So, I have this theory ...
Oh, shutup. I haven't said shit yet.
So I have this theory. It's probably wrong, but it's a theory. It ties into a lot. We're going all the way back to the beginning with this one. I'm not going to detail the whole thing out because I tend to get too long winded and I know that can be annoying. But here's the bare bones readers digest version.
In the comics, the first guy to invent a time machine was Doctor Doom. In the movies it was ... Tony Stark.
I don't think Tony, Steve and Natasha are dead. Not dead dead. The book is not closed on them. For starters, we have seen at least four different versions of the afterlife in the MCU. The Astral Plane (Dr. Strange), the Ancestral Plane (Black Panther), Valhalla (Thor) and the Field of Reeds (Moon Knight). The concept of life after death in the MCU appears to be multifaceted and influenced by various beliefs. The point is, there's an afterlife.
There's one other way you can live on after your body dies in the MCU. Cyber space. Armin Zola did that in the Winter Soldier. Remember that? He downloaded his consciousness into a bank of computers using 1960's tech. And ... I think Howard Stark did the same thing for his old friend and butler, Jarvis. As Jarvis lay dying of old age, Howard downloaded his essence into a computer. Jarvis then became the AI that ran Tony's house and armor. Now, If Armin and Howard could do that decades ago, why couldn't Tony Stark do it now? Remember Tony's death scene in Endgame? The last three people to touch him before he died were Peter, Rhodey and Pepper and they all wearing Stark built armor. I think when Pepper had her hand on Tony's chest, he downloaded his consciousness into her armor. He exists there just like Jarvis did. We have not seen hide nor hair of Pepper or Morgan since then.
There is precedence for this in the comics. At the end of Civil War 2, tony died. But he came back as AI.
If my theory is correct, this was brilliant of Marvel Studios. They can bring back Tony if they want to. And it looks like they want to.
I think after Secret Wars, we're going to get the MCU 2.0. A new Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Thor, Nick Fury, Black Panther and pretty much everybody. The X-Men will join the mix. Loki and the Fantastic Four will stay the same, and they'll be the only ones who remember what came before.
And yes, there will be a new Doctor Doom. A Doctor Victor Von Doom who keeps his face covered by metal. A Doctor Doom who invented a time machine. A Doctor Doom who is the ruler of Latveria. And a Doctor Doom who is the sworn enemy of Reed Richards and Tony Stark. Doom can be the big bad who can play out across multiple movies much the same way Loki did.
There's a lot more to my theory than that, but I'll spare you. If I'm right, the Marvel Studios brain trust will have a brand new universe to play with. They can sit down and really map things out.
And like always, if you hate my ideas, don't sweat it. I'm probably wrong.