Black Panther is a mostly standalone film, and quite frankly, that works to its benefit. Not tied down by too many connections to the wider MCU, it’s able to do its own thing and is all the better for it. That said, it is still the last movie in the franchise to arrive before Avengers: Infinity War and as such, many expected the pic to feature, or at least reference an Infinity Stone. In particular, the Soul Stone.
The prevailing theory leading up to release was that the film would finally reveal where it was located, after Thor: Ragnarok failed to do so. However, Black Panther has now arrived and as you’ll know if you’ve seen it, there’s still no sign of the Soul Stone. When asked why he chose to leave it out of his movie, director Ryan Coogler explained to IGN the following:
“I love the Infinity Stones as much as any comic book fan, it’s just Wakanda already has its thing, which is Vibranium. For us, that was special enough, so to throw in something like another special thing didn’t feel right. It felt like we should stick with our one MacGuffin for the country and explore that, let that be the important thing because, frankly we didn’t need to have another piece like that. [Marvel Studios] never really was interested in putting a stone in there, either.”
Though it probably would’ve been pretty easy for Coogler to throw the Soul Stone into Black Panther, it’s for the best that he didn’t. Like we said above, part of the reason the film worked so well is because it had ample breathing room to tell its own story, one not bogged down by having to service dangling plot threads from other MCU efforts.
Besides, as T’Challa’s first standalone outing, there was already more than enough plot to get through here without having to worry about introducing something pretty significant like the location of the Soul Stone. That being said, fans are still theorizing that perhaps it did appear in the film, just not out in the open.
Some believe that the orange sand in Wakanda’s palace was actually the Soul Stone, while others think it was in the Vibranium meteor that hit the country, or perhaps is the source of the Heart-Shaped Herbs that give Black Panther his powers. Chalk that all up as speculation for now, though, as we really can’t say for sure where it’s hiding and probably won’t find out until this May.
That’s when Avengers: Infinity War will be with us, and given that Thanos will be wielding a fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in the film, it’s no doubt only a matter of time before we find out where the Soul Stone is resting. Until then, be sure to let us know in the comments section whether you think Coogler was right or not in his decision to leave it out of Black Panther.
