Marvel Fan Theory Says Doctor Strange Could Be the Key to Connecting AVENGERS: ENDGAME to DOOMSDAY

Marvel is sending fans back to Avengers: Endgame, and the first trailer for the upcoming Avengers: Endgame Encore re-release promises an exclusive look at Avengers: Doomsday and giving fans another reason to dissect Endgame for clues.

One theory has already emerged that could provide a pretty wild explanation for how the two Avengers movies connect, and it all comes back to Doctor Strange and the one future where Thanos loses.

During Avengers: Infinity War, Strange famously looked through more than 14 million possible futures and found only one in which the Avengers defeated Thanos. That future eventually required Tony Stark to sacrifice himself by using the Infinity Stones.

Marvel Mania has a theory about why that particular outcome mattered beyond simply defeating Thanos.

"Doctor Doom is the reason Doctor Strange saw only ONE universe where the Avengers won. One Tony variant could have survived the snap or found another way to defeat Thanos without sacrificing himself.

“Strange saw what Tony would eventually become and deliberately pushed him toward the sacrifice, preventing the future where Tony became Doom."

The theory suggests Strange wasn't merely searching for a reality where Thanos could be defeated. He may have been looking for a future where Thanos loses without creating an even bigger problem afterward.

That problem would be Doctor Doom. It becomes especially interesting because Robert Downey Jr., who spent more than a decade playing Tony Stark in the MCU, is returning as Doom in Avengers: Doomsday.

Marvel has maintained plenty of mystery around exactly why Downey is playing Victor von Doom and whether his familiar face will have any connection to Tony Stark.

If Doom really is some kind of Stark variant, Strange's decision in Infinity War takes on an entirely different meaning. Tony surviving the fight with Thanos could have eventually resulted in him becoming Doom.

Strange therefore chooses the future where Tony dies a hero because every path where he survives leads somewhere much worse.

It would also make Strange's behavior during the final battle of Endgame hit differently. When Tony looks at him for confirmation, Strange raises one finger, reminding him that this is the one winning outcome he saw. Tony understands what he has to do and makes the sacrifice.

The upcoming Avengers: Endgame Encore could give Marvel the perfect opportunity to revisit that moment with new context. The theatrical re-release includes four additional minutes of footage and is being positioned as a direct bridge between Endgame and Doomsday.

Joe Russo has even said that revisiting Endgame will be important for understanding what comes next. "There's a natural progression from Endgame into Doomsday... I think it's required viewing for following the story in Doomsday."

That's a very specific way to describe a seven-year-old Marvel movie audiences have already seen. If Endgame is genuinely required viewing for Doomsday, something from that story clearly matters beyond the obvious return of familiar Avengers.

The theory could potentially account for another major Doomsday mystery as well with Chris Evans returning as Steve Rogers.

When audiences last saw Steve in Endgame, he traveled into the past to return the Infinity Stones, chose to remain there with Peggy Carter, and eventually appeared as an elderly man to pass the Captain America shield to Sam Wilson.

Yet the Steve we've seen associated with Doomsday looks much closer to the Captain America audiences remember from Endgame.

The fan theory proposes an explanation: "He could be from that same universe, where the Endgame battle still happened, Tony survived, and Steve never truly retired."

If that's where Marvel is going, Doomsday could introduce a branching version of the Endgame timeline where things played out differently. Thanos may still have been defeated, but Tony survived and Steve remained Captain America. Somewhere along the way, that surviving Stark could have become Doom.

It would certainly give Downey's casting more weight than simply having the MCU's biggest former star return as a completely unrelated character. More importantly, it would connect Doom directly to the decisions that ended the Infinity Saga.

Of course, this is still a fan theory, and Marvel could have something completely different planned. But Strange's 14,000,605 futures remain one of the MCU's biggest narrative playgrounds. We only saw the outcome he selected. Marvel has never shown us what actually happened in all those other realities.

If Avengers: Doomsday decides to open that door, discovering that one of those futures contained Doctor Doom would be a hell of a way to make Endgame essential again.

We will get our first real clue when Avengers: Endgame Encore arrives in theaters September 25.