A heck of a lot happened in Infinity War. If you haven’t seen it yet, you definitely should. (And you definitely should before you continue reading this article, as it contains major spoilers.) I’m assuming you’ve seen it by now, because a heck of a lot of people have–it broke the record for opening box office–both domestically and internationally–and it hasn’t even come out in China yet.
As I go through the list here of what to take away from Infinity War, my point is not to recap the action-filled film. I’m going to focus on a few major points and what they mean before Avengers 4 comes out in a year. And yes, waiting a year for the resolution to this incredible film does seem a bit cruel. Hopefully Marvel makes that up to us by outdoing this film.
Takeaways From Infinity War
1. Don’t worry; people aren’t staying dead.
At the very least, it seems safe to assume that everyone who died in the climax of Infinity War is coming back. First of all, Sony announced it was doing a Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 and 3, and has even set a 2019 release date for the second film. Sony was never going to let Marvel kill off Peter Parker when they reached their agreement to share the rights. Similarly, keeping Black Panther dead would be utter folly after we just saw T’Challa’s first film break box office records (all of which Infinity War will shatter, but still).
The only question is how. In the comics, Nebula gets the Gauntlet after Thanos leaves his body behind and uses it to undo all of Thanos’ actions. Whether the movies will follow through with that is unclear. Will the heroes need to fight someone other than Thanos? Or will the dead heroes be resurrected before the final fight with Thanos? After all, it would be a shame for the final battle not to include Spider-Man, Black Panther, or even Bucky.
On the other hand, characters like Loki, Heimdall, and Gamora seem actually dead. But whoever controls the Gauntlet can do just about anything, so resurrecting those three won’t be any more difficult than resurrecting those willed out of existence by Thanos would be.
2. Star-Lord is a colossal moron.
I’m going to come back to this later, but can we focus on this for a minute? The heroes had Thanos. The Mad Titan was immobilized and being mentally subdued. Spider-Man and Iron Man were this close to removing the Gauntlet–containing four stones–from his control. And then Star-Lord comes and yells and hits him out of sheer rage. Peter Quill quite literally put the universe at risk because he couldn’t control his temper. Everyone I spoke to after watching the movie was happy that he was one of the ones to die. We all hope he doesn’t come back next movie. Is it possible to be dumber? No, it isn’t. Which potentially leads me to my next point.
3. What exactly did Dr. Strange see and what is his plan?
Dr. Strange used the Time Gem Stone to look through over 14 million possibilities and see the one–and only one–in which his group of heroes defeats Thanos. The movie leads us to assume that the one scenario was the fight that almost succeeded–the one where Star-Lord doesn’t lose his temper so that Iron Man and Spider-Man can successfully wrestle the Gauntlet from Thanos.
But we can’t be sure that that’s what he saw. He made two very cryptic comments to Tony Stark, one after giving away the Time Stone and one after Thanos defeated the heroes on Earth. Was letting Thanos assemble the entire Gauntlet the only way to defeat him? Was Star-Lord too stupid to be believable? Was awakening Thanos before the four-Stone glove was removed part of the plan? Unlikely, but it’s possible. We won’t know for sure what Dr. Strange saw until the next movie comes out, but I’m guessing he saw this possibility and planned for it too. Otherwise, why give up the Time Stone in the first place?
4. Does Gamora still have a part to play
In the comics, Adam Warlock is able to orchestrate the resistance to Thanos’ domination of the universe. Thanos cannot sense him or read his mind because Warlock had a connection to the Soul Gem. In the movie, Gamora seems to be part of the Soul Stone, somehow. (I’m going to leave the multiple possible meanings of the ambiguous scene towards the end with Thanos and young Gamora out of this.) If there is anyone who can plan a way to fight Thanos without Thanos noticing, it’s someone connected to the Soul Stone.
Speaking of which, this movie showed another character who has a connection to the Soul Stone. The Red Skull still is out there, he has knowledge, and he has some connection to the Soul Stone. If the final battle of Avengers 4 doesn’t involve Thanos, there is no better villain to fight than a near-omnipotent Red Skull. (Also, before seeing Infinity War I predicted that the Red Skull would control the Gauntlet. It would be awesome, personally, if that comes true.)
5. What happened to the glove at the end of Infinity War?
Thor’s Stormbreaker was strong enough to overpower Thanos and strike him in the chest. However, since the attack wasn’t an instant kill, Thanos had a chance to use the Gauntlet to heal himself and retreat (and wipe out half of life). However, we were given a clear view of a mangled Gauntlet with all the Stones as Thanos backed away.
Was the Gauntlet mangled because of the power of Thor’s attack? Was using it to do so much what caused the glove to fail? I don’t know, but we were clearly meant to notice it. It’s anyone’s guess Whether that will play a major part in Avengers 4.
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