After Black Panther, Where is the Soul Stone?
**Warning! Black Panther Spoilers ahead!**
If anyone has looked at recent movie news, Black Panther is doing quite well at the box office right now. Before the movie came out, several fans (me included) have theorized that the final Infinity stone, the Soul Stone, would be found in Wakanda. For those of us who saw the movie, we weren’t treated to any Soul Stone. No big reveal, no it might be somewhere over there… Nothing. The movie didn’t even approach the subject of the Infinity Stones. It sort of makes sense, seeing Black Panther director Ryan Coogler had something to say about the inclusion of the Infinity Stone in his film:
“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. I 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.”
From that, we can gather that Coogler doesn’t want the soul stone in Wakanda. This reignites the debate about the location of the final stone, with some parts of the internet still holding out hope that the last stone is in the African region. And they actually have some good points to their arguments.
The Soul Stone is in the Vibranium Mine
Some are interpreting that Coogler just didn’t want to put the Soul Stone in his movie because it would be too much for one movie. That by saying it this way, he leaves it open for other writers to put it in for their follow-up films. And so, parts of the internet have posited that the Vibranium meteor encases the soul stone. The properties of the meteor were morphed to enhance its strength. The Soul Stone has the ability to morph properties of not only the metal of the meteor, but the very vegetation of the land it fell on. The heart shaped herb has the ability when processed to bring someone to the land of the dead, to commune with the spirits of the fallen.
This is if the Russo brothers decide to disregard Ryan Coogler’s take on Wakanda and they deviate to make this happen. This makes the reason for the Outriders invading Wakanda justified. They’d have to get to the center of the Vibranium mine in order to get the stone, and maybe Thanos using the space stone could bring him there. However, if they follow his narrative, then the Soul stone is elsewhere.
Why Wakanda?
If this is the case, why are Thanos and his Outriders there?
One reason. Vision.
This recent trailer for Avengers: Infinity War shows Steve Rogers, Black Widow, and Vision in one of those infirmary centers that we first saw in Captain America: Civil War. It looks like Vision’s powers might be needed to heal Bucky’s remaining mental scarring. With the Mind Stone, it could very well be possible. The Outriders dig into someone’s mind to find out where Vision is, corner him in the warehouse. Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive fight against Steve Rogers, Scarlet Witch, and Black Widow. They eventually fall, and the two members of the Black Order pull the stone from Vision’s forehead.
For an entire army to gather against the forces of Wakanda is an interesting diversion to the true intention of getting to the MacGuffin of the Mind Stone. Loki offers up the Tesseract (Space Stone). The Collector is tortured for the Aether (Reality Stone). Xandar gets wrecked and Thanos obtains the Orb (Power Stone). In some behind-the-scenes photos, we see Doctor Strange struggling with a motion capture actor, so it may be an indicator that he loses the Eye of Agamotto (Time Stone). With all of these stones accounted for, there’s only one left.
Where else could the final Infinity Stone be?
With no mention of the stone being in Wakanda, the old online theories seem to have resurfaced. One part of the internet is holding out hopes that Heimdall has the Soul Stone. Some are saying to look through the rubble of what was once Mjolnir because the stone is in there somewhere. Comic book die-hards are crossing their fingers for the stone to show up with Adam Warlock, who was hinted at, at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Some have given up, saying Thanos will just show up with the Soul Stone without any explanation of how he got it. Then there’s some fringe elements exploring the Netflix side for the final Infinity Stone.
Not to mention the X-Men and Fantastic Four potentially being part of the Infinity War saga. We could see some new locations pop up for the final stone come next year. Perhaps Reed Richards or Doctor Doom has it. Or Hank McCoy has it as part of the Illuminati. Maybe Marvel makes good on using Namor now that the film rights have supposedly gone back to them. As a result, maybe the Soul Stone resides in Atlantis, deep within the ocean? The possibilities are more than they were a year ago.
Wherever the stone may be, we’ll find out soon enough when Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on May 4th. Or we may get to see it when the 4th installment of the Avengers hits theaters on May 3rd of 2019.
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