In Avengers: Infinity War, Doctor Strange used the Time Stone to travel into 14,000,605 possible futures to find one scenario where the Avengers win against Thanos. The one successful scenario, as we know, would unfold in Avengers: Endgame.
But what was mere moments for us turned out to be entire lifetimes for Stephen Strange. In fact, in a Q&A session with fans, Infinity War and Endgame co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo revealed that Doctor Strange actually lived through every one of these 14 million scenarios.
"Strange has to exert an immense amount of energy to go into this state," Anthony explained, "and the amount of time that he’s in this state, as we know from the history in his own standalone film Doctor Strange, he could be in that state for who knows how long. So it could have taken Strange an immensely long time to actually review all these scenarios."
"He has to physically live them, and then die in each of them," Joe added. "Right before he dies he has to reset it, as we saw at the end of Doctor Strange, and do it again, and take copious notes each time he does it."
Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Endgame stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Brie Larson, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira and Bradley Cooper, with Josh Brolin as Thanos. The film is now available on Digital HD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD.