WARNING: Possible spoilers for Black Panther ahead
Black Panther might be on its way to being the most critically acclaimed and successful film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Reviews are pointing out its strong villain, layered story, and great cast as indicators why it stands apart from other Marvel films. There’s also very little to connect it to the greater MCU offerings outside of the appearances we’ve seen in past films and those post-credits scenes that hint at what is coming in a few months.
That said, where does the film leave us on the greater mystery of the final Infinity Stone. We are aware of the location and origins of the other five stones, with Doctor Strange dropping the Time Stone at the end of 2016. Since then, we haven’t seen one stone pop up on screen, but did Black Panther change that?
The answer is no. No Infinity Stones popped up in the film and they were never planned to show up according to Ryan Coogler. While speaking with IGN, Coogler talked a bit about his decisions over what to include with the film and how much Marvel influenced the process:
“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,” Coogler explained, adding, “[Marvel Studios] never really was interested in putting a stone in there, either.”
Makes perfect sense and the film certainly isn’t hurt because of the absence of the stone. This doesn’t mean that the final stone isn’t in Wakanda — the battle from Infinity War featuring Captain America leading the charge seems to at least hint at that — but it does mean that the final stone will probably be a central point of Infinity War. Whether it ends up being part of Wakanda’s rich history or if it just becomes its temporary home for the final battle, we’re sure to find out in May.
(Via IGN)