Cast your mind back to January, long before the Internet became fixated on all things Infinity War, and you’ll likely recall those bizarre set photos from Avengers 4 (see below) in which Tony Stark and the fresh-faced Captain America relived the Battle of New York.
As any MCU scholar will tell you, that climatic finale took place at the tail-end of Joss Whedon’s Avengers movie, leading many to conclude that Joe and Anthony Russo are about to dabble with time travel and even alternate timelines come 2019.
It’s a compelling theory, too, given one of the Infinity Stones actively bestows its user with the ability to manipulate spacetime. Adding fuel to the fire today is industry sleuth Jeremy Conrad, who has unearthed a brand new rumor concerning the plot of Avengers 4. And if it’s true, things are about to go nuclear. The original post contains mild spoilers for Infinity War, but we’ll refrain from adding them in here.
Still with us? Over on MCU Cosmic, Conrad is asserting that 2019’s sequel will actually take cues from the “Avengers Forever” comic in that it kicks off a full five years after Infinity War. The decision to cast an older Cassie Lang is a telltale sign that Avengers 4 will feature a pretty significant time jump, too.
And that’s not all. In the half-decade since Avengers 3, Tony Stark and his remaining allies are now Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and ultimately call upon the help of Hank Pym to develop some form of cutting-edge technology that will allow them to travel back in time and confront Thanos, which would go some way to explaining those aforementioned set photos of Robert Downey Jr. and Co. dressed in their Phase One attire.
That’s all well and good, but Joe and Anthony Russo seem pretty adamant that Avengers 4 plays around with Tony Stark’s world-famous B.A.R.F. (Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing) technology, which was originally featured in Captain America: Civil War.
In other words, don’t take this rumor as gospel, even if it does present some exciting food for thought as we approach the grand debut of Avengers: Infinity War.