Endgame: The Ancient One Explained Doctor Strange Refusing To Fight Thanos

The actions of the Ancient One explains why Doctor Strange didn’t fight Thanos in Avengers: Endgame. The majority of Endgame saw the remaining heroes persevering on, despite their considerably smaller numbers – only to finally get the back-up they all needed at the most important moment thanks to the Smart Hulk undoing the Snap, which brought back every single hero who was decimated in Avengers: Infinity War. That includes the future Sorcerer Supreme; but for someone who has a wealth of powers and skills, it’s curious why Doctor Strange wasn’t as active in the final battle as he would’ve been a massive help.

Doctor Strange had one of, if not the most entertaining, one-on-one battles with Thanos in Infinity War. Thanks to the gamut of spells he knows, Marvel Studios creatively used them to differentiate his power skills from everyone else. This was also the first time that he performed that many consecutive spells, proving just how powerful he’d become since the end of the original Doctor Strange film. Despite already having four out of the six Infinity Stones at this point, the Mad Titan still had a tough time fighting Doctor Strange, even forcing him to use the Soul Stone. Given these, it’s curious what the master of mystic arts was sidelined during Endgame‘s final battle, mostly fighting minions, not Thanos or at least any Black Order member.

While this seems like a massive missed opportunity for Marvel Studios, Doctor Strange’s decision to not fight the Mad Titan and to lay low during the whole battle in general narratively actually made sense, and this was explained in an earlier scene in Endgame. In the Battle of New York leg of the time heist, Smart Hulk meets the Ancient One, raises questions as to why she didn’t actively help the Avengers during Loki’s attack. The answer was revealed to be because she peeked through time and knew that somehow, the God of Mischief will be defeated as Doctor Strange will eventually be the next Sorcerer Supreme whether she meddled or not. Similarly, Doctor Strange looked forward in time in Infinity War to see what laid ahead with regard to their fight with Thanos. He knew that for them to succeed, he had to give up the Time Stone first, setting up a string of events that led to the one possibility where they win against the bad guys.

Outside of that, it’s also worth noting that relatively few of Marvel’s roster of heroes went toe-to-toe with Thanos outside of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and Scarlet Witch. Even then, many were only given brief moments against Thanos for circumstantial reasons -for example, Scarlet Witch’s battle was used to establish just how powerful she is, and to also begin to set up WandaVision. Even the Hulk, whom many were expecting a rematch with the Mad Titan didn’t go up against Thanos in Avengers: Endgame.

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