How Ant-Man And Captain Marvel Could Be The Key To Defeating Thanos

    This Avengers 4 theory is pretty convincing.

    Jenna Guillaume
    by Jenna Guillaume

    Editor-at-Large, BuzzFeed Australia

    This post contains spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as speculation for Avengers 4.

    Marvel

    Ever since Avengers: Infinity War absolutely devastated us by turning half the Marvel Cinematic Universe to literal dust, people have been trying to figure out how exactly Marvel will bring everyone back in the next Avengers.

    http://@comic.book.memes / Via instagram.com

    It's a given, considering a big chunk of the characters who disappeared are part of the ~next generation~ of Marvel heroes, with many lucrative movies ahead of them (I'm looking at you, Spider-Man and Black Panther). The only thing that's not certain is how it's all going to happen.

    Most fans agree that time travel will play a key part in defeating Thanos/saving the lives of our faves.

    Marvel

    Set photos from Avengers 4 seem to confirm this (I won't link them, but you can google if you're curious). With Dr Strange out of commission, people have been wondering how our heroes would actually pull off a trip through time. Some theorised the Avengers might somehow get the time stone back off Thanos, but the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp suggests something else entirely.

    In the mid-credits scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scott enters the Quantum Realm with the help of Hope, Janet, and Hank.

    Marvel

    As both Ant-Man movies constantly reiterate, time and space work very differently in the Quantum Realm. But even more significantly: Janet warns Scott before he enters to be careful of "time vortexes" down there.

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    This is treated as a throwaway line, but I'd bet good money that it's anything but. There's a strong chance that a time vortex could be the key to resetting the timeline in Avengers 4.

    Thanos' snap happens during the mid-credits scene for Ant-Man and the Wasp, affecting Hope, Janet, and Hank, and apparently stranding Scott in the Quantum Realm. There are a few options for what comes next. Perhaps he actually travels through a time vortex while down there – but that seems unlikely since he's currently unaware of what happened with Thanos, and for any time travel plot to be effective, well, the heroes would need to know what the hell the problem was. Of course, there's a chance he could get out of the Quantum Realm immediately in a similar way he did in the first Ant-Man, if he took a blue Pym Particle disk with him. Or, like Janet, he could be stuck down there until someone helps him out.

    Here's where it gets really interesting: That someone could very well be Captain Marvel.

    Marvel

    If you don't already know, Captain Marvel is the next movie in the MCU, coming in March 2019 – two months ahead of Avengers 4. She's being played by Brie Larson. It was her symbol that we saw on Fury's beeper in the post-credits scene of Infinity War – so she's obviously going to play an important role in Avengers 4.

    We also know that the Quantum Realm will feature in her movie, which is set in the '90s. Perhaps she has been in the Quantum Realm since then, explaining why she hasn't been present for any of the Avengers shenanigans in the meantime. Or maybe she'll use a time vortex to travel from the '90s to present day. Even if that's not the case, it's possible she'll have the ability to travel into and out of the Quantum Realm and/or know a thing or two about time vortexes.

    All in all, it seems like Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, and time vortexes in the Quantum Realm will play key parts in defeating that purple bastard Thanos.

    Marvel

    Let me know in the comments your theories for how it'll all go down!