Doctor Strange Getting The Time Stone Back Would Create A New MCU Problem

Doctor Strange reclaiming the Time Stone could pose some big problems in the future of the MCU. As the primary weapon of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, the Eye of Agamotto has been a very important artifact to the future Sorcerer Supreme. But in order to save Iron Man’s life as part of his long-term plan to defeat Thanos, he willingly gave it away in Avengers: Infinity War and hasn’t retrieved it since.

Knowing full well how powerful and useful the Time Stone is to their mission to protect the realm from other-worldly threats, Doctor Strange was understandably adamant to keep the gem. That’s until he peeked through the future and saw that to be able to take down the Mad Titan, the Avengers had to be defeated first and that he must give up the crystal. Fortunately, the plan worked, albeit taking half a decade, with Thanos ultimately getting killed in Avengers: Endgame. Despite this, however, the primary MCU universe is currently without any Infinity Stones anymore as the villain reduced them to atomic particles right after the Blip to make sure that no one else can wield its collective power to undo the decimation. While the heroes were able to collect the Infinity Stones during the time heist for the reverse snap, they were eventually returned so as not to create multiple timeline branches.

This has left Doctor Strange without the powerful Time Stone, his primary weapon against his most dangerous antagonists. This doesn’t mean that he won’t be able to reclaim the Time Stone again, although it might take a little more time and effort on his part. Similar to what the Avengers did during Endgame, Doctor Strange can travel to the past using the Quantum Realm to reclaim the green crystal. This might even be part of his mission in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which is expected to further explore the concept of the multiverse. While this poses some good news for the sorcerer, this could ultimately backfire with regard to MCU’s storytelling. Among the many capabilities of the Time Stone, it also allows Doctor Strange to peek through time; it’s the reason why he’s able to see 14 million outcomes of the fight against Thanos. Granted that this was integral to how the rest of the Infinity Saga panned out, giving Doctor Strange the capacity to know what lies ahead poses storytelling problems for the MCU moving forward.

Once this ability has been re-established in the franchise, it would be difficult for it not to be the default move when Doctor Strange is involved. As he did in Infinity War, the sorcerer can easily look into the future, check what his options are in a matter of minutes, return in the present time, and set the events in motion that will lead to getting favorable results. Unlike time traveling which has clear repercussions as confirmed in Endgame, looking at what lies ahead does not. The Ancient One did this during her time, which is how she’s able to see that Doctor Strange would not only be her successor but would also ultimately the best Sorcerer Supreme, and there weren’t any issues that came out of it. If anything, it was even the deciding factor for her to loan the Time Stone to Smart Hulk during the time heist.

Assuming that Doctor Strange does get the Time Stone back, there should be ramifications for using the gem to look into the future. That way, he’s dissuaded from using it frequently, only saving this particular capability for dire situations where the benefits of using it are bigger than the consequences. Otherwise, every single time the sorcerer finds himself in a tricky situation moving forward and not use this special skill opens Marvel Studios up for a storytelling loophole.