Warning for readers who have not seen “Avengers: Infinity Wars”: this article will contain spoilers.
Sitting in the crowded theater, Brandon Norravong watched in horror as Thanos finally grabbed the Mind Stone from Vision’s forehead. The last hope was riding on Thor as he plunged his axe into Thanos’s chest, but this was quickly diminished as Thanos utters, “You should have gone for the head,” before snapping his fingers. Silence fills the room as one by one fans begin watching their favorite heroes along with half the Marvel universe crumble to dust before their mist-filled eyes.
“I was glad I was alone,” said Norravong, a sophomore majoring in creative writing, recalling the moment. He remembers thinking, “This is actually happening?” He said he was surprised to see the credits roll up announcing the end of the movie.
Norravong’s reaction was a sentiment shared by most fans.
Endgame directors and brothers Joe and Anthony Russo have been known for their surprises and for doing things the fans thought they would never do. With half of the population of the Marvel world gone, the ultimate question is if they are actually dead or alive.
Kimberly Feliciano, also sophomore majoring in accounting, has a theory.
The people who crumbled to dust didn’t die, she said, they instead went to some other dimension, maybe somewhere we hadn’t seen before.
With the introduction of the quantum realm in Antman and the Wasp, this leads fans to wonder how it may play into Endgame as well.
Antman, as fans will know after watching the end credits of “Antman and the Wasp,” is currently trapped in the quantum realm, but is clearly seen in the latest trailers for Endgame free and helping the team in the fight against Thanos.
This may, however, tie into another theory presented by Norravong.
According to him, those who crumbled to dust didn’t die, but instead were transported to inside the Soul Stone. The Soul World, which is seen in comics to usually tie in with the Soul Stone, is a pocket dimension that is known to possess captured souls. It is possibly seen briefly in “Avengers: Infinity War” when Thanos claims all Infinity Stones and ultimately snaps his fingers.
While the movie doesn’t explicitly say if the scene with child Gamora asking Thanos, “Did you do it?” is actually a glimpse into the Soul World or rather some sort of vision, it does seem likely that this may be the answer to where the victims were sent.
Does this mean that the remaining heroes need only to break the Soul Stone to release everyone? Or perhaps the Soul Stone isn’t the stone we should be worrying about. Afterall, if the heroes did indeed die in the snap, then breaking the Soul Stone may do nothing to aid in bringing them back.
Anthony Derington, QEP’s reading center liaison and sophomore at Seminole State, said he feels like they’re completely wiped (Everyone who died in the snap). Derington has spent time in the past reading much of the Marvel comics and shared that in the comics the Infinity stones are in a sense the source code of the universe. If a stone were to break, it would completely destroy that aspect of the universe in the comics according to Derington.
The movies itself though didn’t reveal if that rule applies when Wanda attempted to shatter the Mind Stone to prevent Thanos from getting it. It could be that not enough time had passed before the effects of shattering the Mind Stone started to implement before Thanos reversed time and repaired the stone.
With most of the Guardians of the Galaxy dead, except for Rocket and Nebula, fans were devastated and weren’t sure if they would see a third movie to continue their story. Derington said, however, that Nebula may be the key to restoring the victims of the snap.
“The general hope is that Nebula ends up getting revenge like she did in the book and getting hold of the gauntlet and rewinding time with the time stone,” Derington said. Nebula is seen at the end of Guardian’s of the Galaxy Vol 2 headed off in an attempt to kill her father, Thanos, for the suffering he had her endure while growing up. If she were to succeed in her mission, it could possibly revive everyone and make for a satisfying ending to Thanos’s story according Derington.
Feliciano, Derington and Norravong all agree on one thing though, that the heroes will return in the next movie.
With new Marvel movies soon to be released or in production featuring many of the heroes, such as Spiderman, thought to have died, it provides a compelling argument that they aren’t gone for good.
“I still think he’s going to come back because I mean … he’s Spiderman,” Feliciano said. Spiderman’s new movie, “Far from Home,” is to be released July 5, so it’s more than likely that her statement is true.
Overall, though the most repeated thought was that time travel will probably have a large part to play in the movie. The cast listed for Marvel Endgame features several people who have already died even before the snap, including Loki, Gamora and even The Ancient One who died in Doctor Strange many years before Infinity War even began.
Fans will get the answers to these questions and more in “Avengers: Endgame” in theaters April 26. If the victims of the snap are not rescued in Endgame, then, in the words of Tony Stark: “If we can’t protect the Earth, then you can be damn well sure we’ll Avenge it.”
