Marvel StudiosAvengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame may feel like a lifetime ago, but it still remains the last time we saw the MCU’s greatest heroes join forces. As we wait for Avengers: Doomsday in December, it’s worth examining that movie as a refresher: what does Tony Stark’s sacrifice mean now that we know Robert Downey Jr. is returning to the MCU? Where did we leave off these characters? But hidden in this three-hour epic is a plot point that may have gone down in history, but in the light of Doomsday, it takes entirely new meaning. In fact, it could reveal a huge Avengers betrayal. One of the most iconic moments in Avengers: Infinity War is Dr. Strange telling Iron Man the odds of defeating Thanos. “I went forward in time to view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict,” he says. “How many did you see?” Peter Quill asks. “14,000,605,” he responds. When Tony Stark asks how many they win, he responds that there is only one. This is echoed in Endgame, when Tony asks if they’re in the one scenario Strange visited. “If I tell you what happens, it won't happen,” Strange replies. But all the Avengers take Strange’s claim at face value and never wonder if he’s actually lying. One in 14 million is a very small chance, and since Endgame premiered, we’ve seen the full extent of the multiverse — there’s no way there was only one good ending for this group. But, as X account @DODCNotes suggests, perhaps Strange had ulterior motives here. Dr. Strange knows how intelligent Tony Stark is — he can figure out time travel on a whim and create Ultron like it’s nothing — and he can see the possibilities of what will happen in the future. What if he didn’t just go forward in time to see if they defeated Thanos? What if he went a little further in time to see the longer-term effects of the victory, only to see incursions caused by Tony and the stones? So when he went back to the present, he lied and told Tony there was only one possibility of success, knowing that Tony would have to sacrifice himself and take himself out of the equation. This would definitely explain his secrecy about what exactly happened. Tony Stark’s sacrifice may not have necessarily been required for Thanos to be defeated. | Marvel Cinematic UniverseThere have been theories that Dr. Strange wasn’t entirely truthful about the odds for years now, but this is the first theory to consider that Strange was angling to get rid of Tony as well as the Infinity Stones. We still aren’t sure how exactly Tony Stark and Dr. Doom are connected, but it’s a possibility that if Tony Stark were still around, Dr. Doom would become an even bigger threat. There are still a few loose ends with this theory, like how Dr. Strange knew about incursions when he didn’t learn about them until Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, but maybe he just saw that things were not good, even if he didn’t have a specific name for it. The biggest downside to this theory is that it means Doctor Strange may be ultimately responsible for the loss of Tony Stark. It may have been the MCU’s biggest trolley problem, but that doesn’t mean that he’s any less responsible. If Doctor Strange appears in Avengers: Doomsday — and that’s still completely unconfirmed — we may actually see if this theory is on the right track. The Avengers: Doomsday premieres in theaters on December 18.