WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (obviously)
By now you've probably seen Avengers: Infinity War, so let's chat about that ending...
Avengers: Infinity War is very much the first half of a two-parter, so as such the ending isn't actually an ending but more the mid-second-act turning point that changes everything.
To recap, then: Thanos's plan is to gather all the Infinity Stones and wipe out half the population of the Universe with a snap of his fingers, apparently to control overpopulation.
This includes the Mind Stone, which has been ripped from Vision's head, the Soul Stone, which he has sacrificed Gamora to get, and the Time Stone, which Doctor Strange sacrificed in order to save Tony Stark's life.
Thanos performs the 'Infinity Snap' and boom, half of everyone dies, including several Avengers (more on this later). But first, Thanos has a vision: he is standing in a peaceful watery landscape where he sees Gamora as a child. She asks him what it cost him to fulfil his mission and he replies "everything".
What does this mean?
In the comic books, the Soul Stone allows its bearer to manipulate souls and transport them to a 'pocket dimension' inside the stone. Has the Soul Stone preserved Gamora inside itself, and could it allow her to be resurrected in Avengers 4? While her character has been rather betrayed in Infinity War, is it possible that she and the Soul Stone could be key to undoing Thanos's bad work in the next film?
Thanos has earlier said his dream is to relax and watch the sun rise over a planet that's grateful for what he's done (we're paraphrasing) and by the end we see him alone in a hut watching that sunrise and smiling to himself. Surely that smile can't last long…
By the end of Infinity War, various key Avengers are no more.
This includes Doctor Strange. Strange made the strange choice to sacrifice the Time Stone to save Tony, but earlier we learn that Strange has gone forward in time to see all possible outcomes of the war. We can only assume, then, that the single scenario in which the Avengers win involves Tony and this very act.
Also dead is Vision – however, he might not stay dead. Shuri was working on a fix so that the stone could be removed without messing with him too much – might she have done enough to resurrect him?
Also dead are Spider-Man, Black Panther, Star-Lord, The Winter Soldier, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Mantis, Groot and Drax. This obviously involves some serious fan favourites as well as characters who have already been earmarked for sequels.
We, therefore, can't seriously imagine a world where they stay dead. It would also be contrary to the idea that Strange has seen a future where they 'win' – wiping out half of the Universe can't possibly be Strange's idea of a win, so he must have seen another possible outcome that still involved him giving Thanos the Time Stone.
Then there's the post-credits sequence. Here we get a glimpse of Nick Fury and Maria Hill amid the chaos of half the population vanishing, before they themselves both disintegrate. As his final act, Fury takes out a device and starts to send a distress signal – on its screen can be seen the star logo of Captain Marvel.
Captain Marvel's standalone movie will arrive on 8 March, 2019, before Avengers 4 hits cinemas on 26 April, 2019. Hers is an origin story set in the 1990s, so it's likely it will set up her character and relationship with Fury and won't directly relate to Infinity War.
However, Captain Marvel IS set to in appear in Avengers 4 – could she be the key to undoing Thanos's dark deeds? We'll have to wait till 2019 to find out.
