Why didn't Doctor Strange use the Time Stone to prevent Thanos from claiming other Infinity Stones?

Why didn't Doctor Strange use the Time Stone to prevent Thanos from claiming other Infinity Stones? - Young couple wearing medical masks with laptop and smartphone on city street

In the MCU, the Time Stone allows the user to travel through and freeze time.

In Infinity War, why didn't Doctor Strange use it to go back to each stone's location before Thanos got them and take them? Or, at the very least, why didn't he go back before the failed attempt to steal the Gauntlet from Thanos and warn them that they would fail?



Best Answer

In universe, because Dr. Strange saw all 14+ million possible futures and there was only one that led to victory for the Avengers and co--the one he took. Presumably taking any other path, including going back to warn the others, would lead to one of the futures wherein Thanos "won" forever. He says as much to Tony near the end: "It was the only way."

Out of universe, because a movie where Dr. Strange fixed all the problems via time travel would be pretty boring and wouldn't feature the rest of the cast in any meaningful way. ;)




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Why did Doctor Strange not use the Time Stone to save Tony?

Before he snapped his fingers, however, Doctor Strange meditated and entered a trance, looking through 14 million possible outcomes in the battle against the Mad Titan. Only one of them leads to the Avengers defeating Thanos. In that one, Stephen Strange gave Thanos the Time Stone which leads to the five year blip.

Can Dr. Strange beat Thanos with the Time Stone?

"We were asked by a 12-year-old in DC at a Q&A why Thanos needed all six Stones and why he didn't just use the Reality Stone to alter reality," Joe Russo said. "The idea being that only something so dramatic of disposing life in half the universe could be accomplished with the power of all six Stones."

Why didnt Thanos use the Reality Stone to get the other stones?

He didn't turn back time because what we witnessed on screen was the one \u201csuccessful\u201d timeline Strange saw. The plan was never supposed to work. Everything that happened, happened because it was supposed too. They had to lose the battle in order to win the war.



Why Didn't I Listen To Everyone About Him Sooner?!




More answers regarding why didn't Doctor Strange use the Time Stone to prevent Thanos from claiming other Infinity Stones?

Answer 2

My theory is that he actually DID use the time stone to go in the future where they won and gave him the future time stone while he still has the real time stone. Let me remind you that he didn't disappear and he saw over 14 million outcomes of this situation. He knew what he needed to do to win and that's exactly what he was doing. ^~^

Answer 3

They explain in Endgame that time travel does not work like Back To The Future where if you change the past, the changes are reflected in your present.

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