Spoilers to follow…
Cast your minds back to 2011’s Thor. One scene featured a very juicy easter egg, as the infamous Infinity Gauntlet was seen in the background of as one of the trinkets on show in Odin’s vaults beneath the Asgardian palace. It was an interesting piece of foreshadowing at the time, but future developments in the MCU have sice confused matters. For instance, how did Thanos have the gauntlet in Avengers: Age of Ultron if it’s on Asgard?
Well, Thor: Ragnarok finally clears up this mystery. When Hela takes Skurge down into the vaults to retrieve the eternal flame and use it to resurrect her undead army, she throws the Infinity Gaunlet aside with a cry of “Fake!” So, there you go, it wasn’t a continuity error. Just a forgery that Odin liked to pretend was the real thing. The scene would mean nothing to casual viewers, of course, but it’s a neat nod for Marvel fans to pick up on.
What was the thinking behind this reveal, though? Well, head honcho Kevin Feige has given a lengthy explanation about the inclusion of the fake Infinity Gauntlet while chatting to /Film. He explained why the scene was included in Thor: Ragnarok as well as why he thinks Odin had a fake Gauntlet in his possession in the first place.
“As we learn in this movie, he vanished his firstborn daughter because he sort of got what he needed, he got to the top of the Nine Realms and it was like oh, this is much too violent. And Hela says, glad to have it, ashamed of how we got it. And we see that mural in the movie of [how] it was not a pleasant history of how Asgard got all that gold.
So Odin has a history of doing what he wants to do to maintain power. And going back, I mean, now it’s probably five years ago we started again just in our internal creative group saying, ‘Well, it’s fake.’ Because if the Asgardians knew that there was something that had that kind of power, that could theoretically wipe out Asgard and whatever else with a, in the comics, a literal snap of the fingers. They might question Odin’s ability to protect them.
So Odin put a fake and he goes, it’s fine, I got it. Look, it’s fine, it’s in our vault, don’t worry about it. And it’s not until Hela goes down there. It was fun being back in that vault, by the way, for the first time since Thor 1. It was just the opportunity to call it a fake.
So for people like yourself, and like all of us at Marvel Studios who were paying attention, that answers that question. And for people who have no idea that an out-of-focus Infinity Gauntlet appeared in the back of Thor 1, it just showcases her knowledge and her sort of disgust with the way Odin had handled things on her way to the true power that is below the surface.”
Of course, we’ll see the real Infinity Gauntlet prove what it can do in next year’s Avengers: Infinity War. As hinted at in the mid-credits scene of Thor: Ragnarok, Thanos is finally on the move and is looking to claim all six Infinity Stones so that he can power his golden glove and use it to take over the universe. Five out of the Stones have been previously uncovered, but the sixth – the Soul Stone – has yet to be located. Expect that to change quite soon, though.
Thor: Ragnarok is in cinemas now, while Avengers: Infinity War lands on May 4th, 2018.
