Guardians of The Galaxy Director Explains Marvel Movie Infinity Stones

[MovieBob]

Guardians of The Galaxy Director Explains Marvel Movie Infinity Stones

James Gunn and Marvel set the record straight on their universe's biggest macguffins

Minor Spoilers follow

Though long expected by fans, it wasn't officially stated out loud until Thor: The Dark World that a few of the various all-important magical objects bouncing around the Marvel Cinematic Universe were in fact the movie versions of perennial Marvel Comics shiny-doodads called "Infinity Stones." In the comics the stones (six in total) all have names describing their uses, but in the films have been called by other names... but that was before Guardians of The Galaxy, [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/9615-Guardians-of-the-Galaxy-Surprise-This-Movie-Rocks] which introduces cosmic-scale characters who actually know what the stones are.

Now, Guardians director James Gunn has confirmed via Twitter [https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/496012832106749952] that the purple stone at the center of his film is meant to be the Power Stone. Along with Avengers' Tesseract (Space Stone) and Dark World's Aether (Reality Stone), this brings the number of Stones seen in the Cinematic Universe to three; with Soul, Time and Mind remaining (though many assume the Mind Stone will be revealed as the previously-seen power-source of Loki's mind-control scepter.)

First appearing (in comics) in the early 1970s and originally called "Soul Gems," the Stones began as magic objects wielded by magical/cosmic beings in multiple stories throughout the Marvel Universe. In the early 1990s, Marvel cosmic specialist Jim Starlin used them as the centerpieces of a multi-volume megastory in which they were collected by the supervillain Thanos and installed into a power-concentrated glove called The Infinity Gauntlet, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Infinity_Gauntlet] after which they were typically referred to as "Infinity Stones." A version of the Gauntlet itself, lacking the stones, was glimpsed in the background of Odin's Vault in the original Thor.


Source: James Gunn [https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/496012832106749952]

Permalink

 

[Elfgore]

Yeah, I knew what arc they were going for as soon as I saw the gems in Guardians of the Galaxy. Pretty cool how it all comes together though.

I have to wonder how they'll end this. I'm no expert on them, but doesn't the Infinity Gauntlet make Thanos nigh unstoppable? Going by a most powerful list in Marvel, this puts Thanos behind three people. The God of the Marvel Universe, The Beyonder, who's pretty much a God, and The Living Tribunal, who's pretty much a slightly weaker One Above All. How can our heroes beat him? I'm guessing Deus Ex Machina to the extreme.

That's a problem I have with the Marvel universe. They seem to love people who are ungodly overpowered. People like the Beyonder, Franklin Richards(not a villain, but still someone really overpowered) , and even Galactus who can't seem to be beaten without some cheap copout.

 

[Ferisar]

Yeah, I knew what arc they were going for as soon as I saw the gems in Guardians of the Galaxy. Pretty cool how it all comes together though.

I have to wonder how they'll end this. I'm no expert on them, but doesn't the Infinity Gauntlet make Thanos nigh unstoppable? Going by a most powerful list in Marvel, this puts Thanos behind three people. The God of the Marvel Universe, The Beyonder, who's pretty much a God, and The Living Tribunal, who's pretty much a slightly weaker One Above All. How can our heroes beat him? I'm guessing Deus Ex Machina to the extreme.

That's a problem I have with the Marvel universe. They seem to love people who are ungodly overpowered. People like the Beyonder, Franklin Richards(not a villain, but still someone really overpowered) , and even Galactus who can't seem to be beaten without some cheap copout.

A group of friends overpowering one big meanie jerk through the power of teamwork and friendship (DAYMAN, FIGHTER OF THE N-- Sorry) is kind of a standard story-telling thing, though. That's often the problem with the team-up super-hero things. They either have to face an entire army or one very strong opponent to compensate for their individual ability, especially, when all is said and done, they're kind of overpowered in their own right when taken as individuals. I really never got how comics survived with the level of power-creep that is present in that type of story-telling, but who knows. DBZ was pretty much that: the show, but it's still popular.

On the bright side, the movies are very good fun, so who cares, right?

EDIT:
And, in reality thinking about it, what the groan-worthy power-spikes between the two opposed sides hardly matter as long as the interaction and delivery is good. You can hand-waive a lot of things in the writer's room, especially when your one-sentence franchise summary is: "The good guys win, the bad guys lose BUT...". What has made the Marvel movies good for me thus far is entirely reliant on presentation, characters/character interaction, and set-piece spectacle. Until Morgan Freeman plays God and gets #rekt by Comrade Atheist played by Charles Dance, it's a bit whatever.

 

[tzimize]

Yeah, I knew what arc they were going for as soon as I saw the gems in Guardians of the Galaxy. Pretty cool how it all comes together though.

I have to wonder how they'll end this. I'm no expert on them, but doesn't the Infinity Gauntlet make Thanos nigh unstoppable? Going by a most powerful list in Marvel, this puts Thanos behind three people. The God of the Marvel Universe, The Beyonder, who's pretty much a God, and The Living Tribunal, who's pretty much a slightly weaker One Above All. How can our heroes beat him? I'm guessing Deus Ex Machina to the extreme.

That's a problem I have with the Marvel universe. They seem to love people who are ungodly overpowered. People like the Beyonder, Franklin Richards(not a villain, but still someone really overpowered) , and even Galactus who can't seem to be beaten without some cheap copout.

Yeah, I'm kinda wondering this too. But remember, the movie version of Thanos and the stones might not be as powerful as the comic version. And honestly, up until now...their track record of pulling things of is pretty damn great

I'm very excited about seeing how they manage to pull off the last phases as their universe becomes increasingly magic/incredible. Particularly the Dr. Strange movie might be pivotal to the continuing success I think. That said, they have done a very good job of building characters and focusing on THEM. Also, humor all over the place.

It seems almost impossible that so much awesome movies are already behind us, and that they have plans running into 2028 atm. Can they have a continued success for so long?! I for one, hope so. Seeing the infinity gauntlet realized on film...the mind boggles...

It seems it all is in very good hands though. They stay true enough to the source material, remember their humor and focus on the characters.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I wonder how the remaining three will fitted into place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Spoiler: Spoiler about the current film

Did anyone see the Aether in The Collector room somewhere since I did saw the other one (the cube) making a cameo. I guessing he still got hold of it in his wreak room somewhere (the thing that protect it must be good stuff if it didn't react to the other stone when that servant try to control it).
That remind me, the previous people that try to control the stone but were killed were Celestials? Before you asked, the Celestials were comic like gods infact that Knowhere head is a Celestial head!

 

[tangoprime]

I've kind of figured this was the overarching theme since seeing the Infinity Gauntlet in Odin's Trophy Room back in Thor, then when the Tesseract appeared in Captain America, it began to fall into place.

Spoiler

It's been awesome seeing it start to pay off first in Avengers with Thanos' appearance (which revealed that what unfolded in Avengers was essentially a win-win, getting Loki back to Asgard and in reach of the gauntlet). Later in Thor: The Dark World, we got our glimpse at another infinity stone, further confirming what was going on in the MCU. Now with Guardians, it's out in the open for sure. It'll be fun to see the rest of them come into play, and see what Loki does now having access to the Gauntlet, the Space Gem, and possibly, the Mind Gem.

 

[Gizmo1990]

I wonder how the remaining three will fitted into place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Spoiler: Spoiler about the current film

Did anyone see the Aether in The Collector room somewhere since I did saw the other one (the cub) making a cameo. I guessing he still got hold of it in his wreak room somewhere (the thing that protect it must be good stuff if it didn't react to the other stone when that servant try to control it).

Ant-man is being described as a heist movie so I think that it an infinity stone will be how Pym discovered pym particals and that it will be stolen by the bad guy and thus Pym must teach Scot Lang to be Ant-man to steal it back.

As for Doctor Strange, I would guess that the eye of agumatto will turnn out to be a Infinity stone.

 

[sturryz]

they are not the "Infinity Stones" they are the Infinity GEMS, Infinity Stones kinda trivializes them name-wise.

 

[endtherapture]

I've kind of figured this was the overarching theme since seeing the Infinity Gauntlet in Odin's Trophy Room back in Thor, then when the Tesseract appeared in Captain America, it began to fall into place.

Spoiler

It's been awesome seeing it start to pay off first in Avengers with Thanos' appearance (which revealed that what unfolded in Avengers was essentially a win-win, getting Loki back to Asgard and in reach of the gauntlet). Later in Thor: The Dark World, we got our glimpse at another infinity stone, further confirming what was going on in the MCU. Now with Guardians, it's out in the open for sure. It'll be fun to see the rest of them come into play, and see what Loki does now having access to the Gauntlet, the Space Gem, and possibly, the Mind Gem.

HYDRA have the mind gem right now don't they?

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

they are not the "Infinity Stones" they are the Infinity GEMS, Infinity Stones kinda trivializes them name-wise.

Stone comes fro the films making them more like stones than gems.

 

[Angelous Wang]

I think is a good bet to say that Thanos already has the mind Infinity Stone.

He gave Loki the staff after all (or his minion did), which he prorobly made using the mind Infinity Stone, which is why in Avengers they said it had the same type of energy powering it, but didn't seem to be the same as the Tesseract.

 

[Delock]

I remember hearing somewhere that Avengers 3 might be the Infinity story, not the Infinity Gauntlet one, which would be a bit disappointing after all this build up. Plus we've already had an alien invasion story where technically Thanos's army dropped down to Earth to fight the Avengers.

I mean it would be interesting to seem them change things up, and Infinity would have Thanos's motivations be a bit more dead set against the Avengers, but so far they've been building up this guy as less of Darkseid where he's absurdly powerful AND has an army behind him and more as someone who is vastly powerful but happens to always have tools on hand for his tasks instead.

Of course, as for his tools:

Spoiler

Loki failed and is now in a position opposing him, the Chitauri got nuked, the Speaker's dead, Ronan's probably in the same boat, Nebula's taken a nasty fall and probably isn't in a rush to help dad anytime soon, and Gamora is now a "hero"

so he's not doing too well on that front. Perhaps once he steps into the ring things might go his way a bit better.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

They don't have many movies left in order to reveal all the remaining stones. Have to assume that Thanos already has at least one in his possession (aside from the [probable] mind stone). That would just leave one more, which we can assume will be the center of the last Thor movie, in time for Avengers 3. Unless, the spoilers about the end of Avengers 2 somehow

Spoiler

lead Hulk to coming in to possession of one in a standalone movie.

Finding all the stones on Earth would be a pretty big cop-out. I hope they don't do it that way.

 

[tangoprime]

I've kind of figured this was the overarching theme since seeing the Infinity Gauntlet in Odin's Trophy Room back in Thor, then when the Tesseract appeared in Captain America, it began to fall into place.

Spoiler

It's been awesome seeing it start to pay off first in Avengers with Thanos' appearance (which revealed that what unfolded in Avengers was essentially a win-win, getting Loki back to Asgard and in reach of the gauntlet). Later in Thor: The Dark World, we got our glimpse at another infinity stone, further confirming what was going on in the MCU. Now with Guardians, it's out in the open for sure. It'll be fun to see the rest of them come into play, and see what Loki does now having access to the Gauntlet, the Space Gem, and possibly, the Mind Gem.

HYDRA have the mind gem right now don't they?

That's right, thank you for the correction, in my 4AM haze I'd totally forgotten that they had it as of Winter Soldier, which makes sense, since SHIELD kept it after Avengers.

 

[tangoprime]

I think is a good bet to say that Thanos already has the mind Infinity Stone.

He gave Loki the staff after all (or his minion did), which he prorobly made using the mind Infinity Stone, which is why in Avengers they said it had the same type of energy powering it, but didn't seem to be the same as the Tesseract.

Spoiler

As someone corrected me earlier, and I now recall, HYDRA has it as of the events in Winter Soldier, since SHIELD kept the staff at the end of Avengers. In the reveal at the end of Winter Soldier, the staff is visible at the HYDRA research facility

 

[Fappy]

Wait... why the fuck did they mix up what all the colors are? Just to confuse people? I understand them changing blue since the cosmic cube was an iconic artifact they wanted to use from the get-go, but \why change the rest? I figured the red one in Thor 2 was Power and the purple one in Guardians was Space...

 

[Tarkand]

I have to wonder how they'll end this. I'm no expert on them, but doesn't the Infinity Gauntlet make Thanos nigh unstoppable? Going by a most powerful list in Marvel, this puts Thanos behind three people. The God of the Marvel Universe, The Beyonder, who's pretty much a God, and The Living Tribunal, who's pretty much a slightly weaker One Above All. How can our heroes beat him? I'm guessing Deus Ex Machina to the extreme.

Thanos actually takes on all the gods of the marvel universe and wins with the Infinity Gauntlet.

Adam Warlock holds the gauntlet for a short period after Thanos loses it, and he is confronted by the Living Tribunal - the Living Tribunal decides to let him choose if he can keep the gauntlet or not, rather than fight him, as the outcome would be uncertain.

The Gauntlet makes one omnipotent basically.

EDIT: Nvm, just opened up my box of all comic, yeah, Living Tribunal is stronger than the gauntlet and you said GOD, not gods... so I was mistaken there.

 

[ryukage_sama]

So they dropped to original colors for the stones. It makes a lot more sense now, especially the reality stone being fluid, since it can rework reality as a whole.

I'm interested to see how they introduce the Soul Gem ("Soul Stone"?). It will probably be with Doctor Strange. I wish it could be with Adam Warlock, but I don't know how they would go about bringing his character into the MCU. He interacts with Thanos more than pretty much anybody, and the two have a "frienemy" sort of relationship. I look forward to seeing more of Thanos since he's such a interesting villain.

 

[skylog]

Wait... why the fuck did they mix up what all the colors are? Just to confuse people? I understand them changing blue since the cosmic cube was an iconic artifact they wanted to use from the get-go, but \why change the rest? I figured the red one in Thor 2 was Power and the purple one in Guardians was Space...

I'm wondering that myself. It's a small thing to get hung up about, but then, if it's so small, why change it in the first place?

 

[Remus]

I wonder how the remaining three will fitted into place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Spoiler: Spoiler about the current film

Did anyone see the Aether in The Collector room somewhere since I did saw the other one (the cube) making a cameo. I guessing he still got hold of it in his wreak room somewhere (the thing that protect it must be good stuff if it didn't react to the other stone when that servant try to control it).
That remind me, the previous people that try to control the stone but were killed were Celestials? Before you asked, the Celestials were comic like gods infact that Knowhere head is a Celestial head!

Well, the purple gem was shown being wielded by

Spoiler

Eson The Searcher. It was attached to his staff. The aliens that tried to wield the gems together weren't Celestials - they might have been Kree. They were more or less human-sized, not big enough to eat planets like the Celestials are.

And yea, sucks that the colors are mixed up, but it was likely the domino effect of them wanting to introduce the cube as one of the gems. I'm with the general consensus - the mind gem has been introduced already and is in the hands of Hydra. I would not be surprised if this becomes a subplot in Avengers 2, likely causing events that could easily lead to

Spoiler

World War Hulk

Side note: Got that weird captcha asking for my e-mail, saying "We have noticed suspicious activity related to your internet address". Yea suspicious indeed. I'm not giving out my e-mail no matter how many times it asks. Mods, do something about this.