When the Avengers traveled through time and reversed The Blip, it brought back everyone who disintegrated in the event. However, a few characters who ended up dying in Endgame were truly dead, and Iron Man was one of them.
Fan theories have run rampant since 2019, speculating that there could be a way to save Iron Man. Unfortunately, there was no way for the Avengers to go back in time and save the popular hero.
Some deaths in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) are fixed points. When a character died in a fixed point, there would be dire consequences to the universe if they were brought back. We saw this play out in the What If… series, featuring an alternate timeline for Doctor Strange.
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How Does Time Travel Work in The Avengers?
Time travel in the Avengers movies occurred through the Quantum Realm. When Scott Lang (Ant-Man) escaped this Realm, five years had gone by, but he only experienced five hours of time loss.
The Avengers theorized that the Quantum Realm was the key to time traveling. This led to Tony Stark (Iron Man), Rocket, and Bruce Banner (Hulk) building a time machine, enabling the Avengers to travel through time via the Quantum Realm.
Why Did the Avengers Go Back in Time?
In Avengers: Endgame, the Avengers went back in time to stop Thanos from retrieving the six Infinity Stones. After they figured out how to travel back in time, each set off to collect a different stone.
Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Scott Lang, and Bruce Banner returned to 2012, during the events of The Avengers. Banner retrieved the Time Stone from the Ancient One while Rogers snagged the Mind Stone.
After failing to take the Space Stone in 2012, Stark eventually got his hands on it after traveling to 1970 with Rogers.
Thor and Rocket retrieved the Reality Stone from Jane Foster in Asgard after they traveled back to 2013.
Clint Barton (Hawkeye) and Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) returned to 2014 and headed to Vormir, where they confronted Red Skull for the Soul Stone. After Romanoff sacrificed herself, Barton gained possession of the Soul Stone.
James Rhodes and Nebula also traveled to 2014, but they set off for Morag to prevent Peter Quill (Star-Lord) from getting the Power Stone.
Once the Avengers retrieved the Infinity Stones, they placed them into an Infinity Gauntlet. Since Banner was in his Hulk form and able to withstand the Gauntlet’s radiation, he managed to reverse the damage Thanos caused during Infinity War’s climactic scene.
This brought back everyone who disintegrated during The Blip.
Could the Avengers Have Gone Back in Time to Save Iron Man?
Following Tony Stark’s funeral, Steve Rogers volunteered to return the Infinity Stones to their rightful places in the universe. He also returned to the present as an elderly man, choosing to return to the past and marry Peggy Carter, his longtime crush.
So, if Rogers was able to return to the past and manipulate his present, why couldn’t he have returned to the climactic battle and save Tony Stark? The answer actually came in Infinity War.
Doctor Strange saw 14,000,605 outcomes following the Avengers’ eventual battle against Thanos. Out of these potential outcomes, he saw just one where the Avengers defeated the villainous Titan.
This told us that Strange knew how it would end if the Avengers could achieve that outcome. Strange knew The Blip would occur, which would initially wipe him out, but spare Stark.
This is something that never would have happened if Strange didn’t hand the Time Stone to Thanos to save Stark before The Blip. Since Strange knew who played a key role in defeating Thanos, he had no qualms about giving up the Time Stone.
We also need to remember that before Strange saw these events, he told Stark that he would protect the Time Stone even if it meant Stark’s death.
So when Strange turned around and spared Stark, it shocked audiences. Then we realized Stark was the key to defeating Thanos in Endgame, which justified Strange’s actions in Infinity War.
Stark’s Initial Confusion
Stark was also confused regarding Strange’s change of heart. The mission involved preventing Thanos from retrieving all six Infinity Stones, so at the time, giving one up was counterintuitive.
However, we knew that Doctor Strange already saw the potential outcomes. So when Thanos said, “no tricks”, Strange was already hiding that he was setting the stage to give the Avengers the best possible chance to defeat Thanos.
After Thanos teleported from Titan, Stark looked over to Strange and muttered, “Why did you do that?”
Strange replied, “We’re in the endgame now.” While confusing to all of us at the time, following Stark’s snap during Endgame’s climax, we knew what Strange meant by that phrase.
In Endgame, Stark pieced everything together, from the outcome that defeated Thanos to the reason Strange had spared him. This is why Stark stole the Infinity Gauntlet, muttered his famous, “And I am Iron Man,” line, and without hesitation, snapped Thanos out of existence.
Stark’s Death Was Fixed
Although Strange knew how the sequence of events turned out, it didn’t mean Rogers or any of the other Avengers could return to another time and save Stark, or at least bring back another version of him.
However, Strange, in the What If…? series, went through a scenario where he never severely injured his hands in the car crash that occurred in Doctor Strange. In this turn of events, his love interest, Christine Palmer, would have died instead.
In this scenario, Strange still sought the Mystic Arts, but only to revive Palmer. When this occurred, however, she kept dying, regardless of what Strange did to spare her.
Eventually, The Ancient One informed Strange that in this particular scenario, Chrstine’s death became fixed. It had to happen, since Strange never would have taken up the Mystic Arts if it hadn’t.
In other words, Christine’s death was an absolute point. The same thing occurred with Stark’s death. The What If…? series also taught us that if one does reverse an absolute point death, it will put the universe in peril.
In Stark’s case, reversing this absolute point would result in Thanos returning. Therefore, to ultimately stop Thanos, Stark had to die.
The same thing occurred with Natasha Romanoff’s death when retrieving the Soul Stone. When Banner wore the Infinity Gauntlet to reverse the deaths, Romanoff did not return, confirming her death was also an absolute point.
Conclusion
While the Avengers were able to go back in time and reverse The Blip, the event was not a fixed point of death for half the universe that Thanos wiped out.
In Infinity War, Doctor Strange saw the one outcome where the Avengers prevailed over Thanos. In this outcome, he not only saw that Iron Man had to die, but he would later learn that Stark’s death was a fixed point.
Therefore, the Avengers could not bring him back since, if they did, it meant dire consequences for the universe. Stark, if brought back, never would have snapped, and Thanos would have won. This was also something that Doctor Strange saw.
Sion Fawkes has been covering Star Wars since January 2022, expanding his expertise in Star Wars Canon, Legends, and MCU. When not writing, you can find Sion in the gym or running trails. He also likes watching sports and listening to audiobooks.