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In Avengers: Infinity War, at the beginning when Tony & Pepper are strolling through the park, Dr. Strange emerges through a portal informing Tony of the impending threat & at the end, congratulates them on the wedding.

Dr. Strange: Oh, congratulations on the wedding by the way.

Later on when Ebony Maw & Cull Obsidian attack NYC & Cull is overpowering Iron Man & Spider-Men, Wong steps in and teleports Cull to a deserted plain. Tony thanks Wong for this with

Tony: Wong, you are invited to my wedding.

I am confused by these two statements. So are Tony and Pepper married or not?

Not familiar with American customs, but in my place, we use Engaged & Married to define the two relationship statuses.

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  • 1
    They're consciously uncoupled.
    – Ed Plunkett
    May 17, 2018 at 18:06
  • 3
    This seems more a question of English semantics than science fiction.
    – Rui F Ribeiro
    May 18, 2018 at 7:24
  • @RuiFRibeiro - Quite. In the US at least its quite common to say this prior to the wedding. There's an impled "impending" or "upcoming" in there. Congratulating on the engagement to some would be a subtle hint that you think its likely to not progress to an actual wedding.
    – T.E.D.
    May 18, 2018 at 22:19
  • @T.E.D. Exactly the same in the several tongues I speak...thus my comment. It is not exactly a good question IMO.
    – Rui F Ribeiro
    May 18, 2018 at 22:20
  • @RuiFRibeiro what might be obvious to one might not be for another. I am from India & in my culture we don't congratulate on the wedding if they are only engaged. So, when Strange congratulated them I was so happy that these 2 fictional characters that I love have finally made it. But with Wong comment, I got confused. Sorry if the question wasn't useful to you. It was useful to me
    – KharoBangdo
    May 19, 2018 at 3:26

3 Answers 3

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37

They are not married yet. They are currently engaged to be married. This was hinted at in the end credits of Spiderman Homecoming when Peter refuses the offer to join the Avengers, leaving Tony and Pepper to "find something to tell the press" gathered in the next room.

Dr Strange is congratulating them on the upcoming wedding. Wong gets invited after helping Tony out with the Black Order member.

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  • 11
    It's common to congratulate someone on their upcoming celebration, especially if you don't socialise with them regularly, yes
    – Dave
    May 17, 2018 at 10:30
  • 13
    Those would also be acceptable, but Dr Strange's choice of phrase is entirely appropriate
    – Dave
    May 17, 2018 at 10:34
  • 5
    It's true that normally one might say "Congratulations on the engagement" if the wedding hasn't yet happened. We can only infer that Strange meant "Congratulations on the upcoming wedding".
    – Blazemonger
    May 17, 2018 at 18:45
  • 3
    @KharoBangdo As an American, I can assure you that in our culture, Strange's congratulations are 100% normal. There's certainly flexibility allowed; Strange could have congratulated them on their engagement instead. But there's nothing weird or striking about Strange's choice of words in American culture. An engagement necessarily culminates in some kind of wedding (barring the engagement being broken, which you assume won't happen out of courtesy if for no other reason).
    – jpmc26
    May 17, 2018 at 22:35
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    @SEGod You're overthinking it. The important thing is the congratulations. How you frame it isn't a big deal. People will often not even qualify it.
    – jpmc26
    May 18, 2018 at 11:06
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No, they are not married yet (till the end of Infinity War).

They announce their engagement to public at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, when Peter denies to attend the press conference where he was supposed to be declared part of The Avengers.

Pepper: Where's the kid?

Tony: He left.

Pepper: Everybody's waiting.

Tony: He actually made a mature choice.

Happy: It just surprised the heck out of us.

Pepper: Did you screw this up?

Happy: He told the kid to go wait in the car.

Pepper: Are you kidding? I have a room full of people in there waiting... ...for some big announcement. What will I tell them?

Tony: Think of something. How about...? Hap, you still got that ring?

Happy: Do I-- ? I-- ?

Tony: The engagement ring.

The dialogue said by Dr. Strange goes like

Oh. Congratulations on the wedding, by the way.

There is a possibility that Dr. Strange heard their conversation and then he guessed that they might be married since Tony was talking about naming their child.

Another possibility could be that Dr. Strange might have seen Tony's future and saw that Pepper and Tony are married. That's why he says that. Though, this is a bit stretched, but my other answer has an interview of Gwyneth Paltrow which confirms that they will be married in future.

And the second dialogue by Tony Stark means that they're about to get married and Wong is invited to the wedding. Therefore, it implies that they are not married. Engagement and wedding are two different relationship statuses.

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  • I am pretty sure it was by the way. Did I mishear again.
    – KharoBangdo
    May 17, 2018 at 10:32
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    @KharoBangdo I'm pretty sure you didn't mishear, and that he says "by the way" and not "on the way."
    – Anthony Grist
    May 17, 2018 at 10:40
  • He said by the way as I said in my answer.
    – Ankit Sharma ♦
    May 17, 2018 at 10:47
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    Strange could have meant "Congratulations on the upcoming wedding" when he said that as well.
    – Dryden Long
    May 17, 2018 at 17:50
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    @DrydenLong Exactly, and when you are a sort of "master of time", they are both married and not yet married, in a convoluted form similar to how Schrodinger's Cat is both not yet dead and dead at the same time. I often make the same mistake after an extended bout of time traveling.
    – Keeta - reinstate Monica
    May 17, 2018 at 18:35
7

Not yet but soon:

This is what Dr. Strange said:

Doctor Strange: Tony Stark, I'm Doctor Stephen Strange. I need you to come with me. Oh, uh, congratulations on the wedding, by the way. source

And as you said yourself Tony later said:

Wong, you're invited to my wedding.source

And Gwyneth Paltrow said this in her tweet:

enter image description here

Caption: 'We're back! #pepperony #infinitywars

And Avengers 4 leaked pictures hinting it will happen soon:

enter image description here

She is wearing ring in this pictures. So maybe Dr. Strange just had slip of tongue or he just reacting to the news of there engagement from Spider-Man: Homecoming.

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    That last site you link to is rubbish/nonsense. The two characters already got engaged before Infinity War, and the pictures are from Infinity War.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    May 18, 2018 at 16:25

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