What Infinity War's Ending Tells Us About Avengers 4

WARNING: This article contains MASSIVE SPOILERS for Avengers: Infinity War, in theaters now.

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Do not read this article if you have yet to see Avengers: Infinity War.

Seriously, this is your FINAL WARNING.

Okay? You've seen the movie. Good - now we can talk about it. Yes, that just happened.

If you're anything like us, chances are you sat and watched the Avengers: Infinity War credits scroll by, somewhat shell-shocked by what had just transpired -- trying to make sense of it, asking yourself if it had all really happened. Yes, Thanos collected all six Infinity Stones, snapped his fingers and, just like that, half of the universe withered away into nothingness. Yes, you just witnessed the death of nearly all of Marvel's beloved characters: Bucky, Falcon, Spider-Man, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Star-Lord, Drax, Mantis, Groot...

By the time Thanos sits down and smiles, it becomes all too clear: Infinity War could have easily been subtitled "Thanos Wins." But this is not, ultimately, how it all ends. There's still one more movie coming -- the second part of this grand and cosmic conclusion to Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers 4.

In order to keep the focus solely on Infinity War, Marvel still hasn't divulged the title of the upcoming sequel. The May 2019 release remains a question mark that has had fans speculating ever since it was confirmed that its title wouldn't simply be Infinity War - Part 2, and now we know why.

With the way Infinity War leaves things, any title would have likely spoiled the brutal, shocking ending of the third Avengers film. While it's been said that the title for Avengers 4 will not be revealed for a while, we can't help but wonder wonder what shape the next film will take.

But given what we now know, there are some things the ending of Infinity War does tell us.

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The first and most obvious thing we now know of Avengers 4 is that it's time to bring in the big guns. In the after-credits scene of the film, we saw Nick Fury send a distress signal before his death, a call for help sent to Captain Marvel. With Carol Danvers' upcoming 1990s-set origin movie coming in early 2019, it's a safe bet that she will join whatever Avengers are left to lend a helping hand in the fight to come.

But what will all of these Avengers do, now that they have lost almost everything? Earth's Mightiest Heroes failed, and the entire universe suffered for it. Half of all life is gone, and half of their friends and allies are dead. Where do they go from here? How can they fix this? Well, part of the answer might lie in set pictures of the film. Thanks to the release of many photos from the Avengers 4 shoot, we saw the return of old locations from Marvel's previous phases of movies, like Tony Stark's Hall of Armor, a World War II setting and the Battle of New York.

Some began to wonder if perhaps the film would somehow involve time travel, something that could easily come about thanks to the presence of the Time Stone. But further fuel was added to the fires of mystery when other set pictures hinted at the return of Tony Stark's B.A.R.F. technology, which first appeared in Captain America: Civil War. This tech allows users to revisit moments from their past via super-realistic holograms, which could explain how the avengers return to the day of the Battle of New York.

Perhaps Tony and the remaining Avengers are going back to key moments from previous films to find something they missed, a hint at Thanos' whereabouts or perhaps even the key to defeating him -- which brings us to the comics.

The Infinity Gauntlet

1991's The Infinity Gauntlet comic by Jim Starlin, George Pérez and Ron Lim served as a strong inspiration for Infinity War. The first issue saw Thanos already in possession of all six Stones (then called Infinity Gems), and the story had only just barely started when the Mad Titan proceeded to snap his fingers and decimate half of all life in the universe. What Avengers were left banded together to mount a hopeless attack on the supervillain. Eventually, Nebula was the one able to take the Gauntlet off of Thanos. Putting it on her own hand, she reverts everything back the way it was by turning back time.

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However, it's unlikely that Avengers 4 will simply erase the shocking ending of Infinity War. The conclusion had immense weight to it, and it left a very strong impact. To simply undo it all would be a disservice to the film, and the audience. But the turn of Avengers 4's story could be somewhere in the middle. Perhaps the remaining Avengers will wrestle for control of the Gauntlet, and perhaps they will manage to bring the fallen heroes back -- although it might come at a cost.

When tallying the heroes that are left standing, we notice that the original founding Avengers are all still alive, along with War Machine and Rocket. Could it be possible then that Avengers 4 will see the original Avengers all sacrifice themselves to take the place of the departed, allowing the newer heroes like Doctor Strange, Black Panther and Spider-Man to return, and become the new leaders of Earth's foremost super-team?

Such a finale would break our hearts, there's no doubt about that. But it would also make a lot of sense, both in-story and Marvel Studios contract length-wise, no matter how much it hurts.

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Infinity War stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Bettany, Anthony Mackie, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Tom Hiddleston and Josh Brolin, among others. The film opens Friday worldwide.