How The Ancient One In Avengers: Endgame May Know More Than We Think
Avengers: Endgame paid tribute to the movies and sources preceding it with a plethora of nods and Easter Eggs. While the films’ plot took us down a trip through memory lane with its use of time travel it also brought us back to together with a number of different characters who have already meet their ultimate fate. One of these characters happened to be the Sorcerers Supreme that preceded Doctor Strange: The Ancient One.
The Ancient One was a fun character in the first Doctor Strange film but met her demise at the hands of Kaecilius when caught off guard by one of his dirty tactics. Before she died, however, she revealed through a conversation with Doctor Strange that she could see into the future.. She stated specifically that she could never see past the moment of her own demise, no matter how many times she tried. We originally believed that that just meant The Ancient One could only see into her own future, but Endgame may have just revealed that there’s more to the previous sorcerers supremes power than originally believed.
Endgame: The Ancient One’s Predictions
When Tony Stark invents the world’s first controllable time machine, the Avengers make the decision to return to a point in time when three different Infinity Stones were currently in the same place: The Battle of New York. One of the stones floating around the place during this time was the Time Stone. Bruce has taken it upon himself to retrieve the stone and assumes that he’ll be discussing things with Doctor Strange in order to do it. However, when he reaches the New York Sacterum, he finds the Ancient One and the conversation they have is rather revealing.
The Ancient One is surprised to hear that Doctor Strange willingly gave up the Time Stone to Thanos when he knows full well it goes against his duty as the Sorcerers Supreme. Her astonishment isn’t really a surprise to us the audience because she’s already claimed that she can’t see past her own death. She wouldn’t know what Doctor Strange is going to do as the Sorcerers Supreme. But this belief is proven to be incorrect when The Ancient One claims that Strange is supposed to be the best of all of the Sorcerers Supremes. This statement basically means that she knows what Strange will do in his lifetime as a sorcerer.
What does all that mean? It means it’s highly possible that while the Ancient One can’t see beyond her own death, she can see the future and lives of others. She can look in on events that aren’t tied solely to herself. After all, Strange hadn’t even taken the Ancient One’s job yet until after The Ancient One died. If she couldn’t see other people’s futures and events, there’s no way she would be able to know just how prominent Steven Strange is meant to become. Could she just be expressing her “power of belief,” in this situation, just hoping beyond hope that her successor turns out to be the best to make up for her own mistakes? No. There’s no way she would give up the Time Stone to Bruce over something like that. She even says so in their conversation.
So what we have here is a character who’s seen the future -- and a great deal of it at that it seems. She knows all of Doctor Strange’s many accomplishments. So what else does this character know? What exactly could she tell the Avengers if they went back and saw her again? The time machine that they have is still fully operational after all. If she knows all of Strange’s accomplishments, she could know more about the future than Strange himself. As far as we know, Doctor Strange only looked far enough into the future to see up to Thanos’ defeat. He wouldn’t much need -- or have time for really -- to look any further beyond that. So he’s seen up to Tony Stark’s death and that’s about it. There’s no longer any Time Stone in his timeline either so he can’t look into the future again to get an idea about any other possible threats that he might need to face. He’ll have to do things the old fashion way and simply live and just take things as they come. The Ancient One doesn’t suffer this limitation. At least it definitely doesn’t seem like. The future and it’s stories are well enough open to her. She knows things that would shock people if she spoke them aloud.
The Ancient One And The MCU’s Future
Endgame doesn’t give any hints as to what the future of the MCU is. It’s one of the few if not only MCU movies that doesn’t have a mid- or end-credits scene. This is kind of funny considering the movie exists to pay tribute to the MCU and everything it's done to succeed thus far. While this is a good choice to hammer home the fact that Endgame is an ending and not a set up, it leaves us with practically no idea about what to expect next for the MCU’s future. Marvel claims that they have plans for the next ten years though. So we know there’s something on the horizon. As of now, we the audience we’ll probably have to wait until Spider-Man: Far From Home to even get an idea about what exactly is going to happen next. However, if The Ancient One knows what Doctor Strange is capable of, then she should definitely know all about the future of the MCU. She should know about the coming villains, the coming allies... She should, perhaps, know most everything about the Fantastic Four and the X-Men.
It’s no secret that Disney just absorbed a lot of Fox’s properties. As a result, they gained the movie rights for the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, meaning that that by proxy, Marvel is free to use them in whatever films they choose from now on. Sure, a statement has been made claiming Disney and Marvel don’t plan on touching the X-Men and Fantastic Four for a couple of years, but that definitely sounds like bull crap considering both properties would made make them insane amounts of money just by being marketed under the MCU banner (at least X-Men would, they should probably wait a bit for the hot dumpster fire that is the Fantastic Four’s movie reputation to die out a little longer).
It would be a major surprise if at least the X-Men didn’t turn up in the MCU’s next storyline, perhaps even in the next Avengers movie, depending on how far off that it. It’s more than safe to assume that Disney plans on using their newly acquired properties in the next storyline, even if their claiming otherwise. Regardless, introducing the mutants into the MCU could be a bit tricky. What are they? Where have they been all these years? Well, The Ancient One may already know about the mutants, and know what potential conflicts might arise with them after she’s gone. In fact, it’s almost guaranteed that she does, knowing what she knows about Doctor Strange’s future. This knowledge gives her character some newfound purpose. Her information about future events means there’s the potential for her to make more appearances in the future films; again, the Avengers still very much have a perfectly operational time machine. They can go back and consult her whenever they please if she’s willing to give them answers.
Even if things don’t work out that way, who's to say that the Ancient One didn’t write down her findings? Surely a Sorcerers Supreme would have some kind of journal or log with tips and tricks ready for their successor in the event they just up and suddenly died. Wouldn’t make sense not to considering how dangerous the job is. If in the near future the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline is adapted to the MCU, the Ancient One could have left Doctor Strange notes on who the mutants are and what they’ve been doing this whole time. She would tell him about the mutants in an attempt to try and stave off the potential war that the Avengers will have with them. After all, Strange explained to Tony that if he tells Tony about the events that are supposed to transpire in order to defeat Thanos, then said events won’t happen. The same should work if the Ancient One tells Strange about the potential events that lead into the war between the Avengers and the X-Men.
Then Strange, understanding how powerful mutants are would then perform his duties as a Sorcerers Supreme and keep an eye on them. He may even just introduce himself to them to get a personal idea on what the group is like. He was bold enough to even step up to Thor and Loki when they arrived on Earth together, we wouldn’t put it past him to step up to Charles Xavier too.
The overall gist is that The Ancient One could be one of the reason the Avengers meet up with the X-Men and the Fantastic Four.
Wrap Up
The Ancient One isincredibly wise, no doubt due to the fact that she lived for over 5000 years and because she’s gazed far into the events of the future. She’s a walking wellspring of information. She could inform the Avengers of all kinds of possible events if she wanted to. The Avengers still have their time machine and there’s no reason for them to if Marvel didn’t plan on them using it again later in the near future. Basically, it’s possible for the heroes -- if the need comes for it -- to take a trip back in time to visit The Ancient One and pick her brain for whatever information they need to know. She’s an oracle of sorts.
Even if the Avengers, namely Strange, decided not to go the route of revisiting the Ancient One it would still make sense for her to leave some kind of record of her time as a Sorcerer Supreme behind. One that can used by whoever her successor is so that they can get a grip on whatever situations she leaves behind for them. If Marvel decides not to have her importance directed on future events that affect all of the MCU, she can still relay the ones that would affect Steven’s personal stories.
In this instance we’ll look at Baron Mordo. The Ancient One can definitely see things up till the time of her own death, which means she knows Mordo finds out the truth and loses faith in her and her teachings. Considering his past, she would know that there’s a high chance that Mordo could become a threat. This would definitely be her fault and a mess that she’s leaving behind for Strange to clean up. It would be common courtesy then for her to at least try and give Strange some background on Mordo and help in anyway she can to fix her mistakes.
Or -- and this is the more than likely scenario sadly -- the line where The Ancient One admits that Steven Strange was supposed to be the best of all the Sorcerer Supremes is a plot hole because she’s already admitted in Doctor Strange (2016) that she could never see past her own death, meaning she wouldn't know how good Doctor Strange would be. The possibility for this to be the case is strong since this line produces another debatable plot hole anyway. In Doctor Strange (2016), The Ancient One tells Mordo that she will not teach Strange because she fears that she will produce another talented dark sorcerer like Kaecilius. There’s no way she would think that, however, if five years earlier she believed him be the best sorcerer ever. This is a debatable plot hole though because she could just be playing out her role in time as she’s seen it, and telling Mordo what he needs to hear in order for him to convince her to take Strange in as a pupil -- such is the confusion and convenience that comes with time-related plots.
