A new Avengers: Infinity War theory suggests that Thor intentionally lost to Thanos at the beginning of the 2018 Joe and Anthony Russo film.

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) may have deliberately lost to Thanos (Josh Brolin) at the start of Avengers: Infinity War. The God of Thunder's catastrophic mistake of not going for the villain's head has been discussed countless times since 2018. But there has been barely any conversation regarding how he was easily defeated by Thanos at the start of Avengers: Infinity War, leading to some theories that he may have intentionally let the Mad Titan win.

Joe and Anthony Russo's MCU film set up the God of Thunder to be the presumed savior against Thanos. Aside from being one of the strongest heroes in the franchise at that point, he was also equipped with Stormbreaker — a magical ax forged by Eitri (Peter Dinklage). The weapon could splice through the power of all six Infinity Stones, which is an impressive feat. Even before Avengers: Infinity War, Thor: Ragnarok established his upgraded abilities, tapping into his inner strength and defeating Hela (Cate Blancett) even without Mjölnir. So, it's curious why the Mad Titan was able to easily beat him up during their first encounter.

This has led to a theory from Reddit user u/ReeceInTheDarkness, who speculated that Thor deliberately lost to Thanos at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War. It may sound ridiculous considering that his inability to fight resulted in the death of half of his people, including Heimdall (Idris Elba) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston), but there might be actually a good reason for this. If Thor decides to use the power of lightning onboard the Asgardian refugee ship to fight the villain and his minions, he may accidentally damage the ship, or worse, even kill his own people. So, he chose to hold himself back, allowing some Asgardians to escape with Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (Taika Waititi). Perhaps, Thor also hoped that with Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) on board, he could easily take care of the Mad Titan. It's worth noting that while viewers had known a long time that Thanos was coming, the Avengers were clueless about his existence until Avengers: Infinity War. 

Another prevalent argument is that the God of Thunder was simply too exhausted at that point, having used all of his energy fighting Hela in Thor: Ragnarok. This also makes sense considering that since the 2017 film began, the Avenger was already in a fight with Surtur, and he didn't get any breather until Asgard was destroyed and they were safely on board. But, if anything, he should've been more drained when he arrived in Wakanda, since he also had to endure the power from a star to forge Stormbreaker - and yet he seemed to still be at the peak of his power. Given this, the aforementioned theory makes a much better explanation as to why he was defeated quickly at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War. While Thor's thought process here could be divisive, it proves that he's learned to become a good leader, putting the safety of his people first. Unfortunately, it was a miscalculation on his part, since Thanos turned out to be more dangerous than he thought.

Thor had a series of bad decisions in Avengers: Infinity War. Instead of going directly for Thanos' head, he let his emotions get the best of him, allowing the Mad Titan time to execute the snap. He also failed to recruit the Eternals in the fight, despite already knowing of their existence at that point. His potential decision to intentionally lose at the beginning of the movie, however, is perhaps the most justifiable among all of his questionable decisions, because he did so with the wellbeing of others in mind.

More: Doctor Strange’s MCU Position Makes The Avengers' Phase 4 Status Weirder