope when a certain bald person gathers up people who have extraordinary abilities and rallys them to fight Thanos.

• Wow! Have to give major props to this one. Almost all of this is spot-on confirmed. The only major snag is that Nick Fury ends up in the unlucky half of the universe's population, and only manages to call upon one person (Captain Marvel) before he dies.

Tony Stark, Doctor Strange and Peter Parker will use B.A.R.F. to find out what happened to the Asgardians.

Bruce Banner somehow ends up in Doctor Strange's sanctum. Probably either Thor or Loki send him there via the Tesseract to warn Earth of what's coming. Bruce doesn't remember though what happened when he was the Hulk, only that something happened. So Tony puts him into B.A.R.F. to recall the Hulk's memories. There is a shot◊ from the Super Bowl spot of Tony, Stephen and Peter looking at something with a blue glow. This is where they find out that Thanos attacked Asgard and witness Loki handing over the Tesseract. Especially noticeable are the similar looking backgrounds.

• Jossed. B.A.R.F. is never mentioned.

The above scene is not B.A.R.F.

It's the inside of Thanos's weird ring ship, and the blue glow is simply caused by whatever machinery is inside it. Recall that in the D23/Comic-Con footage, we saw the ring crashing into that wrecked planet, and combining all the footage we've seen so far it appears that, of the Earth-based heroes only Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and Iron Man are present. So apparently they stow away aboard that ring and ride it into space and end up at that planet. (Maybe they even have a hand in bringing it down!) That shot of the three of them looking at the blue glow then, is just their looks of wonder as they get inside the thing.

Oh, and just because the backgrounds are roughly similar doesn't necessarily mean anything. Ocean-going ships kind of all look the same in their engine rooms too.

• Confirmed.

The Bad Guy Wins in Part 1 ... and Part 2 is about undoing the damage

Plenty of released material seems to indicate that Infinity War, or at least the first portion, is significantly Darker and Edgier than pretty much any preceding MCU films. The movie seems quite likely to pull a Rogue One and kill off basically everyone, or at least leave the survivors powerless while Thanos, who seems to be a completely Invincible Villain, destroys the world or the universe. Other material seems to indicate that the "Quantum Realm" is a key feature in Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel — it's entirely possible that all three of said heroes get stuck in the Realm at some point in their respective movies, remaining stuck there until Thanos' universe-warping powers draw them back into reality. But they will probably be too late, and realize that they must go back in and travel back in time to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.

This then would lead to the rumoured Time Travel-heavy plot of Part 2, which would see Captain Marvel, the Wasp and Ant-Man journeying back through the MCU to avert the course that leads to Thanos' victory — and then going forward again to see it through and reunite with the survivors in the present-day. These timeline changes could reconcile a lot of things within the MCU: history could change with the formation of the X-Men (following their re-acquisition by Marvel Studios); if Coulson does die in Season 5 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., it could be undone and he could return to the films; maybe this even explains the Exiled from Continuity nature of the various TV series, in that they occur in the fixed timeline as per Part 2 instead of the course of events that leads to Thanos' victory in Part 1.

If the nature of the Infinity Gauntlet is that it makes everything possible for the villain(s), then the heroes can find a way to do the same.

• Likely no X-Men until late Phase 4/Phase 5 at the earliest, but other than that, mostly confirmed; Wasp gets dusted in Ant Man and The Wasp though.

Cap and Star-Lord will bond over their shared 'out-of-touch with today's Earth' status

• Jossed. They don't meet in Infinity War and never interact in Endgame.

Nebula's "new BFF"

In an interview, Karen Gillain revealed that Nebula is going to team up with someone new to take Thanos out, and that it's going to be "unexpected". Guesses who that might be:

• Shuri. In the Vanity Fair photoshoot, Nebula leans on Shuri's shoulder. Sure, might be only for the photo and doesn't have to mean anything, but still it might be fun for the stoic Nebula to team up with the energetic Shuri.
• Loki. We see him handing over the Tesseract, and if the theories that he's gonna play the Mephisto role are true, he might pretend to be Thanos ally while actually working against him. At the end of GOTG 2, we see Nebula leaving to face Thanos alone. She at first pretends to still be on Thanos side too, and then teams up with Loki there. Maybe the two already know each other from when Loki made that deal with Thanos before Avengers.
• Valkyrie. When the Statesman gets attacked, Hulk ends up on earth while Thor and Valkyrie get thrown into space, although not together. While Thor gets picked up by the Guardians, Valkyrie gets picked up by Nebula while she's on her way to Thanos.
• Black Widow. Both of them have similar pasts.
• Wanda Maximoff
  • All Jossed. It seems to be Tony in Endgame.

There will be a Call-Back to the "Avengers assemble" scene from The Avengers (2012), complete with an original or modified version of the Avengers theme heard in the score cue "Assemble"

Only with more heroes like Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Star-Lord.

• Jossed.

Thanos isn't squeezing Thor's head

He's holding his head in place to force him to witness Loki's execution at the Black Order's hands. Thor doesn't scream in physical pain, but because he just had to watch his brother die, again.

• Jossed. He's using the Power Stone on him.

At one point, the themes of the Avengers and the Guardians will mix.

Someone already did a fan-made one, and it sounds very good, since the themes are quite similar. If they would get properly modified for the movie, it could sound amazing.

• Jossed.

Gamora will be Thanos's Morality Pet

As part of giving Thanos some depth, the movie will show that he has some genuine fatherly love towards both Gamora and Nebula and his older children. However, his care only reaches these specific people and he doesn't give a rat's ass about everyone else. Once he reunites with Gamora, he'll plead with her to come back to him and remain in his safety while he kills the Guardians and the Avengers, becoming very upset once he's told by his adoptive daughter that she's willing to die along with her friends and allies than be complicit to his genocidal goals. Gamora will probably die along with half the universe, inciting a My God, What Have I Done? from Thanos and sending him to the path of redemption he partook in at the end of The Infinity Gauntlet and throughout The Infinity War. There's a chance he'll just bring her back, but her death will show him how much of a dick he's been this whole time, regardless of his intentions.

• Jossed. Thanos kills Gamora to get the Soul Stone.

The Soul Stone is what hit Wakanda and gave it Vibranium, heart-shaped herb and the spirit world

Vibranium, in all other appearances, has shown no mutagenic properties, yet somehow produced the heart-shaped herb that the Black Panthers use. The most immediate of the herb is send the person who ingested it to the spirit world. And the Soul Stone is known to contain a whole spiritual world inside it.

• Jossed. Soul Stone wasn't on Earth.

Wanda will rescue Vision when he loses the Mind Gem, in the process turning him human.

A recent trailer shows two things: Wanda and Vision in a romantic embrace, and Vision with the Mind Gem being probed and him screaming in agony. In the scene with the romantic embrace, Vision is human but still has the Mind Gem in his forehead. This is done to deliberately mislead us, the same way that trailer of Thor showed him with two eyes summoning the lightning, while in the movie he only had one eye at that point. The romantic scene between Wanda and Vision will happen, and Vision will be human, but he won't have the Mind Gem anymore.

• Jossed. Vision only create an illusion.

Ebony Maw brainwashes Doctor Strange

As this article explains, this happened during the 2013 Infinity storyline. Here, note how the spikes are primarily driving into Strange's head, suggesting this is how Ebony Maw does his manipulation business in the MCU. Multiple theories arise:

• The shot of him shushing Strange is presented out of context: either he's telling Strange to keep this a secret from the other heroes, or refusing to tell what he did after torturing him unconscious.
• From here, it's certain Strange hands the Time Stone over to Thanos voluntarily. It's a question of how exactly, though. Strange may do this behind the backs of the Avengers, or in front of them after time-freezing them or trapping them in a time loop. Bonus points if Ebony Maw makes him a sleeper agent set to go off at the eleventh hour when Thanos is only one Stone short of a full Gauntlet. It'll be the perfect betrayal to rub in the Avengers' faces if Loki handing over the Tesseract doesn't do the trick.
  • No brainwashing. Strange bargains with Thanos to get the latter to spare Tony's life.

Maybe, Ebony Maw doesn't shush Doctor Strange

The lighting and the background in that frame looks as if it takes place during Thanos and the Black Order's confrontation of the Asgardians. It doesn't look like the background of where Strange is tortured, although it's still clearly Ebony Maw who's performing the torture. The trailers are misleading us again!

• What you're seeing must be the Grandmaster's ship parked in the background with its door still open. You can barely see the right side of Ebony Maw's head in the first shot, with the same lighting as in the second.
  • Holy moly, that's true! That makes for a new WMG:
• Confirmed. He was shushing Thor.

Doctor Strange will help the Asgardians

Banner gets sent to Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum by either Thor or Loki to get help (Strange would be first choice because of his ability to open portals to get there as quick as possible), and Strange will try to save them after dealing with the circle thing over New York City. Unfortunately, that's when he'll run into the Black Order's clutches.

• Jossed. The Asgardians were already killed when Banner landed in the Sanctum Sanctorum.

Alternatively, Ebony Maw is shushing Loki

If the Black Order gets on the Asgardian ship, Ebony Maw could easily run into Loki, who could be attempting to flee for his life, or even looking for the Black Order to hand over the Tessaract so he can join/pretend to join Thanos's side. Ebony Maw may just be warning him not to alert Thor.

• Jossed.

Thor picks up his belt that he left on Earth...

...and it secretly has a function that saves the day.

• Jossed. It's never mentioned.

The Post-Credits scene will be the team learning that Coulson is alive.

It has just been confirmed that Coulson will be appearing in Captain Marvel, one of the two films in-between Avengers 3 and 4. Since the 3rd Avengers film is probably the last time we'll see some of the Phase 1 titans (Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, etc.) all alive (or at least not-retired) together. It would make a nice send off. This way, having Coulson re-unite with the Avengers won't take up precious screen-time, but won't be ignored completely.

• Jossed. The Stinger is Maria Hill and Nick Fury being dusted, but not before he sends a message to Captain Marvel.

Thanos will tempt each Avenger with an offer to fix a personal tragedy by using the Infinity Stones

Thanos, if he has the complete or almost complete gauntlet by the end of the film, will offer to fix the lives of each Avenger in order to get them to stop opposing him. He'll promise Iron Man, Drax, Scarlet Witch and Star Lord that he'll use the Time (or Soul) Gem to reunite them with their loved ones. He'll tell War Machine he can use the Reality Gem to fix his spine and Dr. Strange his hands. He'd offer Black Widow a chance at a normal childhood and Steve an opportunity to return to the 1940's and be with Peggy using the Time Gem. They will all rebuff him.

• Jossed.

Thanos will be a completely Invincible Villain from start to finish

Word of God has stated that the movie is Darker and Edgier than anything else seen in the MCU to date, and that it's primarily Thanos' movie instead of the heroes'. Clearly, Thanos' Co-Dragons, the Black Order, and their mooks, the Outriders, seem to be prime candidates to get taken down by the Avengers and their allies as a Curb Stomp Cushion so that the audience doesn't feel quite so bad. But it seems readily possible that the film is just one No-Holds-Barred Beatdown and Failure Hero after another until The Bad Guy Wins outright, and here's how it might go:

• First, possibly offscreen, Thanos and the Black Order wreck the Nova Corps and Xandar to get the Power Stone.
• Next, the Black Order descend upon the Asgardians and slaughter many of them (or just kill them all), and Loki is forced to hand over the Space Stone before the survivors are killed or scattered.
• The Guardians of the Galaxy arrive at Knowhere too late to keep the Reality Stone out of Thanos' hands. They either decline to try a Sneak Attack or fail if they do, and Thanos leaves for Titan.
• On Titan, the Guardians and some of the Avengers (Iron Man, Doctor Strange and Spider-Man) join forces to stop Thanos. Again, they are overwhelmed. Thanos takes the Soul Stone, possibly murdering someone to obtain or unlock it, and moves on to Earth. At some point before or after this, Doctor Strange is captured and tortured by Ebony Maw to obtain the Time Stone.
• On Earth, with the Alien Invasion in full swing, Thanos arrives with four stones and joins the assault. He gets the Time Stone by some means, either having it willingly handed to him by the Black Order or taking it from The Starscream. With five gems already in hand, Thanos is now nigh unstoppable, and Wakanda and the Avengers cannot prevent him from taking the Mind Stone.
• With all the Stones in the Gauntlet, Thanos unmakes or remakes the universe. Roll credits.

Sounds depressing, right? But then, this is the age of Darker and Edgier in television and film. And Infinity War explicitly is not the conclusion to the story — that comes with the still-unknown sequel in 2019. So this film is going to be all "middle act" and not the resolution.

• More or less comfirmed, as he wins.

Loki will die in the first few minutes of the film.

• Rumor has it that a major character will die at the beginning of the film. Thor: Ragnarok closed with a giant ship descending onto the ship bearing the survivors of Asgard. In the previews, we've seen Loki, looking haggard, offering up the Tesseract to someone, the bodies of Asgardians littering the floor of the ship, and Thor hitting the Guardians of the Galaxy's ship's windshield in the middle of outer space. The movie will start with Thanos boarding Asgard's ship, killing several people on his way to the main bridge, and threatening the lives of everyone aboard. Loki will offer him the Tesseract in hopes of sparing all of Asgard's lives. Thanos will take the Tesseract and then kill Loki and decimate the entire ship into smithereens, leaving Thor to float helplessly in outer space before literally running into the Guardians of the Galaxy. The Hulk will be picked up sometime afterward.
  • Regarding Hulk, he doesn't get picked up; as per the trailers, he gets sent back to Earth to crash into the Sanctum in New York, where Banner warns Stark, Strange and Wong about Thanos. Also, the Black Order are clearly involved in curbstomping the Asgardians as well, as they are the ones holding Loki at spearpoint before Thanos.
• Confirmed.

Loki won't really be before Thanos, it'll be another illusion

Alternatively, Loki will leave behind a convincing illusion holding the Tesseract while he actually shields Asgardian survivors fleeing the attack (possibly including Valkyrie and/or Heimdall). Thor's rage and grief will just serve to sell the illusion and keep Thanos amused/distracted in the meantime. Then both the Hulk and Thor are banished separately by Thanos using the Space Stone.

• Jossed, though he hides a dagger.

We won't see Thanos getting the Power Stone

Thanos might simply show up on the Asgardian ship already having the Power Stone in the Gauntlet with no on-screen explanation, leading the audience to assume an Inferred Holocaust on Xandar (or Thanos boasting about it) instead of actually taking the time to display the mass destruction involved. The Action Prologue of the film could then be simply Thanos and the Black Order slaughtering their way though the Asgardians and dealing a Curb-Stomp Battle to Thor, Hulk, Valkyrie, Heimdall, Korg and Miek.

• Confirmed.

This film will end up receiving a The Last Jedi-style reception.

The critics will love the film, while the fans, especially comic-book fans, will be extremely divided on the film's quality.

• Jossed. Infinity War has been universally praised. Those who disliked the film are in the tiniest of minorities.

Captain America won't die at the end of the Infinity War duology, but will instead retire and become a Mixed Martial Artist.

In a conversation with Sam in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve wonders what he would do in a world without war, and Sam jokingly suggests Ultimate Fighting. Not only would this be a great Brick Joke, but it would also allow Chris Evans to leave the franchise temporarily without actually killing off Cap, leaving him the option to come back in a few years if he feels like it.

• Jossed. He goes back in time to be with Peggy.

The movie is going to get a bad case of Angst Aversion or even invoke Too Bleak, Stopped Caring

Following on from the theories that Thanos gets to be basically unstoppable on his way to The Bad Guy Wins, and the Word of God that there will be plenty of character deaths in the process, if the movie goes too far to the side of Darker and Edgier, it risks alienating audiences who are generally looking for something that isn't a parade of curbstompings on the way to a Downer Ending. The movie will start off hugely popular, but audiences and revenue will drop off sharply and keep declining as people find out what happens and don't want to subject themselves to the emotional wringer a second time, or they spoil it to others who decide to stay away in favour of something more positive.

This may also contribute to the potential Critical Dissonance, in that critics think the film is wonderful and a subset of Rooting for the Empire fans absolutely love it, but the more moderate fanbase thinks it goes too far off the deep and depressing end to be truly entertaining.

• Jossed. The film was well received.

Loki will "betray" Thor — for his own good.

Realizing that Thor cannot beat Thanos and will just get himself killed, Loki will throw Thor into space himself, figuring that his brother is more likely to survive that way than trying to combat Thanos, and tossing in a little illusion magic to make it look extra convincing, hoping that Thanos might spare him if it looks like he wants to join up again. (Thanos might even provoke Loki to killing Thor as a test of loyalty, although it's unlikely that he would give Loki very much trust even after that). Thor, however, may assume that Loki tried to kill him again, and his comment about 'what else could he lose' might actually refer to losing his faith in his brother — which, coming on the heels of their apparent reconciliation, would be arguably more painful for him than seeing Loki die a heroic death. Loki will then exist on tenterhooks around the Black Order, probably trying to barter with Thanos for his life by offering to direct them to the Aether (although it's unclear at this point whether or not Thanos can easily track the gems by himself — if he can, this tactic will not work). Which leaves three possible outcomes for him:

• 1) Loki could conceivably come up with some way to escape,
• 2) Thanos could quickly or eventually kill him, or
• 3) Thanos could subject him to some form of a Fate Worse than Death, which, considering the guy regularly tortures people he considers his children, might actually be the most likely outcome.

• Jossed. He tries to kill Thanos, but gets killed.

Jossed

Carol Danvers will appear.....as Ms. Marvel.

Word of God states that Danvers is the first Ms. Marvel of the MCU. This would act as a good set up for the new Ms. Marvel, if the Mcu should ever introduce her.

• Jossed. Her movie is stated to be an origin story and there has been no word of god saying she was ever Ms. Marvel in the MCU.
  • However, her she is alluded to, as Fury sends her a signal before disintegrating, and her insignia is seen on the screen of his communicator.

Yondu's appearance will have something to do with the Time Stone.

Since Yondu commits a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and one of the Infinity Stones covers manipulating time, then it's the most likely reason that he returns for this film.

• Likely jossed. It turned out to be an example of Trolling Creator. Michael Rooker showed up with an Avengers Infinity War hat upon request by James Gunn so that people wouldn't expect him to die in Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2.

Odin will get his ass kicked by Thanos

Assuming he's not already dead, Odin will fall victim to The Worf Effect when Thanos attacks Asgard to get the Space Stone.

• Jossed: Odin dies in Thor: Ragnarok or at least doesn't reappear proving that He's Just Hiding.

Thanos won't be the final villain.

Near the end of the second film, Adam Warlock will take the Gauntlet and try to fix what Thanos did, only to be corrupted and turned into Magus. Or maybe they will have him turn into Goddess and try to erradicate sin.

• Jossed. Kevin Feige has confirmed Warlock is not in the movie.

If Steve dies in Civil War, he will be resurrected by the Soul gem towards the end of this.

Either it will only be a temporary resurrection, or he will decide to let Bucky keep being Captain America while he becomes a free agent or the Director of SHIELD or something.

• Maybe the "or something" is that Steven makes a Heroic Sacrifice that doesn't kill him, but makes him age rapidly into an old man and in the end, he lives Happily Ever After with Peggy. While that kind of ending is a bit familiar, it would still be a very appropriate way to end Steve's story arc in the MCU.
• Jossed. Steve survived Civil War. Plus, Peggy died.

Part 1 will largely focus on a new roster of Avengers, possibly the MCU version of the New Avengers

With the rumors that Age of Ultron ends with the decimation of the original line-up and several members quitting, Infinity War will start with the New Avengers. The team will feature characters mostly introduced in Phases 2 and 3, such as the The Falcon, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, The Vision and War Machine. A few old Avengers like Hawkeye may appear in Part 1, but most of the original team will be off the board until Part 2. Some of the Netflix heroes like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist could also appear.

• Partially Jossed, in that Quicksilver is now dead.

Black Widow will start the film in prison after the events of Captain America: Civil War

And the Avengers will enlist Ant-Man to bust her out.

• Jossed. Black Widow is on the run after Civil War, and Ant-Man himself is stuck waiting in prison.

The Skrulls will finally make their long-awaited debut here

Possibly as servants of Thanos.

• Jossed, as Thanos' army will be the Outriders. As of now, the Skrulls will make their cinematic debut in the Captain Marvel movie.

Loki's scepter will be the major MacGuffin of Part 1

After being revealed to contain one of the Infinity Stones in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Loki's scepter from The Avengers will play a major role in this movie, with the Avengers trying to keep it out of the hands of Thanos' forces.

• Jossed. It's the MacGuffin for Avengers: Age of Ultron. In that film, the scepter was destroyed to retrieve the Mind Stone, and the Stone became part of Vision by the end.

Mephisto will be introduced in Doctor Strange to appear in this movie

He was crucial to the Infinity trilogy, after all.

• Alternately, his role could be filled by another character, like Loki or a not-quite-dead Other.
• Jossed, Mephisto does NOT appear in Doctor Strange, but Dormammu does.

There are two Infinity Gauntlets.

Asgard only has the right gauntlet, as Thanos has the left. This way, Thanos won't be in god mode even after his gauntlet is completed, as to give the heroes a fair fighting chance against him by using the right gauntlet to counter his left one. Besides, gauntlets are always created in pairs.

• Jossed: Thor: Ragnarok reveals the one in Asgard is a fake.

Captain America will wield Mjolnir.

Elements from the first Avengers film became significant in Age of Ultron (such as Loki's sceptre containing the Mind Gem, and Thor's ability to supercharge Stark's technology). To follow up from this, elements from Age of Ultron will become significant in Infinity War — including the fact that Cap was able to shift Mjolnir during the Avengers party. During Infinity War, he will be deemed worthy to wield the hammer temporarily (a shout out to the time Superman carried Mjolnir and Cap's shield), and he'll use it to fight Thanos.

• Jossed: Mjolnir gets destroyed by Hela in Thor: Ragnarok and it isn't reforged so it will not appear in Infinity War.
• However, he does wield a Mjolnir that has been brought back from the past in Avengers: Endgame.

The Casket of Ancient Winters from all the way back in the first Thor movie contains an Infinity Stone

Most likely the Time Stone. It wasn't causing cold. It was freezing the time of atoms, causing them to stop moving and achieving Absolute Zero.

• Jossed that it's the Time Stone, which is inside the Eye of Agamotto. It'd have to be the Soul Stone if it's any of them, but that one doesn't have any obvious connection to cold; more likely the Casket is just a relic.
  • Jossed; the Soul Stone ended up being on the Planet Vormir.

Spider-Man will receive the Venom Symbiote.

In the Secret Wars event, Spider-Man is given the Symbiote, an alien creature that enhances one's strength, but also their negative emotions. It's entirely possible that the Venom Symbiote is on the Planet where the Avengers will confront Thanos. Spider-Man might stumble upon it after being badly beaten by some of Thanos' daughters (Who will be expies of the Heralds of Galactus), and only being able to defeat them due to the strength boost after finding the symbiote. This will lead into the Second Spider-Man film, which will adapt the Venom storyline while The third film adapts Maximum Carnage.

• Jossed. The Venom spin-off will be handled by Sony and Marvel has confirmed they have no involvement or crossover planned with that film.

Sony and Marvel are both lying about Venom being in its own continuity...

...And the Iron Spider suit seen in the trailers is actually a misdirect, when in fact the suit actually used in those scenes of the movie will be the Black Suit. Most people know about the black suit and its origins as an alien life form, and thus would expect it to appear in a movie involving enemies from and battles related to space. So they've been lying about the canon status of the other Spider-verse films specifically to cast doubt on the idea of the symbiote appearing in the film.

• Jossed. Tom Holland says Disney hasn't even discussed using the black suit in Infinity War.

This isn't the first movie Thanos is the Big Bad in.

He will appear in another previous movie, probably either Thor: Ragnarok or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, as a Big Bad (or one of two Big Bads, eventually overshadowing the other. That way, we can gauge just how much of a threat he is, making his presence in Infinity War all the more imposing.

• Jossed. Thanos is mentioned by name a few times in Guardians 2, but that's it. And he's not even mentioned in Ragnarok, but that film's mid-credits scene leads directly into this film's opening.

Avengers: Infinity War Part I will be a loose adaptation of New Avengers.

With the news that Sony and Marvel signed a deal to allow Spider-Man into the MCU, not to mention several characters being confirmed to debut in Phase 3, a New Avengers lineup in the MCU could look like this:

• The Leader: Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel
• The Lancer: T'Challa / Black Panther
• The Smart Guy: Stephen Strange / Doctor Strange
• The Big Guy: Drax The Destroyer
• The Heart: Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff
• The Sixth Ranger: Peter Parker / Spider-Man

• Partially Jossed, since Feige has said Captain Marvel will not appear until her solo film. She will presumably join the team for Part 2 though. The New Avengers idea could still work, just with someone else as the leader.

Baron Mordo will make an appearance in the film.

Assuming his inevitable Face–Heel Turn doesn't occur in Doctor Strange, it would make sense for Strange's closest ally to appear alongside him; this film could even some of lay the groundwork for his betrayal in the Doctor Strange sequel.

• Likely jossed, as Mordo's already made his Face–Heel Turn by the end of Doctor Strange. Though this doesn't preclude him appearing as an ally of Thanos.
• Fully Jossed. He's not even mentioned.

Nova will fill the role of the Silver Surfer

Since Fox has the rights to the Silver Surfer and Marvel has been pushing the Sam Alexander version of Nova heavily these last few years (particularly in other media like Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) and Disney Infinity), Nova will take the Silver Surfer's role as the hero who crashes on Earth and warns the Avengers that Thanos is coming.

• A more likely choice for that role might be Star-Lord.
• Or Thor himself with the assumed aftermath of his third film. Thor or Rhomann Dey would both fit the role following the destruction of Asgard and Xandar respectively. Using Dey would even be a fitting adaptation of his fate in the comics.
• Jossed. Bruce Banner gets the honors.

The Masters of Evil will appear

In order to avoid having two films of the Avengers fighting only Thanos, the Masters of Evil will appear in Part 1. The group will consist of villains from past MCU movies, such as Nebula (Guardians of the Galaxy), Baron Zemo (Captain America: Civil War), Moonstone (Captain Marvel), the Abomination (The Incredible Hulk), Yellowjacket (Ant-Man), and Enchantress (Thor: Ragnarok). They will act as Thanos' proxies on Earth, similar to the role the Zodiac played in the Avengers Assemble comic.

• Or they will be the Thunderbolts and be government sanctioned in line with the accords under Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross with Zemo as field leader. Other candidates not mentioned above include Batroc, Skurge (confirmed for Thor: Ragnarok), Shocker (mostly confirmed for Spider-Man: Homecoming), Klaue, and maybe a villain from a show to throw us Marvel TV fans a connective bone (E.g., Absorbing Man, currently working for Talbot who has a close history with Ross in the comics, or Nuke, now recaptured by the secret military org. that made him).
• Nebula is on the verge of a full on Heel–Face Turn, Captain Marvel is going to be released after Infinity War (and Moonstone isn't confirmed for that), Darren Cross is dead by the end of Ant-Man and Enchantress doesn't appear is Thor: Ragnarok at all. All of this considered, even if a group of villains appear, this lineup is unlikely.
• Jossed. The Black Order show up to fight the Avengers.
  • Klaue died in Black Panther anyways.

Part 1 will include elements of The Death of Captain America.

Specifically with Bucky trying to kill Stark to avenge Steve before taking up the Captain America mantle.

• Jossed. Captain America doesn't die at the end of Civil War.

Loki will be The Starscream to Thanos, taking Mephisto's place as The Dragon

He'll be exposed as impersonating Odin in Thor: Ragnarok, but will escape, managing to steal the Tesseract and Gauntlet, offering them (and knowledge of the Aether's location) to Thanos in order to barter for his life. He'll then reappear here, leading Thanos' forces in gathering the other stones, all so that he can steal the complete set once they're together. Of course, Thanos being Thanos, he'll see this coming and Out Gambit Loki somehow.

• Jossed. Thanos straight-up kills him in the opening scene.

Loki will have a partial Heel–Face Turn in this and/or decide that Thanos is enough of a threat that it's worth a truce with the good guys and ends up helping the heroes finish off Thanos.

Of course, this depends on what happens to him in Ragnarok, and if he teams up with Thor again in that one.

• It's worth noting that the official trailer for Ragnarok shows Thor and Loki meeting and later standing beside each other, firing their weapons at the same target, so this might end up getting confirmed even as of Ragnarok, even though as of yet we know pretty much nothing about his motivation for doing so.
• Now that Thor: Ragnarok has been released, it certainly seems that Loki has reconciled with Thor, but...Loki being Loki, we'll have to wait and see what happens in this film and whether or not he has actually committed to his new path.
  • He seems to remain on the side of Thor, yes, but only for about a scene, before he dies.

Black Panther will provide the team with a new Quinjet

After the events of Captain America: Civil War, Tony Stark will no longer be providing funding for the team. T'Challa will step in and offer financial backing as well as a new Quinjet, since the Wakandans created the original Quinjets in the comics.

• Apparently Jossed, since Stark, Rhodey, and Vision are the only ones left in the Avengers complex after the end of Civil War. Additionally, with T'Challa providing refuge to Captain America and the Winter Soldier after the denouement, it's unlikely he would give much of anything to Stark's Avengers.
  • Very much Jossed. Black Panther doesn't provide any of the sort, and he's unlikely to do so in Avengers 4, now that he's disintegrated.

When Rocket Raccoon and Tony Stark meet, the two will enjoy a lengthy off-camera technical discussion.

And before long, we’ll get to see the results of the two sharing their knowledge: Rocket will get some really cool new weapons based on Arc Reactor technology, and Tony’s Mk. LXVI (or whatever he’s up to at that point) will be able to collapse into and deploy from a back-mounted module the size of a dinner plate (similar to Rocket's “aero-rigs” we saw in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2), enabling him to carry the full Iron Man suit beneath his street clothes now.

• Jossed. Rocket and Tony do not meet at all in the film. Additionally, Tony describes his new suit as being based on nanotech, and its method of transformation is more similar to Wakandan technology than anything Rocket built.

Marvel will work out a deal with Twentieth Century Fox to share the rights to any Fantastic Four-related characters in time for the movie

If this WMG sounds crazy, bear in mind that it worked with Spider-Man, one of Marvel's most popular characters that was owned by another studio — one that was extremely unwilling to share up until that point. While Fox isn't hurting financially like Sony was, the Fantastic Four are nowhere near as popular as the Webslinger, and they have an uncertain future at the box office with the bad press from the 2015 reboot.

• Fallout from using full set of Infinity Stones could be a great way to explain people gaining random powers.
• If Disney DOES end up buying FOX, that would pretty much put an end to any rights issues Marvel would have for using either the Fantastic Four or the large stable of X-Men characters.
• Jossed. After all the merger is still very much in progress and (if approved by federal regulators) won't be complete until next year.

Marvel will work out a deal with Twentieth Century Fox to share the rights to any X-Men-related characters in time for the movie

Hey, we can dream, can't we?

• Hugh Jackman really wants it to happen.
• Allow me to expand on that a bit. See below.
• Jossed.

Thanos messing with reality will crash many dimensions together, Crisis on Infinite Earths-style.

Namely, with the Twentieth Century Fox universes. And this is how the Grand Marvel Cinematic Unification will happen.

• Jossed—see above.

Marvel will not allow the above characters into this movie- but will throw fans a bone

Even if they did, there is a point where too many characters become unwieldy. But, to fulfill a nigh-decade of fan pleading, the ending will feature Dr. Strange, Tony, and Black Bolt, in a shadowy room, divvying up the Stones between themselves and some mysterious figures... one in a wheelchair, one unusually lanky, and one not wearing a good deal of clothes.

• Jossed.

This won't be Thanos big debut...

Thanos will reveal that everything he does, he does for love, for love of Death. Lady Death. The Grim Reaper.

But then... a couple will maim Thanos, they will CRUSH him under the heel of their boots. Who, you ask? No less than DEADPOOL and SQUIRREL GIRL. Because now, all those heroes are under the same roof. Deadpool will teleport himself, he will break the fourth wall, and will be our beloved Deadpool. Squirrel Girl won't break the fourth wall until the Stinger.

• Squirrel Girl is going to be part of the New Warriors 2018 and unless the TV series and films finally cross over with one another, Squirrel Girl might be Jossed.
• Jossed, sadly. We will have to wait until the sequel for Squirrel Girl to save us all.
  • I'd rather not. She exists as a parody of a superhero. The main MCU arc, while it does have its fair share of comedic moments, takes itself seriously overall.

Ant-Man will feel out of his element and be somewhat intimidated by the other Avengers

True to Scott Lang's role in the comics, he will feel out of his depth and like his powers are somewhat meaningless in comparison to the other, cooler Avengers. This will set the stage for a Moment of Awesome where his Sizeshifter abilities help save the day during a pivotal moment.

• Not impossible, but similar beats occurred in Civil War, with Lang geeking out over the Avengers instead of angsting.
• Jossed. Ant-Man doesn't appear at all — dialogue mentions that he and Hawkeye have both made deals with the authorities and are under house arrest.

The movie will see the debut of an Asian superhero

With the Asian box office having become incredibly important in recent years (with Marvel previously trying to cash-in via certain elements in Iron Man 3 and Avengers: Age of Ultron) and several Marvel creators specifically talking about possibly seeing new Asian characters in the comics and MCU, the movie will feature a new Asian superhero joining the Avengers. It may be White Fox, a Korean heroine who recently debuted in a Web Comic before Marvel announced that they were making her into a Canon Immigrant.

• Or just put Daisy Johnson in there. Chloe does have a singing career there, so who knows?
• Jossed. There are no new heroes in the movie.

The ending will reveal Loki is irredeemable.

After gaining a chance to steal the Gauntlet, he will let omnipotence go to his head and rant before being taken out. However, his rant will prove he is evil beyond redemption.

• Jossed. Loki dies right at the start, in a way that suggests his Heel–Face Turn had stuck.

Certain key villains will be resurrected by Thanos

...In order to form the MCU equivalent of The Legion Of The Unliving. Furthermore, they will all gain new powers derived from their respective Infinity Stones. Potential key players are as follows:

• Red Skull (Space)
• Malekith (Reality)
• Ronan (Power)
• Ultron or Loki (Mind)
• Surtur, Mordo, or Dormammu (Soul)
• Korvac or Magus ^note Marvel Studios sadly cannot use Kang The Conqueror as of 2015 despite making him the Big Bad of LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2. (Time)
  • But Korvac hasn't appeared at all in the MCU, let alone died.
  • Obadiah Stane might also become a member.
• Jossed. Thanos has his own minions (after all, he had an entire galaxy to pick from), and he keeps the Infinity Stones all to himself. That said, Red Skull does appear briefly — he's become the guardian of the Soul Stone.

The Infinity Gauntlet will be nerfed.

As good as the The Infinity Gauntlet story was, Thanos owning everyone wouldn't make a good 2+ hours on film.

• Mostly jossed. The MCU's Infinity Gauntlet is not nearly as powerful as in the comic because it was created by the dwarves as opposed to existing eternally along with the rest of the stones, so there were some moments where the weaknesses of the gauntlet were shown. However, the gauntlet is still really, really powerful, and watching Thanos beat everybody up for two and a half hours turned out to be pretty entertaining.

The Initiative will factor into the plot.

Not necessarily with the same characters, but after Civil War, Tony may form a variation of The Initiative as an army of heroes who help fight Thanos.

• Jossed. Tony's forces seem to be down to him, Spidey, and War Machine — not that he gets much of a chance to call in any reinforcements once the action starts.

When The Vision loses the Mind Gem, Wanda will keep him functional and/or alive through her powers.

...Leading them to fall even more in love with each other, naturally. Or else leading to The Big Damn Kiss.

• Or, alternatively, the removal of the Mind Gem combined with Wanda's powers might have some unintended side effects for The Vision, transforming him into a different sort of being.
• It might also lead to a sweet power-up for Wanda.
• Jossed in the most brutal way possible. The Vision is apparently killed by the loss of the Mind Stone, and Wanda is then killed by Thanos's finger-snap of doom.

The human Vision from the trailers is only at the very end of the movie.

After taking another fatal hit, the sight of the Vision falling to pieces causes Wanda's powers to awaken at full-blown Reality Warper levels, saving him with a cosmic patch job by turning him human. Unfortunately her powers make her unsafe to the entire MCU, so Doctor Strange takes her in, giving her her own dimension to train in until she can safely return. The scene from the trailer is Wanda saying goodbye.

• Jossed. He's actually human-looking at the start, apparently as another use of the Mind Stone.

Tom Hiddleston isn't playing Loki

He is playing lady Death, disguised as Loki.

• Jossed. Unless she's playing a very long and very weird game.

There will be an evil Five-Man Band

More or Less, so:

• Big Bad: Thanos
• The Dragon (and The Starscream): Loki
• Evil Genius: Red Skull
• The Brute: Abomination
• The Heart (and The Starscream): Nebula
• Jossed in the detail. Thanos does have four minions, but they're his own alien servants. Abomination doesn't feature, Nebula and Loki are good guys (more or less), and Red Skull is only there to exposit about the Soul Stone.

Steve Rogers will be in mid or post credit-scene for Part 1

Assuming Steve dies in the Civil War, so he can used in Infinity War Part 2 the mid or post credit scene will reveal he has been resurrected to help fight Thanos. The end of part 1 Thanos gets all the stones and what is left of the Avengers start to despair and fight among themselves for some reason. Someone (maybe Fury, Coulson, or some cosmic being) will appear before them and tell them they need a leader. Someone (probably Tony) will ask who and Steve will appear. Everyone will be stunned. Steve will say the iconic words, Avengers Assemble.

• Jossed.

Either Cap or Hawkeye will be Killed Off for Real

Why them? Well, on the one hand, Hawkeye got a suspiciously large amount of Character Development in Age of Ultron, as we got to see his home and meet his wife and kids. He even looks at a family photo in one scene, so a time-delayed version of Fatal Family Photo could be in play here. On the other hand, Chris Evans' contract should be running out around this time, so if he decides that he doesn't want to renew it, they could kill off Cap and have him be replaced by Bucky or Falcon, as in the comics.

• Adding credence to this theory is the fact that Marvel has repeatedly said there are no plans for a Hawkeye solo film or TV show, meaning he could be killed without ruining a potential franchise. He could pull a Heroic Sacrifice in Avengers Disassembled to lend weight to his death.
• Jossed. Cap survives and Hawkeye does not appear (although he could have been among the half the population of the galaxy who do die).
  • Endgame confirmed that he survived.

An early scene will be Steve celebrating his 100th Birthday

Part 1 comes out in 2018. It will be written and directed by the same crew from the Cap movies. Per Captain America: The First Avenger, Steve was born in 1918. It'll be a nice moment of peace before everything goes to hell.

• Jossed. Everything goes to hell pretty much from the start, and while there are a couple of moments of peace, Steve doesn't get to be in them.
  • However, Bucky does refer to himself a 100 year old man.

Thanos is intentionally losing so many Infinity Stones.

A lot of people are wondering what exactly Thanos's plan is, since so far it seems to involve giving Infinity Stones to lackeys who then get beat and lose the Stone to the heroes. What if the first step in his plan is to somehow set the Stones off remotely, dealing Apocalypse How-level damage to some of the people most likely/able to resist him- powerhouses like Asgard or the Nova Corps.

• Jossed. Thanos really does want to collect them all, and as it happens neither the Nova Corps nor (what's left of) Asgard is able to give him pause.

Thanos will die in Part 1 by being Taken for Granite, like he did in the 1970s.

Given the MCU's history of killing off their villains in their movies, this is most likely. After all, killing off Thanos will bring a 10-year story to a conclusion.

• Jossed. He lives and wins, destroying half of the universe including most of the heroes.

Part 1 will feature a Big Bad Ensemble

Between Thanos and Baron Zemo. Zemo will be leading the Masters of Evil and also trying to collect the Infinity Stones.

• Loki will also be involved as the Wild Card before entering a Enemy Mine with the heroes in Part 2.
• Jossed. Zemo doesn't appear.

Hela will appear in place of Death

It's heavily rumored that Hela will appear as the Big Bad of Thor: Ragnarok, played by Cate Blanchett. As Hela is the ruler of the Asgardian underworld and is associated with the concept of death, she could end up being the one Thanos is obsessed with. After all, it might be redundant to have two completely unrelated death-themed women.

• This theory may have been given some serious weight by the fact that Thanos/Hela is now officially a thing in the comics universe and Marvel has a long history of changing things up in the comics to closer reflect what is happening in the MCU. And, of course, Hela has indeed been confirmed to be the primary antagonist in Thor: Ragnarok, the movie that has been described as being the biggest lead in to Infinity War.
• Could be considered by some to be Jossed, but it's a little too early for that. Some are convinced that Hela didn't die at the end of Ragnarok due to the ending being so ambiguous and the film not actually showing her die.

• Jossed. Hela does not appear, and Thanos's motivation has been altered to wanting to free up resources by killing people.

We'll get a few new heroes

Like Quicksilver, Vision, and Scarlet Witch in the last movie, we'll see the debuts of some new Avengers here.

• Jossed. There are no new heroes, just villains, although technically Spider-Man gets "knighted" as an Avenger by Tony.

Helmut Zemo will end up as The Dragon to Thanos.

Since the Other suffered a case of death by Ronan, both Gamora and Nebula have deserted him, and with Loki out of the picture, Thanos needs someone capable as his right hand when he comes to Earth to recover the Infinity Stones. Who better than the man who, without any kind of superpowers, but with his cunning, skill and The Power of Hate managed to get the Avengers to cripple themselves, a feat no other MCU villain ever accomplished. The MCU still has plans for Zemo, after all. Thanos will have his forces break Zemo out of lockup and then get Zemo to work for him by, perhaps promising to somehow revive his family and/or get total and complete revenge on the people who killed them? Or maybe he'll just force an unwilling Zemo to betray his species. Zemo will probably get a power upgrade to make him more on the level of the Avengers, perhaps with a comic-inspired suit. But Zemo will also be a Dragon with an Agenda and will seek to betray Thanos, since that's a recurring theme with his lackies.

• But couldn't Thanos just use the Mind Stone to keep Zemo in check?
• Zemo will outsmart the Mind Stone.
• Jossed. Thanos has minions enough without some powerless human.

Captain America will die in Part I

He survived Civil War but since Chris Evans' contract with Marvel nearly ends (unless he and Feige changed their minds), Steve might die in this movie, pulling a Heroic Sacrifice against Thanos (or Thanos will kill him, it's possible) which led to Bucky or Sam taking the Captain America mantle. His death might be a Sacrificial Lion which got the Avengers and the rest of the Marvel heroes finally together after a few mishaps against Thanos.

• Jossed.

Eternity will show up.

It'd be cool to see a Cosmic Entity, and its not like we can get Galactus. Going with the above nerfed theory, his battle with Thanos will give the Avengers and opening.

• Jossed.

Infinity War will feature the biggest plot twist of the entire MCU.

Every villain the Avengers/Guardians have ever faced are actors, and were once part of Trevor Slattery's acting troupe. This includes Iron Monger, Abomination, Whiplash and Justin Hammer, Loki, Red Skull and Arnim Zola, Aldrich Killian, Malekith, Alexander Pierce and The Winter Soldier, Ronan and Nebula, Ultron and Yellowjacket. Even Thanos will be revealed to be famous scottish comedian Nigel McCorvick. But who is the man who is putting this cast together? Why it's none other than Stan Lee himself! Think about it. Who has been the only person to appear in every single one of the MCU films, can apparently change identities at will, travel through space, survive drinking the Hulk's blood and even travel across universes to other film franchises, even crossing into other, more animated realms? Stan Lee.

• We did get some seriously unexpected plot twists, but nope, he's just a bus driver here.

Coulson will be the one to, eventually, take down Thanos

Because who would be better at taking down an entity who would court death, than the one who escaped?

• And instead of a big last stand, Coulson will just casually stroll up and shoot Thanos, probably mid-sentence.
  • Coulson will use the powers of the Infinity Gauntlet to kill him.
  Coulson: (puts on Infinity Gauntlet) Let's find out what this does. (blows up Thanos) So that's what it does...
  • Now Marvel knows what to do. In my book, any other ending would almost be disappointing.
  • A the devil chooses that moment to collect his soul (after the pact in Agents of Shield season 4 finale), and Coulson blasts the devil into kingdom come with the Gauntlet.
• Jossed.

The Vision is kept alive thanks to Wakanda.

He's made of vibranium; they're the most qualified people to fix him.

• Attempted but ultimately jossed. Shuri begins an operation to separate the Mind Stone from Vision, but the two are attacked before she can complete the work.

The Infinity Gauntlet can be worn on either hand

The replica appearing in Thor was designed for the right hand. Thanos wears the gauntlet on his left hand. But! What if we assume that the gauntlet is Asgardian design? Recall the Destroyer Armour, which was also Asgardian and was able to rotate its individual parts so that it could be facing another direction if something stopped it from physically turning around. The gauntlet may also have similar technology, rearranging its individual plates so that it can be worn on whatever hand the wielder needs. This is also useful because it can accommodate different sizes and shapes of hands as well.

• Nope, the gauntlet was actually forged by the dwarves on Nidavellir and it's fixed as a Thanos-sized left glove.

Quicksilver will come Back from the Dead

It's a comic book movie. Also, Marvel fought tooth and nail to use him, so it's not likely his only appearance will be in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

• Jossed.

Dormammu will become a Composite Character with Mephisto, similar to the "Hela being Death" theory

Since Dormammu has been introduced in the MCU before Mephisto, it would be hard to establish the latter. Not to mention, the presence of two Demon Lords in the MCU would be too redundant at this point, so why combine the two?

• Jossed.

The movies will adapt elements of the Kree-Skrull War

Going with the above WMG that there are two Infinity Gauntlets, at some point someone (probably Coulson) will use the second gauntlet to temporarily bring dead heroes back to life, similar to what Rick Jones did with Golden Age heroes during the Kree-Skrull War. This would enable Cap's and Thor's returns (since they are likely to die in their own movies), and would also bring back Quicksilver.

• Jossed on every single point. However, Captain Marvel will adapt the Kree-Skrull War.

Bucky will deliberately allow someone (T'Challa or whomever) to trigger himself back into his Winter Soldier persona

As Civil War has shown us, Bucky is noticeably less effective without the ruthless programming that made him such a deadly agent. While he will be able to fight off Outriders and other mooks just fine, against the Black Order the heroes will probably need a bit of an edge. Much like unleashing the Hulk, this will serve as a Godzilla Threshold for the Avengers. Bonus points if Banner is the one to convince Bucky to let out his more aggressive side.

• Jossed. The Winter Soldier programming is permanently gone, thanks to Shuri's work.

Helmut Zemo will pull a Heel–Face Turn

The events leading up to the Infinity War will make him realize that more suffering like that inflicted on his family will happen if the Avengers remain apart, and he will use his manipulation skills to bring them together again. Or, the Avengers will already be reunified, and he'll bring them together with the Guardians after those two teams fight each other.

• He may even join them and assume his Citizen V persona.
• Jossed. Zemo doesn't appear and isn't mentioned.

While Kevin Feige has said that this version of Strange is still learning, he could further be taken down a peg when Thanos steals his Eye of Agamotto (which does contain the Infinity Stone of Time) after a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. This would give him ample reason to work alongside the Avengers without vastly overpowering them and making them seem redundant.

Doctor Strange will be Nerfed to justify him teaming up with the Avengers

In the comics, Strange is usually a massive Story Breaker, which is why when Strange actually joined the Avengers, Brian Bendis greatly depowered him and stripped him of his mystical artifacts.

• Probably Jossed: Strange doesn't take up carrying the Eye regularly in his debut film, so unless he gets a major upgrade in rank off-camera, he's unlikely to be wielding it freely at the beginning of Infinity War. More likely, he'll be elevated to Sorcerer Supreme and entrusted with personal custody of the thing after proving his worth against Thanos.
• Mostly Jossed: Strange isn't nerfed, and is indeed a potent force against Thanos. He uses a dead-man's switch spell to protect the Eye (possibly keeping him from using the time stone in battle?). At one point, while the team is away from danger, he uses the eye to examine millions of possible futures and finds one where they succeed against Thanos. Later, he gives up the time stone to keep Tony from being killed, saying it's the only way to win. Strange is dusted by Thanos' snap.

Confirmed

Confirmed appearances

• Avengers
  • Winter Soldier
  • Falcon
  • Scarlet Witch
  • The Vision
  • Spider-Man
  • War Machine
  • Black Panther
  • Doctor Strange
  • Captain Marvel
  • Captain America
  • Iron Man
  • Hulk
  • Thor
  • Black Widow

• Guardians Of The Galaxy
  • Star-Lord
  • Groot
  • Rocket
  • Drax The Destroyer
  • Gamora
  • Mantis
• Loki
• Heimdall
• Shuri
• Okoye

Peter Parker will wear the Iron Spider suit to fight against Thanos and Black Order

The reason of why Tom Holland wearing a mo-cap suit because his character will actually wear the Iron Spider suit which Tony created for him (but was turned down at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming) because his current suit is NOT powerful enough to fight Thanos and Black Order. I think the whole Iron Spider suit from Spider-Man: Homecoming was meant to set up for Infinity War and Peter will have no choice but he have to wear the suit in order to combat Thanos.

• Confirmed.

The Black Order will be more of Thanos' "children"

In the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, it's shown he considered Gamora and Nebula to be his daughters. Around the same time, James Gunn stated that Thanos has many more children than just those two, and that some of them are even worse than Gamora and Nebula. It'd be fitting then if in this version, the Black Order were similarly children he kidnapped and trained as assassins and enforcers.

• Confirmed! They're even called "The Children Of Thanos".

Valkyrie will appear

Tessa Thompson will be playing the character in Thor: Ragnarok. She may be one of the characters who joins the fight against Thanos.

• Jossed, she doesn't show up at any point.

Alternatively, the Black Order will appear

Since the members of the Black Order were Thanos' Dragons in Infinity and will also be appearing in Avengers Assemble, they'll likely appear here too.

• Lending credence to this theory is that mo-cap performer Terry Notary has been cast as Thanos' "right hand man," and says he is working alongside several other actors in his scenes.
• The Black Order is pretty much certain as mo-cap stunt actors were filmed in Edinburgh, one wielding Corvus' signature glaive. Another second mo-cap actor wielding a trident could hint at Proxima Midnight being in the same scene as well.
  • New set photos have revealed a female mo-cap actress holding a trident along with a mo-cap actor wielding the glaive, pretty much confirming the two are in the movie and within the same fight scene at Edinburgh.
• Confirmed.

Ant-Man won't be in Avengers Infinity War (as of 2/16/2018)

...And his absence will be explained in Ant-Man and the Wasp.Ant-Man has not been featured or seen in any of the trailers or featurettes about the film and aside from a promotional photo showing him with Wasp (who is already confirmed not to be in the film), neither Scott nor Ant-Man has appeared. His second debut film Ant-Man and the Wasp is also released after this film, and in typical MCU fashion this only happens if the film happens after or during the events of the previous film (see Guardians Vol. 2, Civil War and Thor Ragnarok). It only makes sense that Ant-Man would either not have a starring role in Infinity or he won't appear at all.

• Confirmed as of July 6, 2018 Ant-Man and the Wasp happens post Civil War and then eventually transitions concurrently into Infinity War.

Mantis will show up.

She's one of the few heroes with strong ties to both the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as the cosmic side of Marvel as a whole. Plus, as an Asian woman, she provides some welcome diversity and could factor into Marvel's repeated attempts at courting the Asian box office.

• A suspiciously Mantis-looking woman is seen behind Thor in the second trailer to Avengers: Age of Ultron...
• Confirmed.

The Avengers will break down into smaller squads

Due to the massive amount of heroes, the movie will split the team up into several smaller groups in order to more easily manage the characters. Sort of like this Dorkly strip, but played straight.

• Confirmed. Kevin Feige says there won't be very many moments of all 60 + characters together at once.

The full cast won't assemble until Part 2

Kevin Feige has hinted that Hope Van Dyne won't become the Wasp until Ant-Man & The Wasp, which comes out between Parts 1 and 2. He's also said it's unlikely Captain Marvel will appear before her own movie, which similarly is out between 1 and 2. Part 1 could focus on a smaller, more manageable cast of heroes, only for everyone to show up (Wasp, Captain Marvel, and all the others) when the shit really hits the fan in Part 2.

• Confirmed. At least some of the actors (like Evangeline Lilly) have confirmed they won't show up until the second installment.

This film will deconstruct the concept of the Superhero Registration Act.

By this point in the MCU, the Sokovia Accords from Captain America: Civil War will have been in effect for some time. When it was put in effect, the government had become fed up with Superpowered vigilantes acting without some form of control to keep them from running rampant. Perhaps by this point, the Registration Act will have been in effect long enough for the downsides to be made apparent.

Specifically, the rules of the Sokovia Accords are that the Avengers aren't allowed to act until the government has deemed them absolutely necessary. A possible downside to this is that, because the registered Avengers aren't allowed to interfere without the government's say-so, it means that a lot more damage and casualties could occur than if the Avengers had been allowed to act from the start. This would likely cause the public to become fed up with the Accords, and how inactive it's made the Avengers, and start demanding that the government either lax the Accords, or just have them repealed altogether.

Meanwhile, because Captain America and the Avengers who joined him don't follow the Sokovia Accords, they're able to react more quickly to trouble than the Avengers who do, which will make the pubic view him and his allies more favorably than the Pro-Accord Avengers. This would further put pressure on the government to allow the Avengers who follow the Accords more freedoms in what they can and can't do.

• Confirmed, kind of. The film features a brief scene where Secretary Ross ignores the fact the Earth is being invaded by aliens in favor of the fugitive Avengers being spotted. Ross tries to order Rhodey to arrest them instead of the investigate the alien threat, making Rhodey realize that the Accords as they are aren't a good thing.

Steve Rogers will be a sort of Composite Character.

The Russo Brothers explained that Rogers will not be Captain America in this film. In the comics, there were two instances of him leaving his Captain America persona behind. One instance involved him turning into the hero Nomad and the other resulted in him getting a vibranium shield and calling himself The Captain while the USAgent took his place. In this movie, he will have a costume that will reference both personas while characters might refer to him as a nomad or take to calling him Captain.

• Partially confirmed in that the Russos and Chris Evans consider him to be the MCU's version of Nomad.

Bruce Banner will fill the role of the Silver Surfer

By the end of Thor: Ragnarok he's on the Asgardian ship encountering the Sanctuary II, and the trailer shows he crashed into the Sanctum Sanctorum. He'll will take the Silver Surfer's role (from the original comic) as the hero who crashes on Earth and warns the Avengers that Thanos is coming.

• Confirmed.

Thor will get his axe in this film

In the comics, Thor began wielding an axe called Jarnbjorn after becoming unworthy of Mjolnir. Now that Mjolnir has been destroyed in the MCU, he is currently without a weapon.

• Confirmed. Thor wields an axe called Stormbreaker.

Thanos' Forces in the movie

• The Chitauri
• Sakaarans: They were Ronan's mooks, after all.
• Beings that are the same race as the Other.
• Sharon Stone has stated in an interview that she has gotten a Marvel role. Perhaps her character serves Thanos.
  • She stated her character has a heat-based power. My bet is for a Gender Flip version of the character Firelord, perhaps called Fire Lady or Lady Fire. Firelord served Galactus in the comics, but it wouldn't be the first time a character had their affiliation changed.
• Confirmed: While bulk of the Thanos forces attacking Wakanda being Outriders, Chitauri are still shown as being Thanos' mook of the choice, crewing his ship. Sakaarans themselves doesn't appear on screen, but their iconic shuttle/fighter crafts can be seen buzzing around Thanos' ship as well. As for The Other, at least some members of Children of Thanos (Black order) are lookin similar enough to possibly be from the same species.

The cut off point for Part 1...

...will be Thanos assembling the Gauntlet and unleashing a World-Wrecking Wave. This will be the Cliffhanger setting up Part 2, which will be one long series of attempts by the heroes to counter Thanos' omnipotence.

• pretty much confirmed — the World-Wrecking Wave being the death of half the universe.

Thanos will be the true antagonist of the films — no fake-outs necessary.

That's not to say others might try to steal the Infinity Gauntlets to supersede him, but he will be the be-all-end-all villain of the movies. They've built up the character up for years, and they're not just going to undercut him with a completely different villain.

• Not much of a surprise, really. But yes.

Thor and the Hulk will fall victim to The Worf Effect to show how powerful Thanos is

Thanos smacking them around has become something◊ of◊ a◊ tradition. Seeing the two most powerful Avengers tossed around like rag dolls would make for a nice Oh, Crap! moment for the audience.

• Yes, Hulk especially. Thanos appears to use the Power Stone while tormenting Thor in the opening, so that one's debatable, but very soon after, he beats up Hulk without appearing to use a stone.
• Thor is even more debatable, as he later gives Thanos The Worf Effect by nearly killing Thanos with Stormbreaker after he gave a Curbstomp Battle to everyone in the film.

Thanos will kill the Vision

Since he needs the Mind Stone embedded in his forehead. As a bonus, this would also serve as The Worf Effect.

• Perhaps there could be a non-lethal variant in which he kicks Vision's ass to take the Mind stone, but Vision would survive with a significant De-power. His consciousness is not necessarily linked to the Mind Stone.
• If Vision does die, Tony will go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • I'm not sure if the relationship between them onscreen has been that close. Granted, Tony does appear to have some fear about being responsible for the deaths of friends.
• Forget Tony, imagine Wanda's rage.
• Possibly Vision will survive the Stone's loss, but retain a mental link to it, allowing him to help the other heroes track it (and the Gauntlet) down.
• Vision is still a robot. He might keep a backup of his "mind" somewhere. He might indeed die, and then get restored into a new, weaker, body — which would not be as stupidly overpowered as his current one.
  • Confirmed — Scarlett Witch, with the power to destroy the Mind Stone and no time left for anything else, is forced to destroy it, which kills Vision but saves countless others. Until, of course, Thanos reverses time, and retrieves the stone from Vision before it can be destroyed, killing him again.

Samuel L. Jackson is lying about Fury not being in the movie

Exactly What It Says on the Tin. It's really unlikely the movie that's being billed as the culmination of the entire MCU won't feature the character who introduced the shared universe aspect of the films to begin with.

• Confirmed—kinda. He (and Maria Hill!) appear only in The Stinger, so it depends on whether you consider that part of "the movie" or not.

---

Post-Release

Post-release theories

Doctor Strange surrendering the Time Stone to Thanos was actually a Batman Gambit.

Strange was seen on-film trying to foresee the multiple possibilities that the heroes could win. He only saw one. Considering how he has been adamant that he would prioritize saving the Time Stone over saving his comrades, this about-face may feel out of character for him. We could read this, obviously, as merely him cracking under pressure and his basic decency getting the better of him. Or, as argued, Strange might have seen that the future in which they win actually involves Thanos getting what he wants in the short-term.

• Considering his last words to Tony are "there was no other way" I think this is all but confirmed already.

• To add to this, Strange told Ebony Maw how difficult it was to break a dead man's spell. What if Strange sabotaged the Time Stone before handing it over to Thanos? That might explain why the Gauntlet looked burnt-out at the end and why Thanos' arm was horribly scarred. Strange had some sort of fail safe that will play out in Avengers 4.

• As we've seen in climax of Doctor Strange, destroying the wielder does not interrupt the effects of the Time Stone enchantment. It is possible that Doctor Strange DID use Time Stone prior to the battle, creating some kind of powerful effect. The green holograms were invisible because they were hidden along with the stone by his magic. Because it would indeed be weird that Doctor didn't use his greatest weapon in battle with Thanos... unless the greatest weapon was already in use. My bet would be on sending his consciousness back in time to set some kind of events into motion to reverse the fingersnap, or into the future to advise the heroes.

• Alternately, it may turn out that the one way to undo what Thanos has done is for the surviving heroes to persuade Thanos himself to use the Time Stone to observe possible alternate futures, and discover that there are zero in which his "fingersnap" actually makes the universe a better place. In which case, yielding the Stone to him was necessary to allow him to do so, and Strange's probing of alternate timelines was simply Foreshadowing that it grants its wielder such a capacity to perceive them. Which Thanos will do, realize he's made the universe's biggest mistake, and use the Stones to revise history so it never happened.

• "Now, is not time at all"? If there's nothing timey-wimey about it, then colour me surprised. But it's also possible that Strange was merely stalling for time. Consider Ant-Man and the Wasp. For how long was Scott going to be in Quantum Realm? A couple of real-time minutes, maybe. And to be certain of his survival, Strange had to ensure the finger snap happened while he was in there. Not before. So he needed Thanos to get the stone at the right moment.

• More or less confirmed, as it was the only way.

One of the people we saw dissolving on Titan is still alive.

There are six people there, yet only two remain. That's two thirds, not a half. Could be a simple random number roll, but might also actually mean something.

• Maybe Strange is alive. His disintegration is a Batman Gambit like the death in the Justice League pilot.
  • Another possibility. Strange said a dead man's spell cannot be undone. He cast a final spell to create an illusion of someone else dying. Peter is still alive and under an unbreakable stealth spell!
• Alternately, Mantis is the one under the spell, because she is both capable of receiving the required last instructions in secret, due to her telepathy, and level-headed enough to stick to the plan.
  • Perhaps Mantis uses her telepathy as a Perception Filter.
• Or maybe there are other people on Titan that weren't close enough or brave enough to take part in the battle. Aliens who just happened to be there scrounging old Titan artifacts, and who can give Tony and Nebula a lift off the planet in their ship.
• Jossed. By all indications they died.

The damages Thanos did is going to be undone by using the Infinity Gauntlet or one of the Stones as a Reset Button or sorts.

With Infinite power on things like Time, Reality, Soul and others, it would be very easy to replicate the effect of 'collecting seven Dragon Ball', which may provide the solution. The question is how to get there.

• Alternately, Thanos himself may undo it if he comes to find his retirement boring...
  • Or if he's confronted by hard evidence that the culling he inflicted will only lead to vastly more suffering, over the long term, than leaving things unchanged would have.
• This pretty much tracks with what happened in the original Infinity Gauntlet comic.
• Jossed. The damage isn't undone, but things were reset in the sense that everyone who got snapped came back.

The only "Safe" characters are those who got disintegrated, and it's all part of a meta joke the Russo Brother did at the expanse of the most detail-obsessed parts of the audience.

Before the Movie released, many people tried to guess which characters were more likely to be killed. Among the likely candidates were characters whose actors contracts were reaching their end, like Chris Evan's Captain America and Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark, while more popular characters, like Groot or Black Panther/T'challa (who already has a sequel planned) were deemed "safe"

And it turned out, the characters deemed most at risk pretty much survived while many characters expected to be safe got disintegrated.So expanding from the previous WMG, part of the damage Thanos did will be undone in the sequel, namely the big finger-snap-of-doom that erased half the universe's sentient population's will be undone, but all characters killed in any other way will stay dead: so Peter Parker, Groot, Doctor Strange, Nick Furry and the rest will be brought back, but Gamora, Vision or Loki will stay dead…

And of course, that means every "survivor" from the first part will be fair game during the second part.Which means the characters deemed most "at risk" will fall during the second part and not be brought back, bringing a conclusion closer to what was originally hypothesized by many fans, but before second movie reaches a more expected conclusion in terms of who gets to come back and who falls, the Russo brothers will have had the opportunity to chuckle at the lore & studio politics obsessed fans who all muttered (or shouted) "This can't be happening" when all the characters they deemed safe vanished.

• Confirmed for Tony, but Jossed for Steve.

Thanos biologically alterred the survivors to make them less fertile.

He talks about killing half the population of the Universe as a one-time thing, not something he plans to repeat in the future. So, he lowered the population, and fixed it to stay lowered permanently.

The Hulk knew what was going to happen

He refuses to emerge from Bruce Banner after his beatdown at the start of the film. Hulk is smarter than he can convey, but he knew what was going to happen at the end, and knew that he could be killed if he physically existed.

• This doesn't make any sense, as Hulk knows that without Bruce, he doesn't exist. They both were in danger, and this would have given Hulk even more reason to come out for the fight. It makes more sense that Hulk didn't want to come out because he's nursing a bruised ego because he was taken out by someone who was actually physically stronger than him and without any work around, like using magic (Thor) or tech (Tony in the Hulkbuster).

The next film shows a division on what happens next

The sequel will focus on the fallout and the surviving heroes will be divided on what happens. Tony will be obsessed with trying to "fix" it (as he always wants to do) or at the least, live up to their name by avenging those lost on Thanos. Steve will want to "save what's left" and focus on the chaos, thus giving us a sort of inverse of Civil War and bring up how each man blames himself for what has happened.

• Jossed. Apart from some initial reluctance, everyone is on board with the plan.

All of the lives lost were claimed by the Soul Stone

The Stone is implied to be sentient as in the comics and it's not too far to think that it also shares the same desire for souls as well. Everyone that was killed by Thanos using the Gauntlet was absorbed into the Soul Stone and part of the next film will be about the heroes who died trying to escape or the ones still alive trying to save them from the Stone.

• Jossed. Thanos destroyed the Soul Stone, but everyone is later brought back.

Thanos has caused something far worse than what he sought to prevent to be unleashed by his actions

Tying into the Soul Stone theory above Thanos has upset a precise cosmic balance by killing half of all life because the souls of those lost were taken by the Soul Stone instead of naturally passing on. This has upset one of the cosmic entities who decide to take action to correct Thanos' "balancing" of the universe, which will horrify Thanos because it renders everything he did All for Nothing.

• Alternately, the REAL reason Strange gave up the time stone and let Thanos win was because it HAD to be completed, and Thanos had to be taught that having infinite power does not mean having infinite strength, as the Avengers had him on the ropes a few times even with the infinite power of the universe literally at his fingertips. As a result of gathering galactic-level power, something WORSE than a genocidal maniac is coming to rip reality a new one, and the Infinity Gauntlet is the spearhead against this new Eldritch threat... something similar to Galactus.
• Jossed.

Doctor Strange will survive because of his Astral Projection

He'll appear as a Spirit Advisor who directs the remaining heroes from either beyond the grave or from inside the Soul Stone. He won't be able to use magic because he lacks a physical form but could possess someone to cast spells.

• Jossed. His dusting is rather important in the climax of Endgame.

Death will appear

She will not be happy about Thanos killing half the universe because those souls were taken into the Soul Stone instead of going to her. She either raises an army of undead in order to claim the Gauntlet to get the souls or she decides to kill off an equal amount of the still living to restore her version of balance.

• Jossed; the Russos have said that Death will not appear in Infinity War or the sequel.
  • Gamora has pretty much taken on Lady Death's role in the comics, with Thanos's romantic love for Lady Death replaced with a fatherly love for Gamora; no matter how desperately Thanos tries to win Gamora's daughterly affections she will always reject him. This relationship is likely to continue in the next film since it's been established that even though she's dead Thanos can still communicate with Gamora (or at least a child avatar of her) — it's safe to say that him murdering her for power did nothing to endear her to him.

Oblivion will appear

He decides to just kill off everything that's left because of how much has been lost already and Thanos will stand against him because despite his action he did want the universe to remain alive.

• Jossed.

Eternity will appear

Thanos killing half the universe upset a cosmic balance he was unaware of and Eternity will work to restore that balance.

• Jossed.

Thanos will resurrect Gamora

Which will cause him to lose the Soul Stone because he undid the cost he had to pay to claim it.

• Jossed. The Soul Stone apparently has a no take back rule. Bruce tried to bring Natasha back, but it didn't work.

The Infinity Gauntlet will be destroyed

Because nothing can withstand using the full might of all six Infinity Stones. He was able to get one shot with the Stones to kill half of the universe but that use damaged the Gauntlet and he won't be able to use all six at once again. He's limited to either one Stone at a time overall or able to use a few at a time with each use causing further damage to the Gauntlet until it's finally destroyed.

• Confirmed. Thanos destroys the original gauntlet himself in Endgame so that it cannot ever be used again.

Avengers 4 will feature all the "loose ends".

Though Infinity War features the Avengers being introduced to the likes of Dr. Strange, the Guardians, and visiting Wakanda. There are still a lot of loose ends. While it's pretty much a given that Clint, Hope, Scott, and Ms. Marvel will have major roles in Avengers 4, there are other unaccounted characters. For example, Kraglin is nowhere to be seen with the Guardians crew even though he was with them at the end of Vol 2. Sif has been absent since Thor: The Dark World, not appearing in Thor: Ragnarok. Valkyrie is nowhere to be seen (nor is mentioned) on the Asgard spaceship which is odd, considering Infinity War picks up right where Ragnarok leaves off in the mid-credits. Even Selvig, Thor's lone supporting character to appear in the first Avengers' films is absent. There's also the loose end of Red Skull and Captain America.

• In an interview with The Huffington Post, the Russos confirmed the post-snap fates of some characters: Howard the Duck, Aunt May, and (maybe) Nakia are safe; Betty Ross, Sif, and Asgardian Matt Damon are dead; the fates of Jane Foster, Ned Leeds, Korg, Miek, and Shuri could be neither confirmed nor denied.
• Somewhat confirmed. The film features many characters absent in Infinity War.

Loki will likely return in a future film

Despite appearing to really die in this one, Loki is still a Trickster God and could show up in a future film down the road. Set photos do show him in Avengers 4, though it may not be a major role. Even if Tom Hiddleston doesn't return, other forms of the character (Lady or Kid Loki for example) could appear in the future.

• Semi-confirmed. Loki isn't getting his own film, but Tom Hiddleston is going to reprise the role of Loki headlining a series on Disney's streaming service.

Thanos created an alternate universe

Despite everyone claiming that Thanos intended to kill half the universe, in fact, he had a slightly less genocidal plan. Instead, he created a duplicate universe and moved half the population there. While Tony is stranded on Titan-A, Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, and the Guardians wake up on Titan-B and will have an easier time getting back to Earth. They'll be there for the big group reveal that everyone survived.

• This also allows Marvel to utilize the recently acquired Fox properties. A brand new universe is in line with the existence of a multiverse like in the comics and can be used to introduce the X-men and the concept of mutants without contradicting much of what was established thus far. This is why the majority of the dusted characters just happen to be the newer players in the MCU and the original ones with contracts ending can be left "alive" in the original universe.
• This alternate timeline may also be the one where the Netflix heroes operate, where Stark Tower is still the MetLife Building, etc.
• Jossed. According to Spiderman in Endgame, when he was brought back, he though he had passed out.

"Hulk... scared."

The Hulk's refusal to help Bruce is simple—he, the unstoppable rage monster, got his green ass handed to him with ease by Thanos. Hulk's a simple creature of primal instincts, and he's scared. He's not coming out from under the couch until the vacuum has been off and shut in the closet for at least half an hour.

• Jossed. According to Word of God, it was because he was tired of having to constantly save Banner.

Tony is the lynchpin to stopping Thanos

Strange goes from telling Tony with absolute certainty that given the choice of saving Tony, Peter or the Time Stone, he'd choose the Time Stone. Then in the climax, he gives up the Stone in order to save Tony's life. As Strange seemed content as he faded away, this means he's assured they're in the one scenario where they can win, as Tony is left as one of the last standing. This could mean that assuring Tony's survival is the most important part of this plan.

• Confirmed. In the end, Tony is the one who uses the Infinity Gauntlet to snap away Thanos and his forces.

Ant-man in Avengers 4 is because the "Half that needs to go" included his family.

This also goes for Hawkeye. In the movie the two are left out because they didn't want to include their family in this. After Thanos has done his deed, it's shown in the stinger that the effects are universe wide with no stipulations. Who's to say that Scott and Clint will come barging into the headquarters in full Papa wolf mode in the sense of "How do I fix this?!" and "Who do I need to kill?" because their loved ones turned to dust in front of them.

• Partially confirmed by 'Ant-Man and the Wasp.' We don't know the fates of Cassie, Maggie, Paxton, or any of Hawkeye's family, but Hank, Janet, and Hope are confirmed dusted. Once Scott gets out of the quantum realm he will probably run directly back to his house, then right to the nearest Avenger.

Loki will be reborn as Kid Loki.

• Alternatively Ikol or Female Loki

Vision will be rebuilt.

It was speculated by Bruce that the Vision would be able to operate without the Mind Stone, as his actual personality is a complex mixture of JARVIS, Ultron, whatever he picked up from Bruce and Tony, and the Mind Stone; coupled with them still being located in Wakanda, assuming that Shuri is still alive to use whatever she picked up about Vision's construction from her attempt to extract the Stone, she (maybe with aid from Rocket) might be able to rebuild Vision to a certain degree.

• Alternately, Vision downloaded a copy of his consciousness into Shuri's computers a nanosecond before he disconnected to join the fight. Once his body is retrieved and brought to the lab, virtual-Vision will fire up the nanotech, repair his physical housing, and upload himself into it good as (or better than, via Wakanda-tech) new.
• He might lack his density control abilities without the Stone, and he DEFINITELY wouldn't be able to shoot energy blasts or whatever you call that attack, but a superhuman android is still an asset the Avengers could use in the sequel.
• And, in the comics he was destroyed and repaired multiple times.
• Jossed as of Endgame.

Tony, Steve, and Thor (and maybe others) die in the next film to bring back those who were on a lost (and on a meta level, the MCU sacrifices off its old franchises to save its new ones)

So the Soul Stone demanded a price to be acquired, right? And we haven't seen Thanos use it thus far, just the Power, Reality, Time, and Space Stones. When the Soul Stone is used by whoever reclaims the gauntlet in the next film (my money is on Adam Warlock, who already cameoed in GotG Vol.2) it will demand a price again...someone has to lose their life in order to bring half the universe back.

And since almost everyone who was vaporized is either from a brand new franchise (Strange, Spider-Man, Black Panther) or could potentially inherit one (both Sam and Bucky have been Captain America in the comics), and meanwhile Evans, Hemsworth, and Downey are all close to the end of their contracts...well, suffice it to say that they will be the ones to lay down their lives. Thus the franchise can have a suitably dramatic end to its first phase heroes and clear out space for its new players.

This will also help the reset button feel less cheap to a general audience who isn't used to the par-for-the-course nature of resets in comic books.

• Alternatively, Black Widow will be the "core member to die." Her whole arc has been about erasing the red from her ledger. What better way then a heroic sacrifice?
• Confirmed. Black Widow and Iron Man die.

The reason the Hulk refuses to come out is because Doctor Strange told him not to

Once Thanos is defeated and everyone is brought back, Doctor Strange will have access to the Time and Space stones. He uses these to visit Hulk on Sakaar prior to the events of Ragnarok, and tells him he can't interfere. He knows the only way to eventually win is to let Thanos have the stones with the least possible casualties. Denying Thanos just means more deaths, as he uses more force. The times the Hulk refused to come out were times when an infinity stone was directly under threat.

• Jossed. Aside from being incredibly complicated, it doesn't make more sense than Hulk just refusing to do so. Strange didn't warn Hulk in the prime timeline, so he wouldn't use the time stone to do it again.

Rocket will move in (at least in the short term) with Bruce Banner in the Avengers compound while they and the rest of the survivors figure out what to do next.

We knew that Hulk and Rocket would become friends based on an interview with Mark Ruffalo, and I assumed it would happen here, but looking back at the original quoted source it never explicitly said that it would happen in Infinity War specifically. And, sure enough, Infinity War was so plot-heavy that there was practically no time for any Character Development for the heroes. On the other hand, though, I was unsure about how that relationship would come about, since Rocket was already part of a group and him breaking off from his friends didn't sound reasonable. With the ending of this film, however, it makes a lot more sense as all of the other Guardians are currently dead, with Banner and Rocket among the only surviving heroes, and currently neither of them have housing arrangements since the last time they were on Earth was three years ago and never, respectively.

• Jossed. He seems to be working in space with Nebula.

Related to the above, we'll get the opportunity to see some of the fun Earth-related Mythology Gags from the comics in future MCU installments.

In the comics, Rocket was significantly more familiar with Earth culture than the other Guardians, and given the ending of Infinity War it's easy to see how this can happen. Regardless of how Avengers 4 goes down, Rocket has a massive head start on getting familiar with present-day Earth culture.

• Jossed.

Someone in the next movie will ask Thanos why he didn't simply multiply the resources needed for people's survival so there'd be no need to kill anybody.

Probably Hawkeye.

• Jossed.

Once the people killed by the Infinity Gauntlet are brought back, they won't remember anything they experienced while being dead.

• Alternately, most people won't remember anything but those closest to Ground Zero(the heroes who died on Titan or in Wakanda) will have vague recollections of what happened but no concrete memories. The follow up to Spider-Man: Homecoming (the very next MCU movie to follow Avengers 4) will have Peter Parker experiencing PTSD as a result of the events of Infinity War.
• Confirmed. People who were snapped come out the way they did prior.

Someone will lift Thor's new weapon and proclaim "I am worthy!".

Thor will then say it "doesn't have Mjolnir's restrictions". The someone will be upset.

• Could probably be Stark, declaring himself King of Asgard (in reference to Age of Ultron), with Thor saying that Asgard has been destroyed and all Asgardians dead.
• Or Steve, in a Moment of Awesome doubling as a reference to Fear Itself that pretty much everyone has been anticipating since Age of Ultron.
• It could also be Natasha, as a Mythology Gag to Earth-23223 Nat. This would work well as a Call-Back to Age of Ultron ("That's not a question I need answered.")
• Confirmed. Steve Rogers is worthy.

Red Skull will have a big role in the sequel.

Now that he's free from his role as the Soul Stone's keeper, he's free to resume trying to take over the world. Or he'll enter an Enemy Mine with Cap, who'll be that desperate to stop Thanos.

• Jossed. He's still just the stone's guardian.

Thanos was in the Soul Gem when he talked to that vision of the child Gamora.

And it wasn't a vision. Her soul is actually there. The Vision's is in the Mind gem. Together they're going to reach out and undermine Thanos if he puts on the Gauntlet again.

Tony will die in Avengers 4 using the Infinity Gauntlet to reverse Thanos' destruction, and the torch of leading the MCU will be passed from Iron Man to Spider-Man.

The Iron Man movies were the beginning of the MCU and Tony Stark has pretty much become the leading character of the entire franchise, so it makes sense for his death to occur at the end of the arc the entire MCU has been building to until this point to close it out. However, Avengers 4 is not the last MCU movie, so they will need a new character to lead the franchise going forward. And what is the first movie after Avengers 4? A Spider-Man movie. And who is Tony's protege and natural successor? Peter Parker. Likely, Tony's final moments will be spent with a recently revived Peter, symbolically passing on the torch to him. So, like Iron Man before him, Spider-Man will be the first movie of the "new" MCU, and will lead the series going forward.

• Too young! Too young to rule the kingdom!
• Confirmed.

Wonder Man will be introduced in a later film and he will be used to bring back Vision in a manner similar to his comic book origins.

Hulk is considered a separate living creature from Banner.

He was obliterated by the fingersnap, possibly taking the bullet for Banner. He refused come out so that in case he dies the body would live.

The Stinger

The final scene shows Nick Fury disappearing with Maria Hill, but not before using a beeper to contact somebody. The final shot shows the beeper demonstrating the Captain Marvel movie. This serves as a hint that Captain Marvel will play a big role in Avengers 4. The Captain Marvel movie will be set in the 1990s and it will show a younger Nick Fury, and possibly serve as prequel to the MCU as a whole. The beeper Fury uses to communicate is shown to be outdated, and it could be a relic from the 1990s. Kevin Feige has confirmed that Carol Danvers is the most powerful character in the MCU, and with a lot of power, comes great responsibility. Fury has possibly witnessed how powerful Danvers is, and he probably knows that she could cause a lot of destruction if she's out of control. All the events in the MCU weren't as catastrophic as what's happening in Infinity War, and Fury has probably been reluctant to communicate with her, in fear that she would escalate the damage. Fury knows that this time, S.H.I.E.L.D. alone won't be able to solve what's happening and he'll need Captain Marvel to come help. He doesn't know about Thanos, but he can sense that something disastrous happened, and he knows that Captain Marvel is the only person powerful enough to deal with it.

• Jossed. There is no stinger.

The entire movie has occurred within the Mirror Dimension.

The first shot in many of the trailers has the skyline rotating from a reverse position. Maybe it's telling us where the movie is actually happening. During the fight on Titan, Strange is seen attempting to use mirror magic against Thanos. If he has succeeded in sending everyone to the Mirror Dimension (from which it's impossible to affect the real world, as per Strange's debut film), then everyone could still be saved.

• Jossed.

Shuri will temporarily be queen of Wakanda

In the immediate aftermath of the "half-extinction" event, the situation will be rightfully considered too dire to bother with the tradition right now, and it will be considered the best option to have a surviving member of the royal family take the throne, especially if T'Challa and Shuri's mother died too.

• Jossed. Shuri was dusted too.

Alternatively, M'Baku will be regent

Also in light of his role in saving Wakanda from Killmonger, he will be asked to guide the country through the crisis; he will obviously be very reluctant and conflicted, since he'd be given a throne he had failed to win when dueling T'Challa. This may happen regardless of Shuri having died or not — in the latter case, she wouldn't feel up to the task and even be the first to vouch for M'Baku.

• No sign either way.

There's a backup of Vision

Either by himself or thanks to Shuri, a copy of his personality has been uploaded in the computers in Shuri's laboratory. While his body is currently destroyed, he will still play a part in the second movie, by having basically become J.A.R.V.I.S. again.

• Jossed.

The Gamora Thanos saw after he won was Mistress Death.

In the Comics, Thanos has always been in love with the incarnation of Death in the Marvel universe. It's the reason he killed off half the universe— to impress her. This motivation was changed in the film, but Death as an entity exists on the MCU— we see her present on a mural in Guardians of the Galaxy, along with Infinity, Eternity, and Entropy, when Quill retrieves the Power stone. The young Gamora Thanos sees after his Badass Fingersnap was Death presenting itself to him in a form he loves— not romantically, but familially, perhaps as an attempt to get him to undo what he did.

• If she was Lady Death, you'd think she wouldn't make Thanos doubt the worthiness of his action in wiping out half of all sentient life; you'd expect an Out of Character moment if that was the case, "You did good, daddy.". Alternately Lady Death dosen't appear. Gamora, whose character in this continuity is the only being Thanos loves will fulfill her role. Thanos brings back Gamora with the Gauntlet and futilely tries everything with its power to make her happy: he brings back her friends, Gamora still hates him. He tortures them in front of her to get her to say that she loves him; she remains resolute. Thanos gets frustrated, and recalls Loki's last words. How can he be a god if he can't even make one person love him? Thanos' sanity starts to leave him, and he causes galactic destruction with the Gauntlet in his frustration, forcing him into a final confrontation with cosmic beings and the remaining superheroes.
  • Unless that doubt of worthiness she instilled was her means of punishing him for using the Gaunlet to wipe out that large amount of people, which may have resulted in wiping out their entire existence (souls included), whereas previously, he had been sending souls to her by straight up killing them. She's pissed because he erased millions of souls, not sending them to her like he had before. That kind of screwup would be a major reason for Death not to like Thanos.

Hulk Will Bear the Gauntlet

While the gauntlet in the comics is just Thanos renaming his bejazzled glove like a drama queen, in the movie, it's an artifact specifically forged for Thanos to channel the Infinity Stones. The purpose of the fight between Thanos and Hulk isn't just to explain why Hulk's afraid of showing up again, it's to set up to the audience that they both wear the same size handshoes.

• Confirmed. Since Hulk's condition was a result of gamma radiation, and apparently the energy released by the stones are the same, he's the only one suited to using the gauntlet without dying.

There's a Ben & Jerry's flavor named after each member of the Avengers.

If there's a Hulk-themed flavor even though the Hulk was missing for three years, then that means that the special-flavor thing wasn't just for Tony Stark alone. Any thoughts on suitably irreverent flavor names for the other Avengers?

• Ragna-Rocky Road
• Thor-berry
• Blackberry Widow Whip
• Green Apple Smash
  • Hawkeye's flavor never made it out of development.

Captain Marvel is a Manchurian Agent

A bit like the Winter Soldier, but without the killings. All this time that she never showed up? She was not aware of her real identity. And the stinger in Infinity War... Nick Fury was not calling her, he was activating her.

• Jossed. She regained her real identity back in 1995.

Everything Thanos has done will end up blowing up in his face spectacularly

Wiping out half of the life in the universe will cause mass panic, ecological disasters, mass bloodshed, and even more. As a result of this, Thanos will watch the entire universe begin to crumble apart while the only ones managing to survive are those putting all their effort into finding a way to take the Infinity Gauntlet away from him and reversing everything. He has every way to defeat them with ease, but because everyone else is dead or dying he'll be reluctant due to not wanting to destroy all life. This will force him into a corner; go back on his plan that he worked so hard for by bringing more life (old or new) into the universe himself or let his enemies defeat him so he can try again later and try to be more tactful with how he uses the stones, like having the only remaining life be peaceful creatures who wouldn't harm each other.

• Somewhat confirmed. Though Thanos dies shortly after the snap, 2014 Thanos sees the negative results as the Universe being ungrateful and opts to destroy and recreate the universe.

Thanos is lying or in denial about Gamora's planet

In Guardians of the Galaxy, Gamora was referred to as the last of her people. In Infinity War, Thanos says that the survivors live in prosperity. It's possible he's started believing his own lies- his actions doomed the surviving population rather than saved them, but he's convinced himself otherwise.

• Maybe Zen Whoberi is an ethnicity, not a species, and it just so happened that they were all in the half he killed except for Gamora. But since the other half is still alive, he doesn't believe there's a problem.
  • Either way, he claimed to have killed entirely at random and without regard for factors such as wealth, so if he killed an entire race, or if a genocide occurred in the aftermath of his actions, he's clearly at least omitted some details from his account. (It's also possible, though less likely, that Gamora's origin has simply been retconned.)
    • It's probably a retcon. The detail in GotG was more of a Freeze-Frame Bonus and the MCU isn't that stringent about minor continuity details.
• Or maybe some other malignant power actually wanted Thanos to pursue his crusade to its ultimate end, and has tricked him into thinking that the Zen Whoberi are still around and are prospering. In reality, their civilization collapsed due to loss of numbers, manpower and skills, and whatever's left of the survivors have been reduced to scavenging and infighting. But someone's been directing fake transmissions from their planet in Thanos's direction to make it look like they're thriving.
  • Makes one hell of a Sequel Hook though.

Gamora didn't really die, and Thanos didn't acquire the real Soul Stone

Gamora anticipated that Thanos would try to use Nebula to get the Soul Stone, so she pulled a similar trick to what Warlock and Thanos did to Magus in The Infinity War. Notice that after the "sacrifice" of Gamora, Thanos wakes up on a beach with the Soul Stone without knowing how he ended up there, or where the Stone actually came from, and during the rest of the movie we never see him use it. So Gamora's reveal of the Soul Stone's location was all part of a plan, she didn't actually die, and what Thanos got was an extremely convincing replica, not the real thing. It's possible that whoever has the Soul Stone helped Gamora pull this off, so that the replica was good enough to fool even Thanos. Anyway, the lack of the real Soul Stone is what causes Thanos to lose in the sequel. It's even possible that we won't see the real Soul Stone at all in these two movies, or it will only be shown in The Stinger for Avengers 4, still in the possession of whoever helped Gamora – possibly Warlock.

• Jossed.

Odin will play a role in reversing the fingersnap

What is interesting about Odin is that he didn't really die. He became one with the Force, or whatever. Also remember a line from his last conversation — "I am on a different path now."Combined with him talking to Thor from beyond the grave, this could mean he is not, in fact, dead, but rather on some sort of other side, where he will be able to somehow counteract Thanos's actions.

• Jossed. Odin is only mentioned in Endgame in a few non-plot relevant exchanges.

Destroying Key Stones of the Universe might be bad for the Universe

If the Mind stone was destroyed, and Thanos didn't have the Time Stone to fix it... What would that mean for the "Key Stones" of the universe? Because Doctor Strange could have been seeing the after effects of the destruction of the Mind Stone and that could have been worse then the Finger snap.

• Jossed. Thanos destroys the stones, but the universe seems fine.

During the few seconds between "We have a Hulk." and Thor re-attacking Thanos, Loki put a protective spell on Thor that allowed him to survive being in space until the Guardians found him.

Because Loki is smart and probably anticipated Thanos blowing the ship up.

The "H" in the THANOS theory is for "Heartbreak"

Because the Soul stone requires sacrificing a loved one.

The Thanatos Gambit being employed by Strange is a simple matter of Genre Savvy.

• One of the themes that ran through the entire film was that of will and determination — mainly how Thanos was The Unfettered and could mentally and emotionally reconcile the sacrifice of those he cared about most with his ultimate cause without completely emotionally detaching from them, while the heroes had lines they couldn't bring themselves to cross. Strange knew no other Avenger would agree to a plan that involved half of them being sacrificed on any level, even given the small chance to undo it later, which is why he kept quiet (maybe, as some have theorized, every permutation of the future he saw where someone else knew the plan changed someone's individual course of action in a way that involved a worse long-term outcome than the one 'win' scenario.) In any case, Strange figured out that the only way to break the will of a being with indomitable will is to let him accomplish (or at least believe he has accomplish) everything he set out to do. After all, villains are most vulnerable when they believe they've won, right?
  • The other losing scenarios do mean Thanos gets what he wants, with no undoing. It is much more complicated than just let Thanos snap his fingers and retire.
• Jossed.

Thanos had an actual family on Titan.

Probably a sizable one that was lost in the conflict that tore apart the planet. It would probably explain why he uses paternalistic terms for his servants and even his victims to some degree. And it would make more sense if his ability to feel true love (in Gamora's case) was rediscovered as opposed to simply developed after not having had it before.

Thanos wasn't planning to use the "snap" originally.

He simply wanted the Stones' power to enable him to play a longer game where he could decimate populations at his own pace with nothing functionally able to stop him. But the sacrifice of Gamora to obtain the Soul Stone broke him to such a degree that he no longer cared about the details.

Thanos targeting Thor and Loki first had less to do with the Stone and more to do with strategy.

Another WMG implies Thanos waited until the Allfather, Odin, was out of the way to make his move because a fully-powered Odin could have taken him down easily. Thanos had been observing the universe from a distance for years and probably knew that he could not allow Thor to obtain a weapon and reach Earth. So he disabled the Dwarven forge (one of his few instances of slaughtering nearly everyone on a world instead of leaving half alive) and cut Thor and Loki off while the two were weakened from their ordeal with Surtur and (in Thor's case) without his most powerful weapon. Thor and Doctor Strange were pointedly kept away from each other, as the film makes it readily apparent that a fully powered Doctor Strange in tandem with a Stormbreaker-wielding Thor would have been incredibly problematic for a Thanos not wielding the full contingent of stones, and that's at the exclusion of almost everyone else. Strange held his own against Thanos with four Stones, and Thor with Stormbreaker curb stomped

Cap's Wakandan shields will be lost/destroyed

This will set up another "Get this man a shield" moment where Tony comes in from off screen and throws him his original. This will be followed by a "suit up" moment where Cap is clean shaven and back in a lighter colored uniform with his helmet/mask.

• They're absent in Endgame, but we don't know what happened to them.

Thanos intentionally spared all of the MCU founding Avengers

While we don't know about Hawkeye's status, all of the other founding Avengers survived Thanos' snap. It was shown he was aware of who Tony was and even showed some respect for him. While sparing Tony might have been part of keeping his word to Dr. Strange, he made no promise about the others, but they all coincidentally survived. Thanos knows all of the original Avengers and was impressed with their ability to push back the Chitauri invasion and so he spared them.

Vision isn't Really Dead

Yeah yeah, his body was clearly dead, but Age of Ultron proves that's not strictly a death sentence to an android, especially when their code can escape somewhere else. A few points on the subject include: Wanda can't sense the stone, "only him", and Bruce postulates that the stone, as well as the personalities that make up Vision (Tony, Bruce, Ultron) have been learning from each other. The heroes focus on separating the stone from the body, theorizing that his personality could inhabit the body without the stone. But what if the reverse is also true? What if Vision can still inhabit the stone without his body, like Ultron inhabiting the internet? What if Wanda can't sense the stone as a separate entity because it's not separate anymore: Vision and the Mind Stone are one being? This would also fit with Doctor Strange's "plan". Thanos has to get the time Stone, and he has to do it while the mind stone and Vision are connected, so that Vision isn't still in his body when Thanos gets it. Vision in the mind stone and Gamora in the Soul Stone may be part of finally overcoming Thanos.

• Jossed. Thanos destroys the Mind Stone.

During the Time Skip, Wakanda will suffer a power vacuum, and ultimately collapse.

It only make sense, since Wakanda is incredibly small in contrast to all the other countries on Earth such as the U.S. Sure, they may be the most powerful nation on Earth, but considering the small amount of Wakandans that existed before half their population was wiped out (including their king, mind you), it would be literally impossible to keep such a technologically advanced country running for very long.

• Jossed. Okoye is present in a hologram meeting, suggesting that Wakanda is still functioning.

Steve Rogers and Tony Stark Reunion

At some point, Nebula and Tony are going to meet back up with the rest the heroes. They'll probably broach the subject first, Nebula saying that the rest of the Guardians are dead, Tony adding that Strange and Spider-Man died. Steve will sympathize, say they lost people too, he'll go down some of the names, including Bucky... and Tony will mutter something on the order of "Good". Cue the argument and lashing out in rage because of how much shit everyone went through.

• Confirmed, though he doesn't mention Bucky.
• Tony and Steve will reunite when Tony throws Steve his shield back. (Note that when T'Challa said "Get this man a shield", Steve didn't get another Captain America-style one, but gauntlets.) There will be a battle of Tony and Steve against Thanos, and when it ends, Steve will say, "Tony" and Tony will say, "Steve". That will echo their first meeting in The Avengers (where they say "Mr. Stark" and "Captain) but show that they're close again. Neither will mention the events of Civil War.
  • Jossed. They met when Tony returns to Earth.
• At some point between Civil War and Avengers 4, Tony will have come to the realization that it was Hydra who was responsible for his parents' deaths, not the brainwashed Bucky himself. Shortly before the final confrontation in Avengers 4, Tony and Steve will commiserate the deaths of both Bucky and James Rhodes, and at one point Steve will bitterly declare, "He was my friend." Echoing an exchange toward the end of Civil War, Tony will answer, "Yeah, well...so am I." He will then hand Steve back his shield, saying, "My dad made it, but it was always yours."
  • Confirmed in that he gives the shield back, but Jossed on the rest. Rhodey survives and Tony never mentions Bucky.

Loki is Fine

One phrase that struck me as particularly emphasized on rewatch was "I PROMISE, sun will shine upon us again, Brother." Sounds like "Don't worry, I've got this in the long run." The words "Undying fidelity" are likely carefully picked too. His instant betrayal of Thanos was way too obvious as well. It is quite probable Loki has some magnificently bastardly plan and everything is going according to it.

• There's one thing few people have considered: we still have absolutely no idea how he survived getting stabbed in Thor: The Dark World. What if he actually did die in that film, and somehow used his magic/tricks to come back to life? And if that's true, he did exactly that this time around — let himself get killed by Thanos but made certain that he would come back to life in some way. Not only would this trick Thanos with the Titan none the wiser, but this would also allow him to survive Thanos's wave of destruction that followed. He can't disintegrate if he's already dead, so he probably planned to die and made certain that he would only come back after it's all over.
• "Trust me. I know what I'm doing."
• There's also the fact that, while he did look fairly blue, Loki didn't actually end up in his Frost Giant form when he "died". Anyone else who could've potentially cast the illusion on his form is dead (Odin, Frigga, Heimdall), and it'd be logical for that illusion to fade when the caster dies, but...it's still there. He only looks blue because he's been choked and there's no oxygen in his lungs. The vacuum of space probably wouldn't do much to him, since if being choked didn't kill him, he probably doesn't need oxygen, and he wouldn't be bothered by the cold as a Frost Giant.
• Also, look at the hand Loki was using to stab Thanos with. Normally, Loki is right-handed. However, when the Loki we see is one of his illusions, he uses his left hand.
• Jossed. Prime Loki is dead. His alternate timeline self is fine, though.

Tony is dying

From what we've seen, he just sealed the wound to stop the bleeding out. I doubt his nanites can heal internal trauma. Presumably his arc in Avengers 4 will be to save everyone even as his own time runs out.

• Jossed - Avengers 4 is set 5 years after Infinity War, and the MCU isn't going to have someone as major as Tony die in between films if RDJ is still onboard (which he is)
  • Both Jossed for different reasons. Tony doesn't die from his wounds and makes his way to Earth safely. He does, however, die at the end of Endgame.

Thanos did a permanent killing spell.

Some of the Fridge Logic associated with his plan is that it assumes that the disintegration seen at the end is a one time event like in the comics. But what if it is an actual on-going enchantment, killing people in accordance to population numbers? There is a clear lapse of time between characters being disintegrated, suggesting its not happening simultaneously, and we know that the Time Stone can cause "spells" like what Doctor Strange did when bargaining with Dormammu. Maybe Thanos used the stones to alter the nature of reality with a "program" that disintegrates people each time the sentient population limit is surpassed.

• Jossed. There's no indication of any subsequent disintegrations.

The Soul Stone gave Thanos "omni-empathy"

Until he got the Soul Stone, Thanos was killing rather casually. The only death he seemed to regret causing was Gamora's. After that, with the Soul Stone in his possession, he becomes far more "merciful" (for lack of a better term). Having the Soul Stone in the Infinity Gauntlet means he's now in communication with every sentient soul in the universe, able to feel their thoughts and emotions. What had been a simple matter of cold equations before has become something much more: he feels every death his minions cause and the emotional ripples they create. He can't go on slaughtering worlds, so he decides that he'll use the complete Gauntlet to simply erase half of all life to lessen the impact, not just on the rest of the universe, but also himself.

Doctor Strange will be replaced by another Doctor Strange from a different dimension

Perhaps, with Doctor Strange being whiped out, they will pull off a Rick and Morty and another Dr. Strange from a different dimension is going to replace him.

• That would be... strange.
• Jossed.

Avengers will make their own Infinity Gauntlet to counteract effects of the original one

Thor, Nebula, maybe Cap and other non-geniuses will embark on a space quest to reobtain the Infinity Stones (whether from Thanos, or from wherever Thanos hid them).Stark, Banner, Shuri, Pym, Rocket and possibly Wong and maybe even Red Skull will use earthly materials, technology and magic to create a weapon/tool equal to Infinity Gauntlet, capable of harnessing Infinity Stones, proving Earth is equal to Asgard and Nidavellir in potential.Then Thor or Stark will sacrifice himself performing Badass Fingersnap to reverse the universal decimation.

• Confirmed. They perform a time heist to get the stones but and both Hulk and Stark use the Iron Gauntlet to snap.

We'll see Merged Hulk in Avengers 4

Rather than Hulk being afraid of Thanos after his beatdown, Hulk has hit a point where he refuses to be brought out purely for the sake of fighting and then getting put back in a bottle once the fight is done. Bruce will go through some internal conflict where he directly interacts with the Hulk on some mental plane, that results in the appearance of the Merged Hulk, possessing the strength of Hulk and the intellect of Banner.

• This follows the intent for Age of Ultron to feature Hulk turning into Mr. Fixit and disappearing.
• Confirmed. Professor Hulk has found a common ground with his two halves.

There will be elements of House of M in Avengers 4

Just not with Mutants and 'No More Mutants' because Magneto isn't her father this time around.

At this point, Wanda has been suffering the peak of grief in her life and she was disintegrated with a rather sad peaceful relief. There's a good chance that true to the original Infinity War comics, everyone is brought back to life. But in the case of Wanda, before she returns, she's stuck in an Alternate Universe where Vision is actually 100% human (she can get over that Vision is robot, but this would be an even better deal), they're dating, the Stark Bomb didn't blow off her parents so she lived without HYDRA's abuse on her, and Pietro lived. This is actually paradise to her.

But eventually she realized that this is not right, and she eventually had to say good bye to the dream world, her final, closing grief, as she's brought back to the real world thanks to the efforts of the survivors and resolved to never wallow again, if there's a battle to be fought, she'll take up arms again.

Considering how House of M proved to be rather divisive, I can definitely see the MCU taking an alternative approach that could be viewed better.

• Jossed.

Super-Soldier Serum granted strength depends on subject's conviction

Consider this - in First Avenger Cap and Red Skull are evenly matched but not nearly as strong as in the later installments. In further movies Cap is stronger but doesn't hold a candle to Iron Man. In Civil War Cap goes flying from Crossbones' punches, but later beats up a much more powerful Iron Man in melee. In Infinity War Cap is holding off Thanos who has trounced Hulk, Thor and Iron Man with ease. In addition notice how much more powerful Bucky is when brainwashed.This all would make sense if you consider that in First Avenger and first Avengers Cap is still fresh, doesn't know his own strength, and is kinda out of his element.In Winter Soldier and Age of Ultron he's sure of himself and is fighting for the safety of the world and that makes him stronger.In climax of Civil War he's fighting to save his best friend from immediate death, which makes him even stronger.Holding off Thanos is the most important battle of his entire life, with the universe being at stake, so briefly his strength matches that of world's strongest beings. He even tanks a punch to the head that could have knocked the Hulk out.Bucky is lacking such conviction unless he's brainwashed, when he knows only the mission and lacks all doubts.Red Skull was always an egoistic cynic, he lacks any kind of conviction, that's why he is only equal to Cap when Cap was at his weakest.This would also explain why Erskine thought it so important to find a GOOD man to give the Serum to.

Rocket will be completely broken

We will see none of the usual irreverent exuberance or wise-cracking from Rocket, as his spirit will be absolutely crushed upon learning that he not only lost Groot (again), but all the rest of his Guardians family as well. The surviving Avengers, especially Thor, will do their best to make Rocket feel welcomed among them, of course, but it just won't be the same for him. He'll wallow in depression, moping about and scowling and not saying very much — and this will last until the Guardians' return from the dead, if it happens. Then expect a reunion flooded with raccoon tears and very unconvincing quips about how he didn't miss any of "the morons".

• Alternately, he will put on a "tough guy" act for a while, pretending he doesn't care about losing anyone besides Groot ... until he happens, during his sojourn on Earth, to run into an actual raccoon. This will remind him of all the times Quill told him that he looked like one, he'll have a "Damn, that moron was right..." moment, and the resulting rush of memories of joking around with his friends will break his stoic facade.
• Another alternative is that he will be near-suicidal, constantly going into action carelessly because he's got nothing left to lose, so he may as well die in battle before joining his family. It will take Thor, the only true friend he's left, to snap him out of it.
• Jossed. While saddened, he seems to be functioning well enough.

Time travel, Thor and Bifrost

Since reversing the finger snap would not be enough to repair all the damage caused by Thanos, the solution will probably involve time travel. Without the Time Stone, a possible solution would to somehow use an empowered Bifrost, considering it is described as quantum yadda-yadda technobabble jargon, and in quantum physics time and space are kinda one and the same. Since Thor is now so grossly overpowered he will have to either die or lose a lot of that power for post-Thanos MCU to make sense, it is possible he will call upon lots of dark magic to empower Bifrost, damaging himself and probably sacrificing or weakening Stormbreaker to transport the Avengers through time.

• Jossed. Time travel is involved, but Thor has little to do with it beyond being a participant.

Tony will forge a new Gauntlet

We know that Strange thought Tony was a key element to the "best" timeline. We also see that the Infinity Gauntlet was ruined by the force of the 6 stones working in unison on such a large scale seemingly overloading them. All this is setup for Tony, in one more smithing scene, building a new gauntlet, one that could be used to undo everything in the end.

• Confirmed.

Rocket will get to pilot Hulkbuster

Compensates for his small stature, has all the dakka any racoon can desire, and death of his friends will probably make Hulk angry enough to emerge again, so Banner won't be needing the suit.

• Jossed.

Surviving Asgardians will take refuge in Wakanda

After the events of the film, Thor will manage to get in contact with Valkyrie and the other Asgardians. They may be in an even worse state: unless Thanos subconsciously spared the populations he already halved with other methods, they will be reduced to just a quarter of how many they were at the end of Ragnarok. At the same time, Wakanda will be suffering the huge loss of lives even more than other nations on Earth - as one of the above WMG theorizes, it will be at risk of a quick collapse due to the loss of many people who managed its hi-tech infrastructure. Getting the Asgardians, used to technology even more advanced than Wakanda's and so capable of helping, there will make Wakanda survive through the disastrous first phase of the aftermath of the finger snap.

• Jossed. They settle in Norway.

Thanos Didn't Actually Survive the Finger Snap

If the fingersnap were truly random that means it included Thanos. Since Thanos had this trippy dream-like sequence immediately after using the stones, it's possible he actually got dissolved (or started to) but was able to use the soul stone to escape his fate. Maybe the key to defeating him will be to entrap him in the stone for good.

• Jossed. He is killed by Thor.

The Infinity Gauntlet Actually Isn't All-Powerful

One of the biggest criticisms of Thanos' plan is that since the gauntlet can do anything he could have just increased the supply of resources in reality, forever. But from what we see of the stones in the movie, Thanos is only able to modify existing matter, not create from nothing or even duplicate what he modifies with the stone. Someone will likely lampshade this critique of Thanos' plan by asking him point blank why he decided to cull instead of just increase the resources of the universe and we'll learn that the stones in the MCU abide by some weird law of conservation.

• Jossed.

Killing off Loki solves the problem of Easily Forgiven

In The Avengers Loki killed a bunch of people and the Avengers aside from Thor may not be as forgiving.

Loki is still alive.

There's a few inconsistencies with the beginning. Banner doesn't know what happens when he's Hulk, but once he comes down, the first words out of his mouth is "Thanos is coming.". In addition, Banner seems to know more about Thanos than anything, that he's a "plague", he "goes to planets and wipes them out", that he's after the Infinity Stones (Which, unless Thor told him back on Sakarr, Banner wouldn't even know what they are), and seems to know more about the situation than he's letting on. If Loki's switch to the good guy side is true, the most logical conclusion would be to hitch a ride on Hulk back to Earth, and puppeteer him to the others (Given his history with the Avengers, it would make sense as to why He wouldn't just pop out and admit it, would YOU trust Loki after all the shit he's pulled?). It would also make sense, on another level, how Hulk won't come out. Sure, Hulk is likely scared about fighting Thanos, but if Loki's trying to force the Hulk out, well, he doesn't exactly know how to go about doing that, now does he? It's unnatural for him to do so and way out of his league. Also, remember in the beginning, "He sent Loki!" seems like Loki's way of trying to clear his own name, hoping to come out of hiding in the future.

• Jossed. Prime Loki is dead for real.

Doctor Strange will cameo in Captain Marvel

as an astral projection and tell Nick Fury that, for the sake of the universe, Carol Danvers has to be kept out of play until this one specific moment in time, when people start disintegrating. This is why HYDRA was aware of Strange before he became a sorcerer: Nick Fury or S.H.I.E.L.D. recorded the meeting. This is also why we haven't heard about her, even though her movie takes place in the '90s, and why Nick Fury said in Avengers that Thor was the first alien he ever encountered, despite the Skrull and Kree appearing in Captain Marvel: her existence is a secret beyond anything else S.H.I.E.L.D. has, so that now, Thanos is still completely unaware of her and not prepared for what she can bring to bear.

• Jossed. He never appears or is mentioned.

Captain America will give up his life to resurrect the lost half of the universe.

Related to the WMG above, it will be Captain America who has to surrender his life to the Soul Stone to reverse the Snappening. It's the culmination of his "We don't trade lives" story arc. Iron Man won't, because Pepper is pregnant with his child as he predicted at the beginning of the movie, and he will get a happy ending. That means there will be a reason for someone to take up the Captain America mantle, as Steve's memory will leave them with something to live up to, while Iron Man can retire and let that identity expire.

• Jossed. He lives to a ripe old age.

Thor going for the head would've caused an even worse disaster.

We know that Dr. Strange viewed millions of potential futures in which the battle's course went differently, and judged only one to be an acceptable outcome. Presumably, that would have to include versions which were almost identical to the one which actually unfolded on screen. As Strange surely came across a number in which Thor did attack Thanos differently, killing him outright or cutting off his arm, then there must be some reason why he didn't take the opportunity to promote that outcome, e.g. project his astral form to Thor's location and signal him about how to attack. It's possible that if Thor had properly defeated Thanos and confiscated the Gauntlet from him, the God of Thunder would have immediately used the Stones himself, to try to re-write history and undo all the terrible losses he and his people have suffered over the last several films: resurrect his parents and brother, reconstruct Asgard, bring back all the other Asgardian dead, perhaps even turn both his siblings solidly Good via the Mind and Soul Stones. But the changes he'd impose upon reality to accomplish this would inadvertently decimate the universe, both directly via his alterations, and by setting Thanos's crusade along a completely different path, in which his initial seizure of the Tesseract was via brute force rather than Loki's trickery, and crushed SHIELD so completely that the Avengers were never formed and nothing could stop him.

Supergiant was a member of the Black Order, but died helping Thanos during his invasion of Xandar to retrieve the Power Stone

Thor has never seen a raccoon or a rabbit.

Wouldn't be the first time there's been awkwardness about his knowledge of Earth wildlife.

Rocket thinks raccoons and rabbits are the same thing.

This could be the real reason why he never brought it up. Unlike in Vol. 2 when Nebula called him a fox and Gamora immediately corrected her, nobody pointed out Thor's error. Rocket himself responded with surprise the first time he was called a rabbit, but listen carefully to his tone of voice—it was confusion, not indignation. Since he trusts his teammates, he would have no reason to assume that he was being called something incorrect. This will come back to bite both Thor and Rocket in a hilarious scene once Tony Stark makes it back to earth.

Thor: …and I met this awesome rabbit.
Stark: You do know the difference between a raccoon and a rabbit, right?
Thor: Um, no, what's a raccoon?
[close-up on Rocket's face going from confused to shocked disbelief as he realizes what that means]
Rocket: Wait, there's a difference? Thor, you misled me this whole time?
…

• The confusion is never brought up in Endgame.

Thanos' defeat will finally come via squirrel

• Well, it'd more affect a later film than this one. But, imagine if you will: Thanos is sick of these spandex do-gooders coming after him to reverse the ending. "You've gotten in my way for the last time! I showed you mercy before, but now? DISAPPEAR!" He raises the gauntlet... to find the gems are gone. "What?!" And then he sees a bunch of squirrels running away with the gems.
  • Considering that, in canon, he was arrested by normal cops, it wouldn't be entirely out of the question, especially if they introduce some of the goofier elements related to him (i.e., the Thanos Copter).
• Jossed.

Groot is the reason for Stormbreaker's power

• Stormbreaker is said to be the finest weapon ever forged by the dwarves on Nidavellir, but all we see happen is metal poured into a cast. Nothing special goes into it, unless it is the only weapon made of Uru, but Thor remarks that Mjolnir was made in the same way. Not even special forging technique goes into it because Eitri's been crippled. What is the difference between Stormbreaker and every other weapon? Groot! He used an arm to form the blade's handle, and through his sacrifice he thereby elevated it above every other weapon in the cosmos!

Thanos got infected by Tony's nanomachines.

• During the fight on Titan, when Tony goes all out on Thanos, he only manages to leave a small cut on Thanos' cheek, which the Mad Titan lampshades. "All that for a few drops of blood." But whether intentionally or not, when Tony made that cut, some of his suit's nanomachines got into the wound and are now idle in his bloodstream. Tony realizing the nanites are still in there, and making use of them at a critical moment, will be a key moment in the second film.
• Jossed. Any question of whether or not he was is rendered moot by Thor beheading him.

Loki is impersonating Banner

In the beginning of the film, Loki borrows a quip from Tony Stark and tells Thanos, “We have a Hulk”. Subsequently, Hulk bursts into frame and begins beating down Thanos. That is, until Thanos turns the tides (rather quickly) and gives the Hulk a beatdown like he has never received before in his MCU tenor. As the Hulk lays beaten, battered, and bloody, Heimdall uses his last ounce of strength and magic to send Banner down to Earth via the Bifrost.

The film plays out from there, with Banner trying to call out the Hulk to help in the ensuing battles, but to no avail. The Hulk refuses to show himself, leaving Banner to fight with his wits and intelligence, rather than pure brute force. Many believe that the Hulk is scared for the first time, having been soundly defeated by a being immensely more powerful than he. The Russo Brothers themselves were a little taken back by this thought, saying it was more a conflict of personalities, with the Hulk being tired of just being a weapon for battle, wielded at Banner’s convenience.

But what if Hulk can’t come out because Banner isn’t Banner at all? What if Banner is actually Loki in disguise? After all, Loki is the Trickster God, and he faked his death once before using trickery in Thor: The Dark World. So, let’s break the theory down and figure out its merits.

Besides Loki faking his death in the past, he also has intimate knowledge of the Infinity Stones, something Banner knows very little about thus far. He also has already encountered Dr. Strange in the past, so it would make sense that he would use his own powers to help guide the Bifrost to the Sanctum Santorum.

Furthermore, “Banner” also has memories of what transpired against Thanos when he was the Hulk, but it has been readily established that Banner has no memories of what happens during his time as the Hulk. When he attempts to “transform” into the Hulk, he fails, but it’s all really for show to maintain his illusion. And, considering that Valkyrie, Korg, and Meek escaped Thanos’ attack on the ship, it's possible that they took the real Banner with them, leaving Loki free to impersonate him elsewhere. This gives this theory even more credence.

But, let us really break this down. First off, why would Banner end up at the Sanctum if he wasn’t actually Loki? Simple. Heimdall sees ALL souls, as well as also possesses intimate knowledge of the Infinity Stones. He would know all about Dr. Strange, his powers/position in global protection, and that he himself possesses an Infinity Stone. Also, this theory would mean that Loki would be able to keep a magical version of his body on the ship for Thanos to butcher whilst being transported countless light years away to Earth. That seems too much, even for a “god”.

Then, there are the attempted Hulk transformations. Whilst it makes sense to do this illusion in front of Stark and Strange during the initial encounter in New York, why would he try these fake transformations inside the Hulkbuster armor when he is all by himself? That seems like just a HUGE waste of time and to prove nothing. Not to mention the conversations between Banner and Hulk. Loki would have zero reason why to do all of that when there is no one around to “perform the illusion” for.

• Jossed. It's the real banner.

Groot will regenerate from Stormbreaker's handle.

And if the World Tree was destroyed in Thor: Ragnarok, he'll take its place or might even be revealed that he's a branch of it all along. It could even tie in with the theory that he's the real reason behind the weapon's power.

• This would also explain why Groot's language was known in Asgard, as Groot's race was known there as connected to the Tree.
• Jossed.

Dr. Strange arranged it so that all the original Avengers would survive the snap

He was arranging a one in 14 million chance outcome to occur in order to save the universe. Sure, the snap was random, but Strange could've found a way to Butterfly Effect it just right, so that the original six Avengers, those needed to defeat Thanos, would survive.

Thanos is from the same planet as Tommy Wiseau

• He is selfish and unloving, but views himself as a hero and martyr
• He has a huge chin
• He shows "love" by tossing Gamora like a football
• He shows his "respect" for Tony Stark by impaling his navel and ruffling his hair like he's a doggy in a flower shop
• The stone-holsters on his gauntlet sort of look like spoons

Peter Parker's comment about Footloose not being a great film isn't about the original.

Granted, Parker's seen a lot of what he considers "old movies", but he's probably seen a lot of new ones too. So, he may have not seen the original Footloose but instead seen the horrible remake instead, being unaware of the original. So, when Quill refers to Footloose being the greatest film of all time, Parker may have been thinking of the remake and believe Quill to be wrong.

The bus Peter was on was on it's way to the airport.

Given that it appears that there is no 5 year timeskip and Endgame is an immediate sequel, with Far from Home being and immediate sequel to that, it makes sense that the bus was on it's way to the airport, so that Peter's class could go on their Europe Trip.

• Except that Peter explicitly told Tony that he and his class were on a field trip to MOMA (Presumably the Museum of Modern Art)

Thanos is actually part-Titan, and his father A'Lars is actually one of The Eternals from Earth

This is honestly more of a personal theory than anything else, but it would give Thanos a nice connection to the upcoming MCU film. Maybe A'lars had to leave Earth because his father Chronos was nearly killed while expirementing with the space Stone, and somewhere along the way A'lars found the Chitauri Scepter in an abandoned Kree outpost.

Loki did die, but not when we think.

• The only way I can make this work is if he survived the prologue, but died in the Snap. When he tries to stab Thanos, look at his hand closely. Normally, Loki is right handed. However, when he uses his illusions, he's left handed. When he attacks Thanos, the left hand is used. Meaning, Loki probably survived the prologue, but died in the Snap.
  • Agreed. Assuming he survived his scene in Infinity War, this is the best way to explain his absence from Endgame. I don't personally put any stock in the "left-handed" theory, as Loki couldn't have used his right hand since the Black Order was standing on his right side. However, there's still his truly bizarre dialogue, the fact that he makes no attempt to use *any* of his illusion powers, his disappearance during the Hulk fight and subsequent reappearance with a completely different attitude, his blatant wink-wink-nudge-nudge glances at Thor directly in front of Thanos' face, and the absolutely idiotic attempt at killing Thanos... The scene is a mess if taken at face value, and appears to have multiple hints at some sort of scheme going on. If Loki survived, he could easily have become separated from Thor in the explosion, and then unlike Thor didn't happen upon easy transport — it's very likely he had no time to get back to Thor or really do anything before the Snap, and then did dust with the rest of them. This would mean that Professor Hulk brought him back with everyone else, but he's probably still halfway across the galaxy and in no position to put in an appearance on Earth. It would be quite interesting if he and his split-2012 self from Endgame were to meet in a subsequent Thor film - he and Thor could actually team up against himself! And/or try to argue the other Loki into Character Development.

Kevin Bacon will appear in the sequel

• Consider he is one of the mightiest Earth's heroes, according to Quill and the rest of The Guardians; he may show up as an illusion, like that time when Ego took the form of Zardu Hasselfrau for a moment.
• Jossed.

Agent Coulson, Loki, Yondu and Quicksilver will appear in Endgame

• Maybe some of them will return from death but only to populate more the cast and help to have more characters than ever in this MCU feature.
• Mostly Jossed. Only the 2012 version of Loki appears in Endgame.

Of course Loki is impersonating Bruce Banner (or hiding in his mind)

• The first thing he does when he realizes will meet Wakanda's King is ask if he should bow; Loki is trying to follow automatically etiquette rules has seen for centuries as a member of Asgard royalty.
• Jossed. Loki is really dead.

Eitri designed the gauntlet to hurt Thanos on purpose

None of the other infinity stone vessels hurt the person using it but when thanos puts an infinity stone in the gauntlet it surges energy through him and its clearly painful. And it's not a stretch to think eitri wouldnt want to hurt thanos. And tony's gauntlet had the same flaws because it's based off the original.

Theory to explain all Infinity Stone plotholes

Thousands of years ago, Odin tried to collect the Infinity Stones to rule the universe. He collected the Space, Time, Mind, Power, and Reality Stones, and collected them into a Gauntlet made by dwarves. He then went to Vormir, where he prepared to get the Soul Stone. He attempted to sacrifice Hela, but could not bring himself to do this. Hela, however, was very angry that Odin even considered this, and rebelled against him, leading to her being locked up.

This experience showed Odin that conquering the universe was a bad idea, and he got rid of the Infinity Stones. He hid the Space Stone in a village on Earth, gave the Time Stone to a human wizard named Agomtotto, put the Mind Stone in a scepter and gave it to the presently-heroic Chitauri, hid the Power Stone on Morag, and left the Reality Stone where his father hid it the first time. He then left the Infinity Gauntlet in his treasure room and became a more peaceful ruler.

In 2012, Thanos became convinced he had to rule the universe to stop overpopulation. His first step with this was to get a giant army. He stole the Scepter from the Chitauri and used it to hypnotize the previously-peaceful species to serve as his minions. Their leader agreed to this as long as Thanos promised to let him control the Mind Stone. The leader, who we know as "The Other", then gave the Scepter to Loki to assist his invasion of Earth.

As we know, Loki's invasion of Earth failed, as did Thanos's attempt to get the Power Stone. This convinced Thanos to "do it himself" in 2015 and not use proxies anymore. He sneaked into Odin's treasure room and took the Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos was then ready to take the Space Stone as well, and begin a bloody conquest. But then he was stopped by Odin.

Even with his power, Odin defeated Thanos and took the Gauntlet from him. He then delivered a The Reason You Suck speech that made Thanos reconsider his motivations. Thanos decided he did not need to rule the universe, but instead he would "just" kill a random half of life in the universe. However, this would have to wait until Odin was gone, as Thanos knew the Asgardian would go after him. In the process, however, Odin had inadvertently revealed the dwarves could make Thanos another Gauntlet.

Odin, for his part, destroyed his Infinity Gauntlet and replaced it with a fake. He planned to do the same with the Space Stone. However, Loki, who had been imitating Odin, banished him before he could do this.

Two years later, Hela had escaped and killed Odin. To Thanos, this meant it was time to start his quest, though his experience with Odin had mellowed him out somewhat. He got a new Infinity Gauntlet and stole the Power Stone from Xandar. A week later, he attacked the Statesman...and the rest is history.

This explains just what was going on with the Infinity Stones between Guardians of the Galaxy and Infinity War, as well as why 2018 Thanos was so much nicer than 2014 Thanos.

Thanos and the Infinity Blitz

This was inspired by a theory claiming Thanos was engaging in a Batman Gambit. To begin with let's admit that Thanos's plan to gather the Infinity stones can seem unnecessarily complicated and risky. Thanos starts out with the mind stone and gives it away to a person he knows is untrustworthy. Why doesn't he simply invade Earth which he knows has two infinity stones? The answer is twofold. Firstly he doesn't know where all the stones are so his plan can't currently be carried out. Secondly he doesn't want to reveal his plans until he can carry them out. So by sending Loki he can pacify Earth and locate the tesseract while concealing his plans. These plans change once Loki's invasion fails. Now Thanos knows Earth has beings capable of resisting him. So he waits for an opportunity. This occurs when the teseract is put in Asgard, the reality stone surfaces, and the Avengers gain hold of the mind stone. Now it was shown by the first Avengers that an Infinity stone (i.e the tesseract) can be remotely manipulated by someone who knows how to use the stone (i.e. Loki). In Avengers 2 Ultron seems to come to life by itself while Tony and Bruce aren't watching their equipment and the mind stone. This could be explained as Thanos manipulating the mind stone in order to create Ultron. Ultron had a chance to destroy the Avengers and would almost certainly weaken/divide them. Either outcome would've worked for Thanos. Once again the Avengers save the earth but the seeds of their destruction are sown. Now this next part is a bit dubious. Perhaps Thanos found the time stone because he can probe the earth with the mind stone even when it's in Vision. This could also explain how Thanos treats Tony Stark like he knows him personally. A year before Ultron Thanos is trying to retrieve the power stone. He doesn't intervene directky because he believes at first that he'll get the stone discreetly. Then maybe once Ronan betrays him he thinks he can pick up the stone once Ronan destroys Xandar and most likely himself. Once again his plans fail but Thanos both knows where the stone is and his enemies are lulled to sleep. After the Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers 2 Thanos knows the locations of 5 of the stones. But four of them are heavily guarded and the Avengers suspect a threat so once again he waits. Within three years both the Avengers and Asgard are shattered. Only 1 stone is missing but he has a lead through Gamorra. Now that the stage is set Thanos makes his move. He attacks Xandar to get the power stone when the Guardians are gone. This probably still cost Thanos at least the Chitauri (an admittedly weak force). He then attacks the Asgardian refugees to get the space stone. By not ensuring Thor's death Thanos either intentionally or luckily alerts the Guardians which leads Gamora to Thanos. She reaches him once he's acquired the reality stone. Then Thanos ruthlessly tortures Nebula to get Gamora to lead him to the last stone. He then reluctantly kills Gamora for the soul stone. While this is happening Thanos's forces are openly attacking Dr Stange and quietly attacking Vision. This could be a gambit to distract the Avengers so the mindstone can be quickly retrieved. And then maybe the timestone could've been retrieved with difficulty. Neither of these alternatives happens but Vision is weakened and Dr. Strange goes after Thanos with only moderate support. Then Thanos nearly loses to Dr. Strange and co but is saved by Star Lord's outburst. At this point it doesn't matter that Thanos's entire army has been destroyed. They suceeded in preventing the mind stone from being destroyed before Thanos acquired the time stone. Thanos easily takes the mind stone but he has one last peril. Thor was left alive by Thanos either intentionally or as an accident. Whatever Thanos's intentions they backfire when Thor nearly kills him. However both luck and Thor's need for revenge give Thanos time to accomplish his goal. Ultimately Thanos accomplished his goal through ample amounts of plannning, patience, luck, and decisive action. Thanos even quits while he's ahead by destroying the stones while he can. But it was all undone in five years by a plan Dr. Strange thought up hours before confronting Thanos.

Nick Fury and Maria Hill didn't appear in The Stinger

In that scene, Hill calls Fury by his first name of Nick. As seen in Captain Marvel, Fury made it clear that nobody calls him by the name "Nick". In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Hill calling Fury "Nick" was a hint that the two were actually Talos and Soren in disguise—so I think the two Skrulls appeared in Infinity War's post credits scene instead of the real people.

• Jossed. According to Word of God, they only took over after Tony's funeral.

Everything happens in one galaxy.

The current Word of God is that the Guardians of the Galaxy are from the Andromeda Galaxy and that the Nine Realms are all located in different galaxies. But to watch the films as presented, it feels more like everything happens in the same galaxy (particularly now we've seen the limitations of space travel and the events of Infinity War). As such, at some point in the near future, everything will be quietly canonised in-fiction as a single galaxy. The biggest knock against the idea are the representations we see of Yggdrasil, but it could be that these representations actually show objects that merely 'look' like galaxies; for instance, the protostar accretion disks that eventually became the systems of the Nine Realms. It's also true that coordinates given in Guardians point to Andromeda, but 90% of the audience will never even notice this, and Marvel has written out larger continuity issues (like the dating gaffs).

The soup Thanos gave Garona was her favorite dish growing up.

It seems like one of the small kidnesses Thanos would give his favorite daughter to prepare what he remembers as her favorite meal for her. Not that it mattered to Garona.

Wakanda would normally have had a more combined arms force approach for its defence

Unfortunately, the events of Black Panther (2018) inflicted severe damage on Wakanda's military, amongst other things more-or-less wiping out the entire air force. It's entirely possible they simply hadn't had time to rebuild their military enough by the time of Infinity War to deploy a more varied force, especially if they understandably focused on civilian reconstruction and reconciliation first.

---