Avengers 4 Theory: Did Thanos Time Travel At The End Of Infinity War?

Let’s begin by accepting that, while in possession of the Infinity Gauntlet (including the Time Stone) Thanos has the power to travel through time. We see him reverse time at the end of the film to reconstruct the Mind Stone, we and we’ve seen Dr. Strange both use the Stone to view possible futures and create a time loop. It’s certainly not a stretch to assume that the gauntlet has the power to send Thanos through time if he so desired.

Now we’ve established the how, let’s examine the evidence for why.

As Thanos explains to Dr. Strange, the scorched landscape on which they stand was once a paradise; a utopian world of peace and plenty. However, the resources grew too thin, and Titan’s capacity to support life crumpled. Thanos is the only surviving member of his race left, and it is this that drives him in his pursuit of halving the universes population.

However, the final shot of Titan we see seems in radical juxtaposition to the Titan we see earlier in the film, and the Titan Thanos describes. Far from a desolate wasteland, the final shot appears lush, green, and easily capable of supporting life.

In fact, it even appears cultivated. This is not a scorched planet ravaged by overpopulation. So, how could this be?

Well, the answer may be that the Titan Thanos is observing is not of the current time. It all makes sense. After being almost fatally wounded by Stormbreaker and losing the entirety of the Black Order, Thanos is extremely vulnerable. Why go somewhere he might be susceptible to counter attack? Where is the safest place in the universe for him to escape, now his mission is complete?

The answer is to run not through space, but through time.

It could well be that Thanos fled to a past Titan, the one he knew from before it was struck by calamity, and enjoy the peace he’s earned having ‘’saved all life in the universe’’. It’s important we recognise that Thanos’ quest was never to save Titan, his aims were bigger than that, so he wouldn’t be motivated to change the course of events that lead to its downfall.

It was those events, after all, that made him realise what had to be done. Titan’s sacrifice was inevitable to Thanos, as he even says to Gamora, saving the universe cost him ‘everything’. At the very least, his reward is the contentment that life in the universe is saved, and a peaceful moment back in his own lost world.

But all this raises one final question. What could it mean for Avengers 4?