The Doctor Strange Theory That Will Change The Way You See Eternals

The ever-changing Marvel Cinematic Universe has only gotten more complicated now that the time-twisting antics of Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) have become a regular part of its ever-expanding world. The Sorcerer Supreme's magical abilities, which allow him to stop time and hop between dimensions, among other timestream-bending abilities, has made the doctor an especially helpful asset to various friends — and a threat to various foes — he's encountered along the way.

While Strange doesn't have a visible presence in Marvel's "Eternals," one fan theory suggests that the good Doctor's expansive interdimensional knowledge may have affected what happens to the characters in that film — as well as a very important event from a previous "MCU" outing. Thanks to Doctor Strange's ability to change the world and time itself via magic, it wouldn't be surprising if this wild fan theory ends up being true. What is this theory anyway?

u/LuckyMe111, a user on the fan theories subreddit, realized upon rewatching "Avengers: Infinity War" that Strange witnesses "14,000,605 different futures" while in Titan but doesn't allow Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) to get the Infinity Gauntlet away from Thanos. They think "Strange saw the future where they beat Thanos on Titan and the snap didn't happen but later on the Emergence happened," which would have resulted in the wholesale destruction of Earth.

Ergo, u/LuckyMe111 theorizes that Strange intentionally allowed Thanos to cause the snap to happen, which resulted in the Emergence being forestalled. That would allow for enough time to "bring everyone back for the Eternals" as well as Ajak (Salma Hayek) for them to see that Earth "is a planet that is worth betraying Arishem [for]."

The theory met with interest from their fellow posters. u/Ok_Entertainer7945 wrote that they've seen other theories like u/LuckyMe111's, only the one trying to delay the Emergence was Thanos "so he could take down the celestials." u/DeluxeTraffic noted that Ajak mentioned that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.)'s self-sacrifice was what "inspired her to believe that humans were worthy of surviving," ultimately encouraging Ikaris (Richard Madden) to betray her. Without Stark's death in the Infinity War, neither of those events would have occurred, "Ajak's sphere wouldn't have gone to Sersi, and Phastos couldn't have used the sphere to empower Sersi to stop Tiamut," they noted.

Other fans were less than impressed with that notion. "Eternals really pokes a lot of holes in the mcu," noted u/cerpintaxt44. 

Fans will have to keep paying attention to the twists and turns of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to see if the theory pans out.