Avengers: Infinity War – the guessing game

With a month to go before the release of Avengers: Infinity War the fan theories are rocking the internet. Marvel recently released new set of posters for the movie and the teasing just got serious. Who will die? Where are the stones? What will happen to the gauntlet? Behold, for the text is full of spoilers and serious tinfoil.

What do we actually know for a fact?

Infinity Stones, also known as Soul Gems and Infinity Gems, exist, link the movies together even tighter and are a source of power. Even on their own each one of them is very powerful. When combined together on a gauntlet, they make the owner pretty much unstoppable. And this is what Thanos is after – he has the gauntlet and is now trying to gather the stones. The full story from the comics is very complicated and full of dead ends, Collector can give you a brief version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBX4a7WpYqI

So. There’s 6 of them (at least mentioned so far) in Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), there’s more of them in the comics and they used to have different colours. After launch of Marvel Legacy, the gems in the comics and in the movies have the same names and shades. I doubt MCU will go with all nine of them tho. In the movies we saw five of the gems already:

Space stone is currently blue, used to be purple before Marvel Legacy. It was present or mentioned in Thor, Captain America and The Avengers, in a form of Tesseract. Basically this gem allows the user to exist in or teleport themselves of anything else to any place they wish (this is how Thor and Loki got back to Asgard after Bifrost was destroyed after Thor and during The Avengers). It’s basically an anti physics stone. Last known owner in MCU: Loki as of Ragnarok – he passed the gem while in the vault and we know he has the Tesseract in the trailers of A:IW so it is not hard to do the math and assume he stole it from the treasury by the end of Ragnarok. Honorable mentions as owners in comics: Nebula, Black Panther, Wolverine, Black Widow.

Mind stone is yellow, formerly blue. Seen in The Avengers and Age of Ultron as the scepter, in AoU and Civil War on Vision’s forehead. This gem enhances the mental abilities of its owner, allowing them to read minds. Last known MCU owner – Vision. Honorable mentions in comics: Grandmaster, Loki, Professor X, Ms Marvel.

Reality stone is red (formerly yellow), we see it as Aether in Thor: Dark World. This is gem is yet again defining laws of physics – it grants you any wish, even if it means creating an alternative universe. Current owner in MCU: Collector. Honorable mentions: Iron Man, Black Widow, Carol Danvers.

Power stone is purple (formerly red). Seen in Guardians of the Galaxy as the orb, it allows the owner to manipulate energy and enhance their strength. When kept with other gems, it increases their power, giving them full potential. Current owner in MCU: Nova Corps. Honorable mentions: Loki, Thor, Drax.

Time stone is green (formerly purple), it is contained in Eye of Agamotto as we can see in Doctor Strange and its powers are pretty much self explanatory. Current owner in MCU: Dr Strange. Hon. mentions: Loki, Thor, Iron Man, Widow.

Soul stone is orange and it is the last one to be revealed in MCU as far as we know it. Current owner and location are unknown. In the comics it was owned by Nebula, Loki, Dr Strange, Ultron and Cap.

Blue space, yellow mind, red reality, purple power, green time, orange soul. Three “extra” gems from the comics are golden Ego, pink Rhythm and red Build. Rhythm is a fake gem created by Loki, Ego is the containment zone of Nemesis and Build is the foundation of a weapon. Those 3 are comic/series exclusive and they are never mentioned in MCU. Thanos owned all of them at some point, Nebula owned the canon six of them. Each gem when enhanced to its full potential, grants the owner omnipotence.

We also know that the owner of the gauntlet with all gems can destroy half the universe with a snap of his fingers, just like that. And that power is what Thanos has been after for last 10 years in MCU. Without knowing that, Avengers messed up his plans and stopped him from obliterating the universe. Infinity War and Avengers 4 are about final battle because Thanos is done waiting.

This is where “facts” end. The detailed story of each gem, each owner, everything changes, just like the story of the character varies, depending on the source and the moment of the whole story arch. F.ex. Captain America died at least dozen times. On certain occasions characters met their alternative universe or their younger selves, because this is how comics world works. We even technically had 3 Captains at one point – Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson – a former Cap, a former former Cap and current – at that point at least – Cap. In the movies however certain things are simplified – Steve is still Captain America (ish), Bucky and Sam never took the mantle. At least yet. I know, confusing. Basically if you are overwhelmed, think of it like this: if it is a comic, you have to watch out which story line you are following because you might be in for a big surprise. And if it is the movie then it probably has some elements of the comic but don’t expect the same amount of plot twists, luckily, but do expect a lot of merged characters and plot lines to make things more simple. The amount of decoys, retcons, alternative universes and abandoned plots is just ridiculous. But having said that – it’s also a really fascinating story and I encourage you to do some digging on your own, MU is amazing.

With MCU launch, the story lines were cleaned a bit thanks to Marvel Legacy I mentioned earlier. MCU luckily did not follow X Men into chaos (long story short, try to follow the timeline of X Men events and good luck with that. Basically the series ate their own tail and now made their own canon events non canon while still having them as canon. This is what happens when you want to cash in on geeky stuff but you can’t think beyond one movie ahead and you have no idea what you are talking about. Do not follow that as one entity, look at it as each separate, totally unrelated movie of X Men franchise and this will make you sleep peacefully. And don’t ask questions. Like… F.ex. Jean Grey is dead but she is alive but she is more dead than Bucky ever was. Logic!).

But I am derailing it again, sorry! One thing is for sure – there is a greater idea behind the whole series of movies of MCU and huge chunk of it matches the plot of comics. And this is not good news for fans because if it follows Thanos storyline to a T, it is going to be a bloodbath and the end for some of beloved characters. And unlike with the comics, there won’t be a mass resurrection happening.

Before we dwell into the land of confusion and fan theories – Marvel had prepared a long list of movies and shows in certain order to tell a certain story, full of details and nods to the comics. And we’re reaching the end of this story line with just few movies to go. We’re at the end of Phase 3. Phase 4 is going to be about new heroes. You can watch it all as separate entities but you can also watch it in the order of things “happening” in the MCU. The “correct” order of watching the whole thing is not set in stone which is both good and bad thing. And it confuses people even more because f.ex. Guardians vol 2 was released in Phase 3 but it’s a Phase 2 movie. If you feel lost, you can check the full list of Marvelverse in the order of events on the screen below:

You can leave your tinfoil hat on

Now, back to Tinfoilville. If you look at the posters that were recently released, they are clearly reflecting the gems via their colors. Blue has Cap, Bucky, Nebula and Mantiss. Green has Widow, Black Panther, Okoye and Hulk. Red has Iron Man, Dr Strange, Wong and Spiderman (Iron Spider, lmao!). Purple has Thor, Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot. Yellow has Witch, Vision, Falcon and War Machine.

Blue space, yellow mind, red reality, purple power, green time, orange soul. Blue has the superhuman leader of Avengers and two cosmic creatures plus Bucky who is pretty much 75% human, 25% cyborg, but he is the odd one out here. Yellow has two people who just have to be linked to it – Vision and Witch, but Falcon and War Machine stand out – why are they on yellow poster? They have nothing to do with the gem? Red poster – red gem and those characters have nothing in common and what is Dr Strange doing there if he wields Eye of Agamotto, a green gem? Green poster – I have no idea how they chose the characters for this one. Purple poster? This one is sort of spot on – purple is power, it has Thor who is the power, it also has the guardians who empowered purple gem together. Orange? There is no orange poster.

If you think about it, each one of the posters also has a couple – purple has Peter and Gamora, yellow has Witch and Vision, blue has Captain America and Bucky, green Has Widow and Hulk. Who is the couple on red? Technically there are two non romantic couples: Stark – Spiderman, Strange – Wong. Mentor – student, student/mentor.

So…are the posters just a bit of “we have this background, put the chars on it randomly” which only just so happened to accidentally match some of the background or is this a tip? An Easter Egg, a bow towards fans? And who is missing? Loki, Hawkeye, Antman, Wasp. Thanos, Collector, Grandmaster, Heimdall. Maria Hill, Nick Fury. Pepper? Shuri. Captain Marvel. I will just assume their poster would be orange, like the soul stone we’re missing. Wasp is coming in Infinity War p.2, so maybe she doesn’t have the poster yet because she is not in. Even the solo posters show us the same people as the 5 “main” ones.

But we’re talking heavy tinfoil. Let’s dig even deeper. We have the trailers and few TV spots available. Let’s go through them.

Trailer #1 first.

“There was an idea” says Nick Fury offscreen, on the screen we see Tony Stark, broken, with burnt hand and covered in dirt. And we know this speech, it’s what Fury told Captain America and Tony on the Helicarrier in The Avengers after Loki triggered Hulk, killed (“killed”) Coulson and escaped. It’s the speech that pretty much got the whole thing going.

Next shot. Tony’s VO “to bring together a group of remarkable people“. Onscreen – Bruce Banner on the ground, with stunned Wong and Dr Strange looking at him. Last time we saw Banner he was in the space, with Thor and Loki, their ship got taken over. Could it be that Hulk saved Banner by jumping off of the ship and getting to Earth, where he changed back to Banner and this is his first meeting with Wong and Strange? This is why they are so shocked. They saw huge green monster drop from the sky and now they see a fragile human.

Next shot, Vision VO – “to see if we could become something more.” On the screen – human Vision with Scarlet Witch. Or should I say Wanda. Human Vision? He still has the gem stone on his forehead. Is this Vision’s vision? Watch Vision’s vision while listening to Vision? Visionception? Not shipping this. Next shot – Thor on a spaceship and his VO – “so when they needed us, we could fight the battles.” But it is not Asgardian ship. Guardians?

Next shot – Banner next to huge Iron hand, talking to someone. In Wakanda. And blonde Black Widow, smiling, with her VO “that they never could.” Banner meeting Natasha again? After two years? She looks happy. Which is good, because I ship this and I am going to be very unhappy if one of them doesn’t make it till the end of this movie.

So Fury, Stark, Vision, Thor, Widow. The man who created Avengers, 3 of 6 founding members and Vision. Is this a hint? Well in theory, Infinity War is a 2 part movie. We get actual Infinity war in a month and “Avengers 4“, aka “Infinity War p.2” aka “untitled Avengers movie” in 2019. And THAT movie is going to be an end of era and “finale” as Marvel claims. Tony is in A4, we saw the shots from the set, so he can’t die in this one. So it’s not a “goodbye” list, at least not yet, so maybe who will survive? Does it mean that Vision will become a human? But back to trailer.

Marvel logo and we’re in NY Sanctum with our NY heroes. We see a cute, awkward Bruce and everyone looking at the street outside. And we see Tony holding a flip phone. A phone? THE phone – it’s the same flip mobile Cap sent Tony at the end of Civil War! So is Tony calling Steve just now? We hear screams and we follow Tony to the doors.

“In time, you will know what it’s like to lose.” Shut up, Thanos, we’re not going to lose. Peter Parker’s spider senses are tingling and wooohooo, look at the sky. Is it a bird? Is it a spaceship? Is it a portal?

Whatever it is, it seems to be landing on buildings or at least damaging them. Our NY team is out on the street, presumably watching the same thing Peter is seeing. Look at Tony’s clothes btw! Just look at it! I’ll get back to it in a moment.

Next scene and we see Loki walking over the corpses. Clearly it is an army of a sort, but not Asgardian. Not Xandar either so we’re not watching the fall of Nova Corps. BUT one of those masks makes me think of gladiators and last time we saw gladiators was in Ragnarok so it might be what is left of the army that boarded the ship from Asgard. And ya, we are soooo surprised, Loki stole Tesseract. Come on. He was in the vault at the end of Ragnarok, of course he stole the damn thing, this is not even a spoiler, we knew!

And big entrance for baldie of the year, Thanos. His VO continues – “to feel so desperately that you’re right, yet to fail all the same. Dread it, run from it, destiny still arrives.” Melodramatic. And say what you want, he does look like Bruce Willis. Pink, mutated, uglier Bruce Willis. Yipika yay, superheroes. The background btw doesn’t look very Earth-y.

Off to next scene, Peter the Iron Spider is there at the portal/ship. And next shot gives us Thor seemingly IN that device, probably trying to derail it.

We take a quick jump again and we finally meet Proxima Midnight, Thanos’ general. At least she looks like Proxima. She throws a spear at “someone”. We see T’Challa, visibly annoyed. “Evacuate the city, engage all defenses, and get this man a shield”.

BUT…why evacuate the city? This is T’Challa, we’re in Wakanda, who attacks them? Well obviously Thanos himself or via proxy. He is not after vibranium. He wants the gems. There is one gem missing – soul gem? Wakanda is the land we know the least about, apart from the fact they have vibranium and are traditional, secretive and very advanced. What if it is not vibranium that gives them the advantage? Does Thanos know something we don’t? Or is he after Vision?

Boom, the person attacked by Proxima turns out to be Steve and we’re soooo shocked. Like…not. Come on, this was sarcasm. Nice beard btw, man, I like it.Next shot is Wanda with weird facial expression but all her facial expressions are weird so I am not sure if this is relief she is displaying or something else. Background seems to be the same as Proxima’s, so I guess Wanda just met Steve again and he saved her butt.

Hulkbuster is in Wakanda with Falcon and War Machine while Natasha pokes someone with a spear. Guess it’s the same spot as Wanda and Steve are at and person stabbed by Widow is Proxima. Strange does his strange things, alien ships are landing in Wakanda, where Steve and Okoye fight with some ugly baddies, aka the Outriders. Black Panther is there too.

Meantime Thanos smacks Peter against the ground, broken Tony starts moving and Vision is being attacked. Check the weapon pointing at his forehead.

A brief interlude. In the comics Thanos created something called the Black Order – an elite squad, top of the tops, his most trusted men. There is six of them – Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, Supergiant, Black Dwarf, Black Swan and Corvus Glaive. All six are excellent fighters, they also have their preferred weapons of choice or unique abilities that make them deadly for the enemies of their boss. Proxima uses a spear, Corvus – a glaive. Ebony Maw is a manipulator, a whisperer. MCU Wiki however lists four names only as part of Black Order and claims they are Thanos’ adoptive children, making them siblings to Gamora and Nebula which is a bit weird since in the comics Proxima and Corvus are a married couple. Is it still incest if you are married to your adopted sibling? Which is more powerful – “sibling” or “adopted” in this equation? I don’t want to know tbh. We also have Cull Obsidian seemingly replacing Black Dwarf -Swan and Giant are not mentioned. Or maybe it actually is Black Dwarf, just with a hammer, not an axe like in comics? Anyway, Corvus is also Thanos’ right hand and he is immortal so it would make sense to see the most trusted and best prepared man being sent to retrieve the gem from Vision. Is it his glaive pointing out at the gem Vision wears? Also, if it is, I will admit that I love how “pun-y” Marvel is – Glaive’s glaive points at Vision in a vision of Vision’s close call. Vision-glaive-ception.

So Vision screams, Thanos adds blue gem to his gauntlet, right next to the purple one and you have to wonder if this means he annihilated Nova Corps off screen. If yes, well, damn, I liked them.

More shots of Thanos hitting Iron Man and everything seems to be lost but hey, here’s Bucky. We’re back in Wakanda, with T’Challa leading the defense, Falcon shooting at enemies from the sky, lots and lots of Outriders attacking, with Okoye, Widow, Bucky, Hulk, Falcon and War Machine, led by Black Panther and Captain America, fighting back.

Scarlett spilled the beans in one of the talk shows that there are 61 or 62 Marvel characters in the movie and there’s 32 of them in one scene. Is it that scene? There was 12 of the Avengers in Civil War fight scene, now we have almost 3x that. I am not going to lie, I already love it!

Avengers logo, Avengers theme, end of trailer? It’s never the end with Marvel until it’s like…the end, if 22 movies haven’t taught you this much yet, you haven’t been paying attention. Very dirty, very tired, very short haired Thor visibly surprised with his “who the hell are you guys?” Could it be? Please, please… YEEEEES! Guardians of the Galaxy!

Overall, good trailer, I like it.

Let’s go for trailer #2!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0e3TXkSd4Q

We begin with something flying towards New York. Iron Man? Too big. Portal? Too small. Banner? It has to be Banner. Gamora’s VO telling us how bloodthirsty Thanos is.

Black Widow, Banner and War Machine in Wakanda looking up to the sky above them. NY Sanctum. Gauntlet with blue gem being put in. Tony talking with Gamora. Look at his clothes! Thanos taking off his helmet. He is wearing the gauntlet, but only one gem in it – purple. Scene from the attack on Asgardians?

Peter turning into Spider-man and taking off to get closer to the portal. Portal in the air above New York. Iron Man flying towards it and his VO – “we have one advantage, he is coming to us.” Wanda in Wakanda it seems, with Vision. Eye of Agamotto. Cap and Widow meeting T’Challa, again, in Wakanda. Behind them Hulk, War Machine, Falcon, stumbling Vision and Wanda.

Shuri with Vision’s holographic face. Peter Quill is being himself with Tony Stark and Drax and very fanboy-ish Spidey. And off we go to a war in Wakanda. Thor summons the lightnings while Groot and Rocket watch, spaceships drop like flies and Thanos remembers that he has a helm, looks like he is invading something.

Little green hand grabs his huge pink finger and he leads away a tiny, red haired, green skinned girl. Gamora.

Jump to Thor’s head being crashed by Thanos and about damn time – Black Order is here, with Loki as their captive.

Thanos destroys Tesseract, Bucky prepares his weapon, Cap has new shield and T’Challa is on the front line of his army. Meanwhile Doctor Strange shows how to co-op with another superhero by helping Quill get through a battlefield. No idea what this place is btw, doesn’t look like New York.

Dr Strange being tortured by Ebony Maw.

War, lots of broken and beaten heroes, Thanos in action taking “talk to the hand” very literally with Captain America.

Avengers logo and a comedy accent. “I’m Peter btw.” “Doctor Strange.” “Oh we’re using our made up names. Then I am Spiderman.” Classic 😀

All other teasers, trailers, TV spots etc feature mostly scenes from those two trailers. Only additions here and there – or leaked material which I am not going to link here – are:
– Cap and Widow in some sort of hospital or lab leading visibly hurt Vision somewhere, with presumably Wanda next to them;
– Thor on a spaceship saying “now I know what it feels when all hope is lost but together we can stop Thanos” and Rocket being a smartass, Thor and Guardians join forces;
– Nebula in fight mode;
– Natasha going full “we don’t want to kill you. But we will”, probably on Proxima;
– Some civilian clothed Wanda power with Vision on the floor behind her on a street;
– Wanda dodging a missile that blows up a truck behind her;
– teary Gamora, presumably at Collector’s HQ;
– Groot being a teenager (“Whoa! Language!” <3)
– Vision and Wanda in Wakanda and Vision claiming “we are out of time”

Biggest addition here is the D23 Expo/SD Comic-Con scene, where Guardians are flying into rumble, with Peter’s “all right Guardians, don’t forget this might be dangerous so let’s put on our mean faces“, with unconscious Thor flying into their ship. This is going to be my fav scene of all times. “How is dude still alive?” asks Peter after Guardians get Thor into their ship. “He is not a dude” answers Drax and you know this is gonna be good. “You’re a dude. This…This is a man. A handsome, muscular man.” Love it 😀 Mantis wakes him up and we’re back at the scene from trailer where Thor meets the Guardians.

I’ve got an idea

Even tho Marvel is really trying to confuse us, you can rearrange the parts of the teasers to see a clear story emerging. Obviously, I don’t think they released everything but my guess is the story goes as follows:

• We start with Thanos invading Xandar – he takes the city by surprise and annihilates it, getting his hands on Orb. 1:0 for Thanos, he has the first gem. There is an option that it happens off screen but nevertheless the Orb is the first to go.
• Then we move on to the moment where Ragnarok ended – Thanos is back on his spaceship and catches the ship Thor, Loki and Asgardians are on. Fight ensues and Thanos tries to crash Thor’s head. Heimdall, Valkyrie and Korg try to save him, Thor gets launched into the space unconscious, three heroes die. If I am right about this one, I am going to be very very unhappy about it. Loki survives being himself, uses Tesseract as a bargain chip on Thanos and maybe lands himself a deal, maybe dies. He is not in next Avengers movie, at least there is no info about it yet, so maybe he dies for real this time. Thanos goes back to his ship and destroys Asgardians. Hulk is launched into space. Thanos crashes Tesseract and it’s 2:0 – he has two gems already. Not technically the Avengers, but still superheroes in my eyes – I am calling it quits for Heimdal, Valkyrie, Korg and Loki, I don’t think they will survive so we’re 4 heroes down. Thanos moves to get Aether.
• Guardians are at the Collector’s, seeing the destruction of his place and hearing Thanos demanding the stone from him. Maybe they went to Xandar, saw the destruction and decided to check up on Aether and this is why they are at Collector’s place. Or maybe they just wanted to say hi and got right into the middle of “negotiations” between Collector and Thanos. Drax’s whole life is about killing Thanos so he attacks. Thanos gets the gem and leaves, Guardians start the pursuit or maybe they try to warn others, no idea. But we never see Aether on the gauntlet…
• Guardians are en route after Thanos and find sad remains of an Asgardian ship. Thor bumps into them, they revive him. He tells them what happened, they realize it’s Thanos’ doing as well and he is collecting the gems, they join forces. I’m calling 3:0 for Thanos at this point.
• We’re in New York. Vision is still Vision and him and Wanda are on a date in the city. Vision gets attacked by Black Order and just as he is about to be decapitated and de-gemmed, Wanda does her thing and pushes them back. They realize what the Order is after – the gem – and they escape. If you think about it, Thanos must have known that Earth is full of superheroes so it would make sense to quietly send his most trusted general to retrieve the gem instead of invading the planet – this way he can get Vision before he or anyone else realize that there is a threat.
• Meanwhile Wong comes over to see Dr Strange and to tell him about the gems. A big green creature aka Hulk drops into the New York Sanctum and changes into a very scared Bruce Banner. That’s the comet we saw over New York. So we have the first meeting between the NY team sans Peter. Tony Stark shows up at the Sanctum – maybe called by Bruce, maybe he is cooperating with Dr Strange? Bruce tells them what happened with Asgard and that Thor is supposedly dead or at least his location is unknown. But he tells them that there is something coming and maybe even realizes that this thing has to have two infinity gems already. This ofc depends on how self aware Hulk is in comparison to Banner. In theory those are two different entities. So maybe Hulk knows about the two gems being taken already and warns Tony and Strange about it. Tony calls Steve to warn him and to get him to save Vision while Tony sorts things in NY.
• Tony ends the talk. People yelling on the streets, our heroes go out. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Thanos’ portal thingie. This is where Tony’s clothes seem to give away the plot. Look into the sky and boom, there’s the portal and it is closer and closer to the city, starting the destruction. Thanos is coming.
• At the same time Peter Parker is on a field trip in a bus with his school and his spider senses warn him of a danger. He looks into the sky, sees the same portal others do, so he takes off. Portal lands, baldie Thanos comes out and he starts kicking the butts of our heroes. Peter gets suffocated a bit, Tony is getting his ass handed to him and ofc Thanos decides to have a speech. “In time, you will know what it’s like to lose.” He promises a lot of pain for Earth and somehow learns that the gem is no longer in NY as Vision escaped so he retracts to regroup.
• As a goodbye he tells them he murdered Hawkeye’s family. This is where the broken Tony can be seen – he mourns the loss of Clint’s family. He also knows that Thanos is moving his forces to Wakanda and they are outnumbered.
• Peter meets Dr Strange. Tony flies to the portal in space to see what is going on. Guardians of the Galaxy together with Thor get in touch with Tony and get him on his ship. Gamora tells Tony about Thanos, as a memory we see Thanos in his full suit invading Gamora’s planet and “adopting” her.
• Tony goes through his “we have an advantage, he is coming to us” moment and we’re back to fighting.
• Upon escaping Wanda and Vision are in hiding and make it to an arcade/factory/whatever where they meet Proxima. Just as it seems that the fight is lost, a shadow appears and hey, Steve and Black Widow save them. So This is where Natasha tells Proxima that they will kill her, as part of revenge for Clint.
• They agree that they need to get Vision to Wakanda. This is the scene where Steve, Natasha, Vision and Wanda leave the hospital.
• Heroes regroup – Natasha and Cap take Vision and Wanda to the airport. There they meet Falcon, War Machine and Banner and go to Wakanda.
• At this point we still don’t know what is going on with Ant-Man or Hawkeye but we know they are in the movie. So I am calling it here – Ant-Man is seeing the destruction of New York. Hawkeye is devastated by the loss of his family during the attack, he moves to Japan and becomes Ronin. Ant-Man goes after him.
• Vision is still barely able to move so he is hospitalized by Shuri who scans his head, trying to see how to de attach the gem. From Civil War we know that T’Challa decided to help Bucky and he wanted to be put in cryo – sleep until Shuri finds a way to stop Winter Soldier from being triggered. At the end of Black Panther we saw Bucky without a hand, in a hut, dressed in traditional Wakanda clothing and being addressed as “White Wolf” by the kids. In Infinity War he has both hands and is fighting on Wakanda’s side. Now, White Wolf is a comic character named Hunter and he is older, white, adoptive brother of T’Challa. He was the leader of Wakanda’s secret police, Hatut Zeraze, also known as The Dogs of War. And while officially they don’t appear in the movies, there’s Nakia – she is a spy and Lupita Nyong’o who plays her, refers to her as War Dog. So War Dogs exist and it seems like Bucky is about to become their leader. But we’re like few movies ahead of the time – at this point Bucky joins the regrouped heroes to fight the threat.
• So those heroes serve as frontliners – they are to engage the enemy while others try to…to what? They are clearly fighting on another planet and that planet is orange. There is something called Official Movie Prelude comics (haven’t read them all yet but if you get them, please let me know <3, the only thing I want to read more now is the Blizzard’s Chronicles). They are official but not 100% accurate when compared to movies. BUT they cover certain aspects. In the Prelude Wong, who is in Hong Kong, travels to NY to see Dr Strange to tell him that he senses some evil force traveling towards the earth. He tells Strange about the gems and describes the Soul Gem, the biggest threat of them all. That would explain why Wong is in NY in the movie and I totally think this is what happens. And…What if that orange planet from the trailer is where Soul Gem, an orange stone, is hidden? Just think about it. Orange planet, orange stone, no idea why we would even go to other planet unless there is a legit reason… And making sure Thanos doesn’t get the most powerful gem is a legit reason if you ask me. So my guess is that the rest of the heroes, the NY crew, travels there to secure the stone while frontliners protect the Earth and serve as distraction.

• They run into Black Order. Pew pew, Dr Strange gets kidnapped.
• Strange is tortured by Ebon Maw, Guardians and Tony rescue him. Eventually, after a lot of pew pew.
• This might be where Nebula comes into play and she swings the balance towards the Avengers, giving them a window of opportunity to free Strange and secure a small victory. I think she tries to redeem herself and becomes a legit part of Guardians after that. (I would not bet a single penny on her survival if I didn’t see the cast list for A4, she is on it so she has to survive somehow).
• Here we’re going to have the biggest plot twist ever. Obviously, we don’t know what the plot twist is here and I doubt Marvel released anything about it just yet. But it will be something that allows the Avengers to push back Thanos. They don’t kill him just yet, he is on the cast list for Avengers 4. So it will be something that stops him, something that gives them time to hit back.
• Shuri succeeds in turning Vision into human.
• We learn where Soul Gem is and this is the plot of Avengers 4. We saved the Earth but the threat is still there.
• End credits roll, cleaning crew to section five and we’re waiting for untitled Avengers 4. A movie previously called “Infinity War part 2” but changed because of different “themes”. But they are both somehow about Infinity War. So A4 being about Soul Gem makes sense.
• Total tinfoil: in Part 2 Hawkeye is Ronin and plays the more dominant role but they can’t tell us just yet without super duper spoilers. We saw the world saved in Part 1, Part 2 is about retribution and finishing what Part 1 started. Part 2 will be about the final gem. This is why Hawkeye doesn’t have much screentime in Infinity War – he will be the main character in next part. And if you think that I am making this up, check photos taken on the set on Avengers 4 by clicking here. This is not Hawkeye suit, this is Ronin suit. And he has a full sleeve tattoo. That’s not exactly saying “I’m a retired family man” to me, it says “I’m gonna find you and kick your ass“. A bit of Punisher vibe, if you get me. There is even a poster for it ready, done by amazing @Bosslogic:

• And if you believe Marvel Studios president, Avengers 4 will change a lot for Marvelverse: “the focus now is on delivering Captain Marvel and then bringing Captain Marvel’s story into the finale of everything we’ve started thus far.” So Captain Marvel will be appearing in A4, not earlier and she will show up for sure.

One thing that bothers me. In Thor: Dark World Sif and Volstagg hand in the Aether to the Collector, saying it is unwise to keep it close to another stone, the Tesseract, which is in Asgard at that point. Now think about it and think of Earth where you have at least two gems already – Eye of Agamotto and Vision, and we probably also have the third, the missing Soul Gem, which is either in Wakanda or Hawkeye is guarding it as Ronin. Unless it is that damn orange planet. In Part 1 Hawkeye will lose his family and go to Japan. Ant-Man will follow him. It’s unwise to keep the stones close to each other… Yet here we are, proudly displaying at least two of them for everyone to see! Humans are impossible. How did we survive for so long?

So let’s for a moment go back to the posters. Maybe it is not the colour of the poster that matters but who is grouped with whom?

Red poster – Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider Man, Wong. Now it makes more sense – New Your – Spidey and Stark reside in NY, as does Stephen Strange. In theory Wong should be in Hong Kong, but in the trailer we see him in New York, with Strange, Stark and Hulk. And if we follow Prelude, we know why Wong is in NY. What I also find hilarious about this poster is the fact, that it has two Benedicts and two Wongs on it – Benedict Cumberbatch plays Dr Strange and Benedict Wong plays Wong.

Blue poster – Captain America, Bucky, Nebula and Mantis. Outcasts and those who “change” the most. Identity crisis is the major theme on this poster. You could argue that Mantis doesn’t fit in here while other three characters are easy to define within those ranks but this is supposedly the movie where we learn about origins of Mantis and it would be weird to even mention it if it didn’t play a role. Also, all 4 characters have nowhere to go back to, accept for their newest arrangements: Steve and Bucky in Wakanda, Nebula and Mantis with Guardians. I’m calling this an “exit” poster, I think at least two of those characters won’t make it beyond Avengers 4.

Green poster has Widow, Black Panther, Okoye and Hulk. All in Wakanda, all there as frontliners, all having to adjust to changes in their worlds. Widow lost her cover, Black Panther opened Wakanda to the world. Okoye has questions about loyalty and Hulk might kill Banner. Theme for this poster is changes and adaptation.

Purple poster has Thor, Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot. And we know that they work together, Guardians save Thor, they also fight together.

Yellow poster has Witch, Vision, Falcon and War Machine. Falcon and War Machine escort Wanda and Vision to Wakanda so technically they are in the same place during the movie. Does it mean that Vision and Wanda fight on Wakanda’s fields?

There is no orange poster because orange will be the colour of Avengers 4. There is no Hawkeye poster because Hawkeye is dead, Ronin will replace him in next chapter. 

But let’s check IMDb, just for lulz, to see the cast of the movie. All the main names are there. Laura Barton is there, so is her husband. So again, why is Hawkeye not on a poster? Is the Ronin theory less tinfoil than expected? Heimdall, The Collector, Ant-Man – they are there too. Maybe Ant-Man is like Hawkeye – saved for Avengers 4? And can someone explain to me what is Jack Rollins doing there? Jack Rollins is the HYDRA operative, member of STRIKE from Winter Soldier. Why would he resurface now?

So, who will die during Infinity War? It is supposed to be the end of a chapter for Marvel so my guess is that we will see a lot of new characters. And you have to make space for them. Imo:

• Captain has to go. His arch ended, he is no longer Captain America. But he is still America, star spangled banner. But maybe they will not kill him and instead he will retire, probably at Sharon Carter’s side which would sort of match the comics. And Chris Evans’ contract is coming to an end. 2+2, he is gone after A4. But he is gone.
• Tony Stark marries Pepper and retires. RDJ retires, as his contract ends. My bet is that he will still have cameos in the movies – this way he will replace Stan Lee. They will not kill him, they will go full Logan on his ass.
• Hulk…50/50 on this one.
• Vision dies in a spectacular way, along with Wanda.
• Thor is 50/50 for me. But Loki doesn’t make it.
• Heimdall, Valkyrie – gone.
• Bucky survives, so does everything Wakanda.
• Guardians survive sans Drax and Nebula. Drax will die. His whole life was dedicated to killing Thanos. Thanos ends in A4. Drax ends as well. And Nebula? Her arch ends pretty much.
• Hawkeye dies, Ronin lives.
• Dr Strange survives. They only just started with him.
• There is also another option – Strange dies, so does Vision, Thanos has all gems but Soul. And that’s what Part 2 is about. BUT if this was the case, they would keep the “Part 1, Part 2” titles.

I told you there will be tinfoil. The biggest tinfoil of them all is that in Avengers 4 we’re gonna have time travel! Ant-Man and Wasp are supposed to do a bit of cross dimensions travelling in their movie which comes before A4. Is this and/or time travel an explanation for this picture?

This is an older Tony – or maybe an alternative one? – and a very Battle of New York Steve. What is Ant-Man doing there and why are we even revisiting this?? I don’t like time travel, I don’t want to go back!

But Avengers 4 is gonna take a while. We’re just a month away from Infinity War, I’ll worry about time travelling when time comes. Until then… GIVE ME THE MOVIE ALREADY! I really can’t wait for it. But it’s also going to be a goodbye to some of the characters and I am not sure if I want it. I do but I don’t, if that makes sense? 

Damn you, Marvel, for making awesome movies. You have me hooked!