Avengers: Endgame fittingly marked the conclusion to the first stage of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or the Infinity Saga. While iconic heroes like Captain America and Iron Man saw their stories come to a close, the future of the MCU involves newer heroes whose stories have yet to be completed. One of these heroes is Stephen Strange. The sequel to 2016’s Doctor Strange, titled Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, is due for release in 2021. But an intriguing new fan theory suggests the events of this film have actually already taken place.
Endgame introduced time travel to the MCU. While at first the rules might seem confusing, it’s pretty simply explained: going back in time doesn’t affect the future, but creates a new timeline.
In a Reddit post, u/gunnersawus explains that, since most of the heroes went back in time to different locations, this would create at least five different timelines. That’s even without taking into account Ant Man and Hawkeye’s test trips and Captain America’s journey to return the Infinity Stones to their rightful locations in time and space.
Multiverse of madness has already happened. [spoiler]
by inFanTheories
Following this theory, the stage for Multiverse of Madness has already been set. The film could follow Doctor Strange trying to keep the chaos that could have unfolded across these new timelines under control. As Doctor Strange would be going back in time in his travels across the Endgame timelines, then the film’s events have technically already happened. Or, at least, the ‘multiverse of madness’ has already been created.
We already know the new timelines created during Endgame will be important to the MCU’s future – the upcoming Disney Plus series Loki, starring Tom Hiddleston, will feature the version of Loki that escaped with the Tesseract in Endgame. Kevin Feige has also confirmed that Loki and WandaVision will connect directly to Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. It seems likely then that the events of Endgame will definitely be relevant to the sequel too – but we’ll have to wait until 2021 to find out if this theory is accurate.
What do you think of this theory? Let us know in the comments!