Doctor Strange Spent Ridiculous Amount of Time Looking Through Time In Avengers Infinity War - Thousands of Years

Even before he became the master of the mystic arts, Doctor Stephen Strange was great at almost anything, except for romantic relationships.

He managed to defeat Kaicilius and the great Dormammu with the Time Stone. Not many have been able to wield the Eye of the Agamotto so well, and during ‘Avengers: Infinity War,’ Doctor Strange traveled farther into the future than many realize.

Dr. Strange during his adventures. | Source: YouTube/CBR.

A MASTER OF THE MYSTIC ARTS

Experts in the mystic arts know that messing with the space-time continuum is taboo, and Stephen was scolded by Woo about it in the library scene during "Doctor Strange."

However, Stephen perfectly used time travel to defeat Dormammu at the end of the film, proving that he was more than capable of maintaining the world safe.

Many people in the film hated Doctor Strange’s arrogance, which is exactly what made Dormammu cave in the first place because being stuck in a time loop with him was worse than admitting defeat.

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— Doctor Strange (@DrStrange) January 23, 2021

The problem is that time travel always raises questions among viewers. The scene with Dormammu might have shown a few loops in time, but it doesn’t explain how long that scene lasted in the MCU.

In the context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, those time loops must have changed things for everyone, especially because the result of most was Doctor Strange’s death.

The scene lasted only a couple of minutes, but there is a chance it was actually much longer and had more time loops. According to ‘Doctor Strange writer C. Robert Cargill, they left the answer to those questions vague on purpose.

"It's a fickle thing." https://t.co/XpAtCG3uRL

— Doctor Strange (@DrStrange) November 11, 2020

Marvel has been known to leave problems like that unanswered so that their fans can come up with their own solutions. Cargill also added, “It wasn’t just a few minutes, I’ll tell you that.”

Therefore, it’s safe to say that Stephen was in that realm and the loop long enough to gain more experience and harness his powers better.

Even director Scott Derrickson refused to clarify these questions, but he did talk about a line that was cut from the final version of the film. Doctor Strange was supposed to tell Dormammu in the final loop that they had been going at it “a thousand times” before.

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— Doctor Strange (@DrStrange) January 27, 2020

This tidbit of information might have made things clearer for fans, but there is another hint Derrickson added that most people did not notice.

TIME LOOP

The concept of a time loop was popularized in the classic film ‘Groundhog Day’ starring Bill Murray as Phil Connors.

According to director Harold Ramis, the initial idea was having the main character stuck in his time loop for 10,000 years, but in the end, it was only ten years. Later on, Ramis revised his words and said that Phil was stuck on the same day for 30 or 40 years.

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— Doctor Strange (@DrStrange) July 19, 2019

Therefore, fans cannot complain too much about Marvel’s vague answers because time travel is a complicated concept.

Regarding the possible hint left by Derrickson, Stephen looked at his watch before the horrible car accident that changed the course of his life, and it read February 2nd. That is Groundhog Day, and it might have been a nod to the classic movie or a clue about the time loop.

Stephen might have been an amazing doctor, but it’s unrealistic to believe that he became the master of the mystic and a guardian of one of the temples so quickly.

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— Doctor Strange (@DrStrange) March 11, 2017

It takes a long time to learn the skills that he showed in the film. The creators might not be willing to put a specific number out there, but the time loop likely lasted several decades, taking into account ‘Groundhog Day.’

SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS OF TIME TRAVEL

Even if Doctor Strange did spend one thousand years trying to defeat Dormammu, that is still nothing compared to how far he went during "Avengers: Infinity War."

Strange looked at more than 14 million outcomes of the fight against Thanos, and it’s not unreasonable to believe that spans a lot more time. His encounters with Dormammu ended up being short because the villain killed him over and over.

“What if your universe was just one of many?” #DoctorStrange pic.twitter.com/Uy97ZdDNik

— Doctor Strange (@DrStrange) March 6, 2017

Hence, it was a short time loop. If that space of time was so tiny and lasted a thousand years, then looking at outcomes would have lasted way longer.

According to Reddit user CleverDevil, Doctor Strange spent at least 3 hours per timeline during his look into the future with the Time Stone. He set that estimate because of how long ‘Infinity War’ is, which shows one outcome.

Multiplying 3 times 14,000,605 different outcomes gives a total of 42,001,815 hours. Dividing that number by 8,760 hours per year gives a total of 4795 years, which can be rounded up to 5,000 years.

The Book of Cagilostro. #DoctorStrange #ArtifactFriday pic.twitter.com/vKAFrRXHLK

— Doctor Strange (@DrStrange) March 3, 2017

It’s no wonder that so many theories have centered on Doctor Strange’s vision. One important part is that he gave the Time Stone to Thanos to save Tony Stark, although he explicitly said he wouldn’t.

He gave the Mad Titan his win, and earlier, Strange let the rest of the superheroes on Titan continue a plan that he must have seen was going to fail.

He must have known that Star-Lord would doom their plan but did nothing about it. Fans have to assume that everything Doctor Strange did after seeing the future was intentional.

Unfortunately, only "Avengers: Endgame" will answer those questions…maybe. Let us know if you agree with Clever Devil’s theory. If you liked this article, share it with your friends who think that Doctor Strange shouldn’t have given the Time Stone to Thanos. See you next time!

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