Avengers: Infinity War left us with a lot to think about...namely, just how Marvel had the audacity to kill off so many of our favourite characters! However, with the studio choosing to skip this year's Comic-Con in order to let the shocking events of the movie sink in, it's clearly going to be a while before we hear anything official about what comes next for Earth's Mightiest Heroes...and Rocket Racc00n.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, of course, and Disney has Ant-Man and The Wasp and Captain Marvel to promote in the meantime. However, we can probably expect a first look at Avengers 4 - along with some official plot details - around November based on how Infinity War was marketed.
In the meantime, Reddit continues to be an unexpected source of apparent intel on the sequel. Based on past experience, what you're about to read probably isn't legit but there have been a lot of leaks on the site (whether we're talking about stills, concept art, footage, or, yes, plot spoilers) which have panned out much to the surprise of...well, everyone! Either way, these Avengers 4 details are bound to give you something to talk about so click on the "View List" button below to check these out.
Set photos for Avengers 4 have shown Captain America (in his costume from The Avengers), Tony Stark, and Ant-Man in what appears to be New York shortly after the Chitauri attack back in 2012. They're all wearing strange watch-like devices on their hands and covered in dots which will seemingly be used to add some sort of visual effect in post-production but what's the deal with these odd-looking gadgets?
Apparently, they were created by Han Pym and are essentially "growing devices" so the heroes are able to exit the Quantum Realm during time travel excursions. They do look a little like the regulators created by him in Ant-Man so perhaps he'll team up with Iron Man in order to help set things right.
If you've ever seen a time travel movie, you'll have a pretty good idea of how things work but Avengers 4 will reportedly take things down a slightly different route. Earth's Mightiest Heroes will be travelling into an alternate reality which mirrors their own but jumping through various points in time to alter that reality and ultimately make their own version of the Infinity Gauntlet to use against Thanos.
I'm not entirely sure how that's supposed to work but it could lead to them meeting past versions of themselves and I think it's actually far more likely that rather than a different reality, their actions create an alternate timeline similar to X-Men: Days of Future Past but it all sounds pretty confusing and will need to be handled by the Russos in a very clever way if they hope to actually pull this off.
So, when The Avengers travel through time - or alternate realities - what exactly is their plan? Well, they're planning on heading to New York City to retrieve the Space and Mind Stones, Xandar to get the Power Stone while it's still being looked after by the Nova Corps, Vormir for the Soul Stone (how they'll know it's there isn't made clear here), and Knowhere to get the Reality Stone from The Collector.
Characters who survived the "Snap!" were apparently left alive for storytelling purposes (Thor and Rocket, for example) because they know the locations of the Stones and can guide the plot in that direction. That makes sense and actually lines up with some of the other rumours we've heard.
At some point in the movie, Thor, Rocket, and Captain Marvel travel to Nidavellir in order to have a new Infinity Gauntlet forged "for Tony [Stark]." Why he has to be the one to wield it isn't clear but perhaps it's just a responsibility the Armoured Avenger decided to take on after failing to stop the Mad Titan on his homeworld! It certainly seems like the kind of thing the hero would do when you think about it.
It's said that we see the dwarves in action before Thanos showed up and laid waste to them so this is another scene presumably set in the past in that alternate reality or timeline we'll see in Avengers 4.
During one of their visits back in time, The Avengers unwittingly mention Thanos and their hunt for the Infinity Stones in front of Loki (who, in set photos, we've seen being flanked by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents after his defeat at the end of the 2012 release). The God of Mischief being the villain he is later touches base with Thanos and reveals that they know what he's up to, something which leads to him acting sooner.
If only Loki knew what Thanos does to him a few years later, eh? This is again a little confusing because does it really matter if he acts sooner when this is an alternate timeline or reality? I'm thinking that the two are actually linked in some fashion and the team's actions will have an impact on the present day.
At some point in the movie, The Avengers get their hands on the Space and Mind Stone and travel to a point in time when the Power Stone was on Xandar. While there, they cross paths with Thanos and The Black Order who have decided to launch an attack on the planet sooner than expected. This leads to a battle between the two and the still formidable Mad Titan manages to take the Power Stone.
Unfortunately, that's where this supposed leak ends! We don't get any further details on where things go next or how the story comes to a close but a lot of this adds up and it would definitely be interesting seeing the heroes going after the Time Stones the same way Thanos did in Avengers: Infinity War.