**Warning Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War Below**
Well, it’s nice to see that Infinity War was aware of what the fans wanted. They heard the fanbase, read all our posts on social media and our fanfictions debating on various plot points for the next film. And in response, they stepped over all of them and gave their own tale. Not to say that the fan theories didn’t make sense or weren’t grounded in comic book lore. They certainly were.
Even I had a few theories that, after I saw the movie, I realized were completely off.
So we’ll be taking a look back at some of the more popular theories leading up to Avengers: Infinity War. And yes, we’ll laugh at some of them for how ridiculous we were in thinking any of this would have happened in the film. And we’ll weep for those other theories that were taking into account the previous films and the history in the comic books.
Spoilers ahead!
The Soul Stone
There were a few jests going around in the online community about the location of the Soul Stone, the only Infinity Stone not featured in any Marvel Cinematic Universe film. It was debated that the Soul Stone would show up in the Black Panther film. Ryan Coogler pretty much debunked that hope, but people were still holding out that it would be there. Then Black Panther came out, and there was no mention of the Infinity Stones or the Soul Stone in particular. Still, some fans held out hope that it would be in the heart of the Wakandan Vibranium mound. It wasn’t.
There was also a popular theory that Heimdall was the Soul Stone, because of his uncanny ability to see the souls of other beings no matter their distance from him. Some jested that Hawkeye, because of of his lack of presence in any of the promotional material leading up to Infinity War, was the Soul Stone. We even wrote a piece speculating that Tony Stark was the Soul Stone, based on some promotional artwork for the film.
Nope. None of that happened. Instead, the Soul Stone was on some barren planet, the path to it guarded by the Red Skull and the only way a person could obtain it is through sacrificing someone they loved. What followed was a scene that alluded to a very Abraham/Isaac scene out of the Bible, where the Father has to sacrifice his firstborn to prove his devotion God. But in this case, it is to prove Thanos’ commitment to his goals.
And for those saying Gamora was the Soul Stone, not true. Captain America could’ve thrown Peggy Carter off that cliff to gain the stone. Black Panther would obtain the gem by throwing Shuri to the ground. They key element to finding the stone was the character’s connection to the one they are sacrificing. Thanos loved Gamora, and to obtain the Soul Stone he had to give up the only person he loved his entire life.
The Deaths of OG Avengers
Well, none of that happened. Every trailer shot that indicated one of the heroes would bite the dust was intentionally misleading.
Let’s go over it in detail. Early trailers for the film feature Tony Stark beaten and emotionally distraught. Fans thought this meant he was going to get killed in the film. Well, he does get beaten, and almost meets a grisly end. However, his life is spared when Doctor Strange offers up the Time Stone to save him.
In those first trailers, we also see Thor getting his head squeezed like a ripe melon. Fans thought this scene would be his last moments. Needless to say, he survived. His brother Loki, however, did not. I’m glad that at least one of my theories got through (unless this is another one of his fake deaths, because Loki has done it before).
In the last trailer before the film came out in theaters, Captain America was holding Thanos back. He’s grabbing on to the Infinity Guantlet with all his might, screaming all the way. The trailers show Thanos only possessing two of the Infinity Stones. However, during the film he actually has four of the Infinity Stones, and his moment of fighting with Cap is little more than a moment. Other characters had just as much fight against the Mad Titan, and the only character who had a significant match with Thanos was Scarlet Witch.
At the end, we find out that the OG Avengers, War Machine, Rocket Racoon, Nebula, Okoye, and M’Baku survive the snap. Everyone who has a future movie in the works, had a decent run in the box office with their solo films, grabbed a demographic audience and/or set off a cultural phenomenon- ended up as ashes.
And we were all kind of wrong about Vision dying. He died twice.
An Uncredited Hero Comes to Save the Day!
From fake casting lists, rumors based off of who showed up on set, and just fervent fandom promotion, we’ve heard every conspiracy about who would show up. There was speculation about teases all the way up to full on appearances from certain characters.
The movie does a fair job in keeping with characters we are already familiar with. The audience was already very familiar with Thanos from his appearance in many post-credit scenes. He also had a passive villain role in Guardians of the Galaxy. Any new characters we see are only to supplement Thanos, as in the Black Order, or to supplement the heroes, as Eitri the Dwarf serves for Thor.
Fans also thought the goddess of death, Hela would be a stand-in for the embodiment of death itself. They shipped Hela from Thor: Ragnarok with Thanos and the movie would’ve taken a completely different turn. Other fans thought Agent Coulson would make his return to bookend his lengthy history with the MCU films. The film was already 2 hours 36 minutes, and putting in just a few more characters would’ve been too much. Perhaps with more than half of the heroes disappearing, we can insert more characters for Avengers 4.
The only tease we got was the logo of Captain Marvel during the post-credit scene. There were some other theories worth mentioning. Some believed Wolverine did some claw work on Thanos’ face. Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock were apparently coming to save the day. There were even rumors of Mephisto making a random appearance, and an actual personification of Death showing up. Fortunately, or unfortunately (depending on whether you were a fan of that character/story line in the comics, etc.) none of that happened.
Anything we missed? Was there a theory you personally held that Avengers: Infinity War squashed? We’d love to hear from you! Sound off in the comments below or hit us up on social media, and let’s get the conversation going!
Avengers: Infinity War is out in theaters now.