4 flashback scenes Avengers 4 should definitely revisit

By now, word has gotten out that Avengers 4 will feature time travel as one of its main plot elements. Here are a few moments the team should definitely revisit in the MCU history.

The Russo brothers think they can hide the plot of Avengers 4 from us, but they can’t hide everything away from us. They might be keeping us distracted with little puzzles on Twitter, but Marvel fans are smarter than that. And, for some time, they’ve already been one step ahead for the plot of Avengers 4, noting that time travel has to be a huge part of the movie. (You can brush up on that theory here, and throw in a little Quantum Realm travel theories here.)

Now, not being shy about his involvement at all, Captain America: Winter Soldier actor Frank Grillo says he’ll be part of those flashback scenes in Avengers 4 — reprising his role as the villain Crossbones. That leads us to wonder exactly where will the Avengers be heading to in their time-traveling world tour.

Here are a few places Earth’s mightiest heroes (or at least, the remainder of those heroes) could and just might go to — especially if the rumors that they’ll be recollecting the Infinity Stones to make their own gauntlet are true.

The Battle of New York

This location is pretty much a given at this point, considering the early set photos we’ve seen for the movie. Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Paul Rudd, and Mark Ruffalo were among the people to be seen on set. What’s interesting is that Evans was in his Avengers suit. But Downey appeared as both a future version of Tony Stark and the first Avengers version of Tony. However things work out, the goal of the current Avengers will most likely be to get the scepter (and the Mind Stone) from Loki and ensure it doesn’t end up in the hands of Hydra. Oh, and they can’t let Thor go home with the Tesseract this time around. They need that precious Space Stone, too.

If the Avengers don’t end up getting the scepter in New York, for some reason, then they just may have to go back to that fateful day when they ran into Crossbones during Captain America: Civil War. Since he’s with Hydra, it’s possible he could help them get to the scepter/the Mind Stone quicker.

London battle against Malekith

Look, most people might not remember Thor: The Dark World, but Thor does (we assume.) And at one pivotal moment, he and Jane Foster come in contact with the Reality Stone, which gets all mixed up into the Aether. This may be a good time for the Avengers to go back grab the Reality Stone… and it’d also be a good way to correct a rather mediocre film by making much better use of the Reality Stone. It’s either that, or the Avengers take the easy route by stopping Thor’s crew from sending the Reality Stone to The Collector after the fight. Then again, if they visit The Collector in Avengers 4, there’d be ample opportunity for his brother, The Grandmaster, to make a nice appearance.

The Guardians’ dance off

It’s not to say the Guardians of the Galaxy can’t have their time to shine during their final battle in the first Guardians of the Galaxy. But the Avengers really need to get that Power Stone back, so the Guardians and Ronan will have to wait. Even with the seriousness of the mission, it’d probably still be pretty funny for the Avengers to interrupt while Star-Lord is getting his groove on. Of course, just like with Thor: The Dark World, the Avengers could wait until the Stone/orb is safely sent to Nova Corps. But it might be even harder for them convince Corpsman Dey or Nova Prime to hand the orb over to them. At the same time, if they knew about the future attack from Thanos, I’m sure they wouldn’t have a problem releasing the orb.

Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum

Visiting Doctor Strange to get the Time Stone will probably be one of the hardest stones to get yet, simply based off of how stubborn Strange is about protecting the Eye of Agamotto. There probably isn’t a battle that the Avengers need to break up to get this one; there’s no point in intercepting Kaecilius or Dormammu just to get the stone. Strange will simply have to suffer through his “bargaining” time loop, just to have to necklace taken clean from his neck when the whole thing is over. Again, it probably isn’t as easy as it sounds. You saw how hard it was for Ebony Maw alone to try to pry the necklace away from Strange in Infinity War. So if the Avengers could just have a nice chat with Strange about the stone and explain the whole 14 million scenarios thing to him, I’m sure he’ll understand… eventually.

That pretty much covers it for recovering all of the stones. That is, except for the Soul Stone. Unless the Avengers pry it out of Thanos’ hands somehow, the only way to get that would be to make a sacrifice of their own. And that’s something we’re hoping doesn’t have to be done.