When Avengers: Infinity War (2018) dropped, the world was collectively fangirling whether they were Marvel fans or not; it finally saw a decade’s worth of superheroes come together in a film to face a universal threat, including Doctor Stephen Strange. Doctor Strange saw his first introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2016. As a prodigy doctor, he, unfortunately, lost his ability to perform surgeries when he was involved in an accident that damaged his hands. From here, he visits the Ancient One to request her help to heal him.
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Instead, Doctor Strange became one of the best sorcerers in the entirety of the MCU. In addition, he gained access to the Time Stone, one of the infinity stones Thanos will eventually claim. Despite being warned of its dangers, he now sports the stone as part of the Eye of Agamotto and easily wields it. Now, with this in mind, he manages to see multiple timelines simultaneously during the events of Avengers: Infinity War. He tells Tony Stark they will emerge victorious in only one before disintegrating with Thanos’ snap. But in the first film, Doctor Strange can only control the stone with simple commands. How was he able to come to this conclusion with such precision?
“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain!”
Many fans may recall that Stephen Strange went with a passive-aggressive approach when fighting Dormammu. Instead of defeating the Ruler of the Dark Dimension by overpowering him, Stephen threw himself at the entity, essentially annoying him until he gave in to the sorcerer’s demands. He created a time loop that would force them to relive that moment until Dormammu gave in to Stephen’s conditions. If you consider the number of times, he would have done this, that would set Doctor Strange at a substantial age.
Not to mention the significant number of times Strange had to die to get Dormammu to give in. Although his exact age was never confirmed after this series of events, it is fair to assume that the sorcerer is at least a few millennia old. Screenwriter, C. Robert Carnell confirmed via a Twitter post that they intentionally left his age vague so they could address it later. But he also confirmed that the hero was stuck in the time loop long enough to master his abilities.
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How did this impact the events of Avengers: Infinity War?
Simply put, Stephen Strange mastered not only his sorcerer abilities but also his wielding of the Eye of Agamotto. As a result, he could use the same tactics that he did against Dormammu to ensure that the Avengers would win against Thanos. Although we saw him flip through timelines in a matter of seconds, Strange had to place himself in multiple scenarios against Thanos to warrant a favourable outcome. Of course, Tony Stark dying may not be a favourable outcome for many Marvel fans, but as heroes, they understood that sacrifices had to be made. Likewise, Strange also decided to sacrifice himself to Thanos after suffering multiple defeats so they could ultimately save the universe. Kudos to you, Doctor Strange!
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TL;DR
- In Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Doctor Strange uses the Eye of Agamotto to find the one timeline where they are victorious.
- His fight with Dormammu in Doctor Strange (2016) makes this possible. But it raises the question of how old he is.
- Although screenwriter C. Robert Carnell confirmed they left it vague intentionally, it can be safe to assume that the time loop resulted in Stephen Strange being at least a few millennia old.
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