It seems like it was only yesterday when Marvel broke our hearts into itty bitty pieces in Avengers: Infinity War [1], not unlike what became of half of the Avengers [2] after Thanos's snap. With the arrivals of Ant-Man and the Wasp [3] and Captain Marvel [4], we get closer to figuring out what's going to unfold in Endgame [5]. The widely anticipated movie will show the Avengers figuring out a way to bring back their friends and defeat Thanos once and for all. Which is to say, we're going into the film with the assumption that Thanos wiped out half of the living population in the universe — that half of the superheroes we know and love are gone.
But what if no one is actually dead? The Marvel Cinematic Universe is so deeply entrenched in mystical magic and science fiction that this isn't too far of a leap to take. Read on to explore the Internet's most convincing speculations about what happened to the supposedly fallen Avengers [6]!
First, we need to rewind to Doctor Strange.
According to Reddit user chriscantero [7], we need to go back to two specific moments involving Doctor Strange to make the assumption that the fallen Avengers are actually alive. First, there's the scene in Infinity War where Doctor Strange uses the Time Stone [8] to look in the future. He sees all of the alternate futures [9] with regards to the fight against Thanos. Of 14,000,605 possible outcomes, he only sees one where the Avengers win.
What can we make of this information? Well, we need to backtrack to the end of Doctor Strange [10], where the Ancient One is dying [11] and talks with Stephen via astral projection. She tells him that she's spent years looking through time, keeping countless terrible futures from happening.
Still, the outcomes all lead to that very moment where she talks with him, never any further.
Basically, the Ancient One can look forward in time, but never past her death. Since Stephen's able to look forward in time to find an outcome where the Avengers defeat Thanos, this would mean that he's actually not dead from the snap since he wouldn't be able to look past his death.
So, what happened to the supposedly fallen Avengers?
So what happened to the fallen?
If they're not dead, where did the vaporised superheroes go? The internet seems convinced that they're well alive but in an alternate universe.
According to Reddit user Enervata [12], Thanos may not have extinguished half the universe. Instead, he created another universe where Spider-Man, Black Panther [13], and the other supposedly disappeared get transferred to. (And in their universe, it's the other Avengers who are goners!) One possible outcome in Endgame is that those who "survived" the snap may sacrifice themselves to save the other universe. Or, in a drastic turn of events, the two universes may stay split.
Reddit user joethehamface [14] speculates that the Quantum Realm [15], where Scott Lang gets stuck for a while, could be the bridge between these alternative universes. This would definitely explain why everyone in the Endgame trailer puts on Ant-Man suits. Hopefully, we'll get see most of the Avengers, including those who disappeared in Infinity War, make it out of the new movie alive!