Stan Lee, the man we can thank for our favorite heroes like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Widow and hundreds more, passed away on Monday, Nov. 12, and Marvel fans everywhere are mourning. In his honor, we’ve compiled some of the most interesting theories about the fourth installment of the Avengers series, which is set to come out on May 3, 2019.

1. Time Travel

Okay, you have probably heard this one a hundred times already, but it’s undeniably possible. Leaked set photos (shown above) have revealed that there may be a return to the battle of New York. By the release of the new movie, the battle will be seven years behind Earth’s mightiest heroes. This all-too-real fan theory explains how the team will travel to different points in time to collect the Infinity Stones. With this theory, though, it is possible that the Avengers Initiative never would have been necessary (after the time travel) and that our favorite family of heroes never would have met in the first place. Think about it:

• Cap might have not even been given the super-soldier serum. They needed him in order to defeat hydra, and Red Skull, the mastermind behind it all, was really after the space stone (which was in the Tesseract at the time).
• In “The Avengers” Thanos gave Loki the mind stone (inside his scepter), and the original six Avengers were brought together to fight him in New York.
• As Doctor Strange was mastering the mystic arts, he came into contact with the time stone, which led him to be a stonekeeper.

You get the idea. Everything has involved the stones so far, in one way or another. With no stones to work with/against, there would have been no reason to gather the team.

2. Captain Marvel Saves the Day

Nick Fury is, no doubt, a mysterious man. He has kept a wealth of secrets from us since his first appearance in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). As Tony Stark told Steve Rogers in “The Avengers” (2012), “His secrets have secrets.” We saw at the end of “Avengers: Infinity War” that Fury already knew exactly what to do when he saw everyone turning to dust. But why Captain Marvel (a.k.a. Carol Danvers)? And why did Fury wait until the worst had happened to contact her? Well, we already know that Carol Danvers’ origin story (coming out in March) will be set in the 90s. This brings us back to the time travel aspect, as well as alluding to an important point: the Marvel masterminds made the decision to wait until just months before the release of the fourth Avengers movie to release “Captain Marvel.” There’s no way that Carol Danvers could not be an essential piece of the solution… That is, if she survived the snap.

3. Loki’s Fake Death #4…

It was all an illusion! Sure, Loki may have been shaken by Thanos’ power and presence, but the god of mischief would never make such a pitiful attempt to defeat the most powerful creature in the universe. He is most definitely not dead. First of all, his dagger is in his left hand; he’s only ever used his left hand to fight when faking his death (like in “Thor: The Dark World”). It’s possible that the Loki that we have mourned was actually an illusion of the real Loki, as he has previously shown his ability to create such illusions. Also, it’s important to note that the Grandmaster’s party ship lands on the Asgardian Refugee Vessel at the end of “Thor: Ragnarok”; you can see it in the opening scene of “Avengers: Infinity War.” He may have escaped on that ship. According to Joe Russo, a co-director of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, “Captain America: Civil War”, and “Avengers: Infinity War”, (who I guess would know what he is talking about), “Prior to the start of that scene, escape ships were deployed for Asgardians,” so he easily could have escaped in one of those as well. I would not put this past Loki considering that he is known as an every-man-for-himself type of survivor.

4. Cap Finally Makes It To That Date He Told Fury He Was Late For

I don’t want to talk about it. Next?

5. All The Dust Guys Are Chillin’ Out With Baby Gamora In the Soul Stone

Because why not? Imagine how much fun that would be: partying with Peter and T’Challa and angsty teenager Groot… Oh yeah, and half of humanity.

In the end, there’s really no way for us to know any details until that day we are all so desperately waiting for: May 3, 2019. The Marvel masterminds have allowed us more than enough time to theorize, though, with almost 10 months between “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and Avengers 4. More importantly, these theories would be worthless without stories to base them on, and those stories would not exist if not for Stan Lee. We are all thankful for his marvelous mind and all of the beloved characters he co-created.