Though Thanos may be the villain responsible for the universe-wide genocide at the climax of Avengers: Infinity War, the Mad Titan himself is no stranger to seeing a loved one perish before his eyes – even if he’s also the one doing the killing. In order to acquire the Soul Stone, the intergalactic tyrant must sacrifice his own adopted daughter Gamora, and in next year’s Avengers 4, one fan theory suggests a similar tragedy’s in store for one of Thanos’ greatest enemies, Tony Stark.
This piece of speculation from Reddit user Pluralizes is based on the assumption that the upcoming sequel will feature a time jump, and to be fair, there’s plenty of evidence to back up this notion. From Black Widow’s new hairdo to murmurs of Tony Stark’s retirement, it looks like we may well see Earth’s Mightiest Heroes after they’ve had a long period to absorb the trauma of their last movie. But there’s one little tidbit that seems particularly relevant to this Redditor’s theory:
“There has been a casting call for a baby with dark hair. It is listed as a special role. Most likely Tony and Pepper’s son.”
This new family member could make it all the more difficult for Stark to do what so many fan theories are suggesting, and travel back in time.
“Post Infinity War, Tony has settled down with Pepper and they have a son. Soon thereafter, Ant-Man shows up and time travel is introduced, so now Tony hatches a plan to reverse the snap… However, this means forfeiting the current timeline where he has his son.”
While this perhaps sounds a little too heavy for an MCU film, Chris Hemsworth did warn us that Avengers 4 will be a more shocking movie than Infinity War. So if Marvel are to raise the bar after the mass genocide of their recent mega-hit, then sacrificing a baby via time travel just might be the way to do it. Pluralizes goes on to suggest that this loss will ironically come to help Stark in retrieving one of the Infinity Stones, too, saying:
“After they arrive on Vormir with direction from Nebula, they will be told a sacrifice needs to be made. It was introduced Red Skull can see everyone’s soul as the Stonekeeper when he addressed Thanos as “Son of Alars”, so it is possible he will peer into Tony’s soul and learn he is in a harrowing quandary: sacrificing the timeline where he has his son to save half the universe. As the Stonekeeper explains this, a tear rolls down Tony’s cheek.
Maybe this will qualify as a sufficient sacrifice to claim the soul stone?”
Turns out that there are sadder things that can happen to Tony Stark in his next movie than outright dying.
Honestly, this idea sounds like both a plausible loophole for the Soul Stone and a fittingly poetic plot development, but of course, it’s all just speculation at this point. We’ll see if the Disney team dare to take the story in such a tragic direction though when Avengers 4 comes out on May 3rd, 2018.