Thanos 

For the past 10 years, Marvel has been building up it’s ultimate big bad – Thanos, the purple, mad titan we saw sitting on a floating chair in the post-credit scenes of Marvel’s The Avengers (2012). 

What does he want? We can’t be sure, but we know his objective is to collect the six infinity stones, unite them in his Infinity Gauntlet and, with the unprecedented amount of power they provide, probably take over the galaxy. 

Infinity stones 

There are six infinity stones that slot into Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet. Unsure of what they are? That’s why you’re reading this. 

1. The Space Stone 

We get our first look at an infinity stone during the post-credit scenes in Thor (2011), when S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury hands Erik Selvig the Tesseract – which we now know is the Space Stone – and asks him to study it. 

We find out more about the Tesseract and its powr, which can alter the fabric of space, as well as how it fell into the hands of The Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). We last saw the Tesseract seemingly in the hands of Loki in Thor: Ragnarok (2017). 

2. The Mind Stone 

In Marvel’s The Avengers (2012), Thanos sent god of mischief Loki to Earth, and was entrusted with the Mind Stone in the form of his sceptre, allowing him to control the minds of others. 

The Avengers recovered said sceptre, and Tony Stark’s experimentation on the infinity stone led to the birth of Ultron, which led to the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). 

The Mind Stone now sits in the forehead of Vision, who is an Avenger with the mind of Tony Stark’s A.I. J.A.R.V.I.S., encased in a synthetic vibranium body.

3. Reality Stone

We first catch a glimpse of the Reality Stone in Thor: The Dark World (2013), also known as the Aether which allowed it to warp reality, when it took over Jane Foster and almost killed her. 

After being extracted from her, Asgardians Sif and Volstagg brought the Reality Stone to Knowhere, and it was handed to The Collector for safekeeping. 

4. The Power Stone

Good music and dance battles weren’t the only important thing we saw in Guardians of The Galaxy (2014). We see Star Lord steal the Orb that contained the Power Stone and has immense destructive power, which led to a galaxy-wide hunt. 

The stone was eventually handed over to the Nova Corps on Xandar for protection, which is where it was last seen. 

5. The Time Stone

We see the Time Stone in Doctor Strange (2016), stored inside the Eye of Agamotto, which came into Doctor Stephen Strange’s possession, and was used to alter time to defeat Cosmic Conquerer and Destroyer of Worlds – Dormammu. 

We last saw it again in Thor: Ragnarok (2017) still hanging around Strange’s neck in his cameo appearance, while he helped Thor and Loki find Odin.

6. The Soul Stone 

Finally, we have the Soul Stone, which has not made an appearance yet in any of the previous Marvel movies. 

Fan theories and speculation all point in the direction of Wakanda, the home land of Black Panther (2018), and the comics tell us that the Soul Stone can collect and trap souls within itself. 

Avengers Team-up

It all began when Nick Fury approached Tony Stark about the “Avengers Initiative”, which was a the first step in the lead-up to the eventual awesome team-up. 

The events of Marvel’s The Avengers (2012) was the first time we watched our heroes Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye and The Black Widow work together to collectively defeat the Chitauri invasion in New York. 

The next big team-up happened in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), as our team of superheroes worked together again to defeat Tony Stark’s creation Ultron. We were also introduced to two new additions to the team Vision and Scarlet Witch. 

Captain America: Civil War (2016) although a Captain America movie, also starred our full group of heroes, and centred around whether the government should have control over the superheroes or not. Captain America was staunchly against this, because he was working to save his friend and wanted criminal Bucky, also known as The Winter Soldier. 

Stark, still reeling from the guilt of creating Ultron and the destruction of Sokovia, believed that the Avengers needed government supervision.

The #TeamCap versus #TeamStark showdown had Captain America, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye and Antman on one side, and Iron Man, War Machine, Black Panther, Black Widow and the newly introduced Spider-Man on the other. 

The movie ended with Captain America escaping to Wakanda with an injured Bucky in tow, and the rest of #TeamCap caught and in isolation by the government. 

What to expect from ‘Avengers: Infinity War’

The premise of the movie will be the Avengers coming together with the goal of stopping Thanos, our supervillain from collecting all the infinity stones.

What we know so far from the trailer and previous movies is that we can expect some awesome team-ups, fight scenes, and weird character pairings that result in hilarious exchanges.

We’re going to see our favourite Guardians of the Galaxy. Let’s not forget that Gamora and Nebula are the adopted daughters of Thanos, and they both have a bone to pick with daddy dearest. 

Then we’ve got Thor, who we know from the trailer will be together with the Guardians of the Galaxy team. 

We last saw Thor’s escape into space from Asgard with the surviving Asgardians, and we see their ship running into what we can assume is an enemy fleet. 

Perhaps he was rescued by the Guardians? We shall see. 

Thor the god of thunder, Rocket the talking raccoon and Groot... the groot? 

We can’t wait for the hilarity to ensue, once Thor is back on his feet of course. 

We don’t quite know what will happen to Loki in the Asgardian’s ship attack, but the God of Mischief will definitely be making an appearance in Avengers: Infinity War. 

Meanwhile back on Earth, Iron Man/Tony Stark is with Bruce Banner/Hulk, and they’ve met Doctor Strange and Wong. 

We also see Peter Parker/Spider-Man on a school bus with his spidey senses tingling in the form of raised arm hairs. Then he’s getting suited up to join the team. 

#WakandaForever: Let’s not forget Wakanda. 

Our heroes will definitely be heading to the vibranium-filled lands under the rule of kind T’Chaka/Black Panther. 

We know Shuri is the brains behind almost all of Wakanda’s scientific advancements, and her first encounters with the brilliant mind of Bruce Banner is sure to be fruitful. 

We also see Falcon and the Hulkbuster in the middle of a big battle on Wakanda, so there’s that fight scene to look forward to. 

Will Thanos succeed in uniting the infinity stones? 

Will our heroes defeat him? And the biggest question of all: how many of our favourite Avengers will perish in their battle of good versus evil? 

With 10 years worth of MCU movies in the lead-up to Avengers: Infinity War, the release is bound to have us gripping the edges of our seats. 

Avengers: Infinity War is slated for international release on April 25, with additional openings on April 26 and 27, before being released in the United States on April 27, in IMAX and 3D.

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