Avengers Endgame has one of the most shocking endings ever seen in the MCU when Iron Man died. Tony Stark sacrificed himself for his family and friends, wiping Thanos from existence as those he lost were brought back. But was it Thanos who caused his death, or was someone else behind Tony’s demise?
Who was really to blame for Iron Man’s death?
One fan theory has suggested it was not Thanos who really caused Iron Man’s death, but Thor’s brother, Loki.
The god of mischief, as he was known, was seen discussing the stones with Thanos, and may have even given him the idea of collecting Infinity Stones in the gauntlet in order to further his own ideas.
One Reddit user has argued that before Infinity War, Thanos was going from planet to planet and halving the population in a slow method to save the universe before the idea for mass destruction was planted.
The user writes: “Then one day the frozen blue Prince of Asgard crash lands on his ship.
“Loki notices the Mind Stone.
“He was probably trying to trick Thanos to get the sceptre and jump back to Asgard to stab Thor again.
“He must [have] pointed out that Thanos was doing nothing in the overall scheme of universal population density.
“He must have argued that if Thanos helped Loki he could be King of Asgard and help Thanos in his universal hunger prevention initiative.”
The theorist suggested Loki could have talked about the knowledge and resources held in Asgard, and how the “prototype glove in the basement” could give him god-like powers.
But there is also the suggestion Thanos could have used the sceptre to make Loki offer even more information, thus having the chance to finally complete his plan.
The theorist adds: “Loki’s a bit less subtle due to the sceptre and promptly wants to squash his big brother’s things i.e earth.
“He finds out about the Tesseract, tells Thanos about it and Loki talks about how if he was given the sceptre and a small army he can in a show of good faith cull half the population of Earth and bring him another Infinity Stone if he helps him with Asgard.”
If it was the truth, that Loki gave Thanos all the information and ideas he needed to fulfil his dreadful plan, Tony Stark would never have needed to sacrifice himself to save the world.
But for Iron Man fans, Avengers Endgame is not the last they can see of him, as Deadline has reported that Tony Stark will return to the big screen in the Black Widow sequel, to come into cinemas in May 2020.
If this is the case, fans will not be left with a dying superhero to remember but the fun, arrogant Tony Stark they know and love.
Avengers Endgame is available on DVD and Blu-ray now