In another special edition of #brandymelaniethoughts, I talk one of my theories for Avengers: Endgame. So we went deep into this on the eleventh episode of our podcast, Talking Nerdy, but this is one theory we didn’t mention. I started re-watching the MCU Avengers movies in preparation for Endgame, and took special interest in the Infinity War Knowhere scene. Warning MCU Spoilers ahead. If you haven’t seen the movies, you should watch them, or be spoiled!
The storyline of Infinity War is that Thanos is going through the universe getting the six Infinity Stones. The stone we’ll focus on is the Reality stone. This is the red stone. As Brandy mentioned in the podcast, red plays a significant part in the two trailers we’ve seen for Endgame. It is used very strategically throughout these trailers. One thing this could be hinting at is the importance of the Reality Stone in the upcoming movie.
At the end of Infinity War, Thanos completes his infamous snap and half of the universe turns into dust, never to be seen again. At least, until Endgame when our illustrious heroes somehow save the day. Brandy brought up a theory about the Reality stone that possibly, when Thanos snapped, he created two alternate realities. Reality A and Reality B. Each reality would be half of the universal population. We know Thanos has the ability to bend space and time to his will using the Infinity gauntlet.
So where does Knowhere come in? When the guardians team (minus Rocket and Groot) head to Knowhere in Infinity War, they are looking for the Reality Stone which has been kept by the Collector. When they get there, they see a world that seems very normal and realistic, including interacting with the Collector himself. However, this is revealed to be another ruse by Thanos. With the power of the Reality stone, he can change reality. The true Knowhere is a pile of flaming rubble, as Thanos has already destroyed it and gained the Reality stone. What we see in this scene is that Thanos has the power to completely hide one reality in favor of another. The world that we see at the beginning looks normal, but the world is really covered in flames. We also see this power is limited to his presence (at least until he gains all Infinity Stones and seemingly becomes all powerful). When Thanos leaves, his reality-changing shenanigans revert back to their normal form.
So my theory for Endgame is this. If we see alternate realities, I don’t think that one reality will be in the Soul Stone, as was previously suggested. I think there might be two realities superimposed on top of each other. Reality A and Reality B all taking place in the same space, just two sides of the same material coin. What this essentially acts as is a parallel universe setting atop the known universe. One thing I wasn’t really sure about in the trailers is how Ant Man is going to play such a large part in saving the day. We know that his ability to travel to the Quantum Realm is extremely important, but how? One possibility is that the Quantum Realm connects these parallel realities, allowing our Avengers to travel to Reality B where all the snapped people (from our point of view in Reality A) exist.
I’m not sure how true this will turn out to be, or if Endgame will hinge more on time. We see Time playing a large role in the MCU – from Dr. Strange to Deadpool 2. We also see the stones playing an important role – not just in the snap, but also in the scene with young Gamora and Thanos. As many internet sleuths have pointed out, it certainly seems that this scene takes place in the Soul Stone. Which could lend some credence to this theory if Gamora is not really dead, but her existence has been transmogrified into something else. If the MCU goes the route of alternate realities, I think this might be one way they can tie them together, and possibly make it easier to re-integrate them when the Avengers save the day. Oh, snap! (Too soon?)