As soon as the Avengers: Infinity War trailer was released last year, it caused an internet stampede of sorts. The epic, mind-blowing, record-shattering and action-packed trailer displays the capability of becoming the highest-grossing movie in the history of Hollywood. At least that’s what the response from Marvel and superhero fans in the first 24 hours suggests.
Despite the Avengers; Infinity War cast being overloaded with major characters, but, the one that everyone is talking about is Thanos. So far, we saw him only in post-credits scenes of MCU movies, and Infinity War is going to be the first time that we will see him as the primary villain in pursuit of his evil goals.
The trailer depicted Josh Brolin play Thanos, and his appearance as the mightiest cosmic threat in the galaxy is extremely frightening. We have already seen the incredible power of each individual Infinity Stone, but, put together they can redo reality and destroy worlds.
In an interview last year, Josh Brolin had revealed that he might not be in possession of all the Infinity Stones in Avengers: Infinity War. This led to a massive speculation whether the Mad Titan’s endeavor to collect all the stones would be depicted in a two-part movie. In response to this speculation, Brolin said:
“I haven’t done the second movie, so I don’t know. I literally don’t know what the second script is. I don’t know if they’ve finished the second script, and that’s the truth. I think they’re in the midst of structuring and restructuring.”
He also went on to say that Thanos is going to use psychological tricks and brute force as well.
However, the doubt was clarified by Anthony Russo, the co-director of Infinity War who called it a heist movie where Thanos will be seen preparing his strategy to steal all of the Infinity Stones.
Later in Avengers 4, he will go on a full-on offensive against the whole world which will bring together the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy to unite and prevent a global annihilation event. During a conversation with CNET, Russo Brothers revealed how the various heist movies inspired them for Avengers: Infinity War. This is what they had said:
“With “Infinity War,” the biggest new element to the movie is Thanos and the fact that he’s entering the storytelling in a very bold, strong way, to the degree that he’s almost one of the leads. We’ve shaped an interesting narrative around him that in some ways leans heavily on a heist film in the fact that he’s going after the infinity stones in a much bolder, successful way than he has in the past. The entire movie has that energy of the bad guy being one step ahead of the heroes. We looked at a lot of movies that had that heist-style energy to them, and that brought some inspiration”.
There are six Infinity Stones in Marvel Cinematic Universe which need to be collected by Thanos to put together an Infinity Gauntlet and take control of the entire cosmic existence. So far we have seen five of those stones revealed in the movies, and the Soul Stone is still not located. This is what The Collector had said:
“Before creation itself, there were six singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots… Infinity Stones.”―The Collector
So which Infinity Stones did he manage to steal in this trailer?
The blue stone is unmistakably the Space Stone which had powered Tesseract when the Chitauri invaded Earth leading to Battle of New York. It is an Infinity Stone which lets you become omnipresent and warp yourself to any location in the universe. It can create portals for intergalactic travel. In comic books this stone has an orange color, but, it is shown to be blue in the MCU. In The Avengers, Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D. had said:
“Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think; the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That’s something the world sorely needs.”
There is a great likelihood of Thor: Ragnarok’s post-credit scene being the opening scene of Avengers: Infinity War. Why did Thanos suddenly confront Thor’s ship? The fact is that in the last sequences of Thor: Ragnarok, Loki was sent to treasure room to fetch Surtur and he picked up Tesseract when he saw it there, simply because he is the God of Mischief. We fear that Thanos would blow up the ship and Loki will happily give him the Infinity Stone.
The other stone that we saw was the purple color Power Stone aka Orb, which has been featured in Guardians of the Galaxy. Ronan, The Collector, was given the responsibility of stealing it, but, Peter Quill had a dream which put paid to Ronan’s dreams, and the stone was handed over to Nova Corps for protection. Thanos might have annihilated the Nova Corps and grabbed the ‘Orb’ which provides its user divine powers. This stone has a red color in the comic books.
So two stones are done and four more need to be acquired. The trailer showed Corvus Glaive (the leader of Thanos’ Black Order) rip the Mind Stone out of Vision’s forehead. The Collector already had the Reality Stone aka Aether which was given to him by Asgardians at the end of Thor: The Dark World. However, we have seen some leaked footage showing Thanos attacking the Collector’s base and stealing the Infinity Stone. Only two remain, and they are the ‘Time Stone’ at Kamar-Taj library and the Soul Stone which is in Wakanda.
Avengers: Infinity War lands in theaters on May 4.
