The Infinity Stones were placed in the MCU by Marvel Studios as six all-important MacGuffins, shaping the plots of Avengers: Infinity War and presumably the upcoming Avengers 4. But if you’d prefer a creation myth of the in-universe variety, the latest installment in the Infinity Wars comic book series offers some insight.
Though the details of their origins are still a little vague, it seems that the stones were created by ancient Celestials, albeit for reasons that aren’t yet clear. For those who don’t recall, the Celestials are a race of powerful entities who’ve popped up a couple of times in the movies, most notably in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, with Ego serving as both Peter Quill’s long-absent father and the villain of the film.
Whether or not this backstory will ever factor into the MCU remains to be seen, though there’s certainly plenty of potential for future installments to at least give these origins a nod, be it in next year’s Avengers 4 or in The Eternals, the latter of which looks to be set millions of years in the past, and will reportedly contain connections to some familiar characters from the franchise.
But while it’s currently unclear whether the history of the Infinity Stones will be further explored, you can expect them to continue to play an important part in the franchise at least until Avengers 4 wraps up the conflict with Thanos. One popular prediction, for example, is that our heroes will travel back in time to collect these relics in order to undo the Mad Titan’s finger-snap. That’s just speculation for now, but we’ll see how the trouble caused by these pesky stones will be undone when the film hits theaters on May 3rd, 2019.
