Of Marvel’s six cosmic Infinity Stones, the Soul Stone is the only one that remains shrouded in secrecy.
Sure, we’ve been acquainted with the all-powerful Space Stone (see: the Tesseract) and watched on as J.A.R.V.I.S. became Vision under the influence of the Mind Stone. But the Soul Stone, the sixth and final ingot that helps power the fabled Infinity Gauntlet, is still hidden amongst the stars.
Chances are it’ll be name-dropped in Avengers: Infinity War later this year. However, a new report compiled by ComicBook.com suggests Marvel will hold fire on its last remaining Infinity Stone until the release of Captain Marvel in 2019, thereby setting the stage quite nicely for the untitled Avengers 4.
One thing’s for certain: it’s not in Black Panther, after director Ryan Coogler told IGN that he was more concerned with Wakanda and its rich, thriving culture than shoehorning an Infinity Stone into the mix.
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.
ComicBook.com goes on to suggest that Thanos won’t acquire all six gems in Avengers: Infinity War – hardly surprising, given Avengers 4 is also on the cards – thereby allowing the 90s-set Captain Marvel movie to draft the Soul Stone into the MCU in the nick of time. It’s a stretch, of course, but it would help integrate Carol Danvers into the Avengers and their two-part war against the Mad Titan.
Sandwiched between Infinity War and its blockbuster sequel, Captain Marvel is expected to take flight on March 8th, 2019, and Chris Evans is quietly confident that it’ll be able to hit the dizzying heights of Black Panther when all is said and done.