Black Panther is wrapping up a world-dominating weekend at the box office, impressing fans and critics alike, and getting people excited for the next time we see this cast, which will be in The Avengers: Infinity War.
There were relatively few tie-ins from Black Panther to the rest of the MCU, just a few characters like Ross and Klaue, and of course references to the events of Civil War. But many fans believe that Wakanda is going to take center stage in the pending Infinity War conflict for one particular reason: it’s home to an Infinity Stone.
There are six stones that Thanos is going to try to collect for his superpowered gauntlet. Throughout the course of the MCU, we’ve located most of them already. Loki’s Tesseract houses the Space Stone. The Collector has the Reality Stone. The Power Stone was in the Guardians of the Galaxy orb. The Mind Stone is in Vision’s forehead. The Time Stone was seen in Doctor Strange as the core of a mystical device.
That leaves just one, the Soul Stone. Some speculate that Thanos might already have that one, showing up with at least one stone already socketed. But others believe that the Soul Stone is in Wakanda instead.
We know that Wakanda is a hugely important battleground in Infinity War, as we’ve seen many scenes in the trailer of Black Panther, Winter Soldier, Hulk, Captain America and others fighting off Thanos’ armies there, and why else would he be invading Wakanda if not to continue his quest for all the stones? I suppose you could argue that by the end of Black Panther (mild spoilers ahead), Wakanda would be the technological and resource capital of the entire planet, given its Vibranium stores that they’re sharing them with the rest of the world, but isn’t it possible there’s more to it than that?
The theory is as follows:
- The Soul Stone came crashing down to earn inside the giant Vibranium meteor that is the core of Wakandan society. Maybe it was just a meteor, maybe it was a piece of a dead Celestial or something like that.
- It seems possible the Soul Stone might be located under or near the garden of the “heart-shaped flowers,” draining into them and allowing them to make the Black Panther powerful. Vibranum might draw all of its power and potential from this Soul Stone.
- In the comics, the Soul Stone can steal and control the souls of the living and the dead, making it one of the most powerful stones. While I don’t know about stealing living souls, we do see that after drinking the heart-shaped flower potion, the ascending Black Panther goes into the ancestral realm to speak with…the souls of their dead predecessors. If that’s not Soul Stone-related, I don’t know what is.
It makes a lot of sense, as the Soul Stone is the only stone we haven’t seen, elements of it do seem like they could connect to what we’ve just seen in Black Panther, and we know that Wakanda is a major front of the war when Thanos invades. The counterpoint is that these are all just assumptions. Marvel has a habit of teasing Infinity Stones in movies and in post-credits sequences at the very least, but Black Panther never says outright the Soul Stone is there. Possibly because no one but Thanos even knows it’s there, but also possibly because well, it isn’t there. Which makes this just a theory.
Personally, I buy it. There’s enough evidence, however circumstantial, that paints Wakanda and the flower garden in particular as the most likely location of the Soul Stone, and I suppose we’ll know for sure when Thanos rolls in to carve up Wakanda.
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