The 'Avengers 4' Time Travel Theory May Bring Back This Fan-Favorite Hero

Spoiler Alert: Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War follow. By now, you'd think that we would've exhausted all possible theories about characters' appearances in Avengers 4. There are paparazzi photos of certain actors on set, we have confirmation of which characters are guaranteed a future standalone film, and quite frankly, Marvel has too much at stake to have truly eliminated most of its characters, as seen at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. However, anything can happen, and fans have begun to suspect that characters who are supposedly long gone from the franchise will appear in Avengers 4. Thanks to more set photos, Marvel lovers have a new, burning question about a certain character: Will Quicksilver be in Avengers 4?

After an initial appearance in Captain America: The Winter Soldier's mid-credits scene, Quicksilver, aka Pietro Maximoff, joined his sister Scarlet Witch/Wanda in abandoning villain Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron and fighting alongside the Avengers in the movie's final battle. However, Quicksilver died after saving Hawkeye during the conflict, suggesting that, even though actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson had signed a multi-picture deal with Marvel, the character's future in the franchise was nonexistent. As we saw in Infinity War, Wanda also moved on from constantly working alongside her brother, striking up a romance with Vision and trying to protect him from Thanos throughout the film.

But now, thanks to the essentially confirmed theory that Avengers 4 will feature time travel in order to save the vanished superheroes, there's hope that Quicksilver will make a surprise appearance in next year's film. Set photos of longtime Avengers actors, such as Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr., have shown the characters in their original superhero suits, verifying that anything in the Marvel universe's past timeline could be revisited in the upcoming film. According to British news outlet Express, Taylor-Johnson was also spotted on the Avengers 4 set, hinting that he will appear in a past timeline the remaining Avengers somehow visit in the film.

Quicksilver's possible return would definitely be a surprise, as he wasn't mentioned at all in Infinity War. Fans have come to believe that heroes Ant-Man and the Wasp, who star in their own film this summer, will step in to help the original Avengers revive others, and the Infinity War post-credits scene hinted that Brie Larson's Captain Marvel will also play a large part in the rescue mission. Quicksilver may not play the role of hero seeing as he's, well, dead, but perhaps those that the Avengers visit when time-traveling will be able to help in their quest, too.

Along with leaked pictures of Quicksilver, pictures of Tom Hiddleston's Loki on the Avengers set have also leaked. Thanos killed the Asgardian minutes into Infinity War, but it seems that Loki will also appear through time travel or an alternate universe. I'm inclined to believe that there's more hope for Loki to pop up in Avengers 4 than there is for Quicksilver, but those photos certainly don't lie. Quicksilver's rumored involvement also goes against what Marvel producer Kevin Feige reportedly said about the character at a 2015 event. Reddit user JonLuca then said of Feige's comments:

Quiksilver is DEAD. 100%, he's not coming back any time soon, there are no plans. No [life-model decoy], no escaping bullets, no retcon. [Kevin Feige] said he is dead and wanted to make sure people understood that.

Well, I guess Feige reassured fans about Quicksilver's fate long before he knew about any Avengers 4 details.

With Avengers 4 reshoots scheduled for this fall, we may have more leaked set photos to meticulously analyze soon. For now, we can start composing our theories about how Quicksilver returns in the anticipated sequel.

Avengers 4 hits theaters on May 3, 2019.