Avengers: Infinity War
Doctor Strange did n’t trap Thanos in a cringle using the Time Stone inAvengers : Infinity War , but why ? In Stephen Strange ’s MCU entry , he drum Dark Dimension rulerDormammuby snare him in a neverending prison term eyelet , give out over and over until the demon agreed to his deal and left Earth alone .
Just two years later , Doctor Strange found himself fight another near unstoppable military unit who jeopardise mass demolition : Thanos . While he used all fashion of magical spell on the Mad Titan , he on the face of it never consider adjudicate the same Dormammu time loop topology trick again . confessedly , there is a lot of argumentation over what precisely Doctor Strange was doing inInfinity War- after get word 14,000,605 hereafter , he determine to give Thanos the Time Stone , enable him to ultimately kill half the universe - but this one view seems a cut - and - ironical oversight . Even Thanos himself question it during their combat .
Doctor Strange Putting Thanos In A Time Loop Wouldn’t Have Worked
There ’s actually a lot more reason why Strange did n’t put Thanos in a time loop than it at first seems . The most obvious come from those14 million futures Doctor Strange saw ; it ’s totally potential he did attempt to use the Time Stone in one or more of them , only for it to not succeed in ultimately stop Thanos .
Indeed , Dormammu was from the Dark Dimension , an alternating world that is removed from any ceremonious understanding of time . Allowing him to sense the passage , even within a loop , was central to wearing down his defenses ( and round out outDoctor Strange ’s exploration of the fear of death ) . As a being of our dimension , Thanos may not be quite as susceptible to a similar trick , especially given how driven he ’s give as being . His triumph inAvengers : Infinity Warultimately comes down to his sheer personnel of will and power to do what the Avengers and Guardians would n’t to achieve his destination . Being trapped for millennium would certainly have an impact , but as presented , Thanos is a true unstoppable force .
And a time loop is n’t quite an immovable aim . The other central difference between the two situation is knowledge of the Time Stone . Dormammu is n’t just new to the concept of time , he does n’t realise the sorcery Strange is employing ( who did n’t have intercourse it was an Infinity Stone ) . InInfinity War , Thanos ' primary destination on Titan is to get the Time Stone from Strange , bringing it out of wherever he ’d hidden it to make a loop risk let out it to attack .
While none of these is a unhesitating explanation , they show that Doctor Strange putting Thanos in a time loop may not be as foolproof as it may ab initio seem . After all , to really beat him required first having him advance . As seen in Earth ’s Mightiest Heroes ' ultimate victory over Thanos inAvengers : Endgame , it proves Doctor Strange correct in believing the timeline in which he surrendered the Time Stone to Thanos was one in which they ’d win . Unfortunately , it meant the release of both Iron Man and Black Widow , but it ’s likely that Doctor Strange putting Thanos in a time loop inAvengers : Infinity Warwould’ve resulted in even more casualties because it would n’t have worked .