The Soul Stone has arguably been one of the biggest mysteries within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since the first Thor film introduced the Tesseract as a mysterious source of power that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been experimenting on as they brought Erik Selvig onboard, it’s been a very long drawn out hunt gathering all the locations of all the Infinity Stones. And now that Avengers: Infinity War has finally arrived, we now know where the final Stone was being hidden.
But for a long time in the run up to the huge ensemble film, it wasn’t 100% clear where it was, and there’s definitely some red herrings thrown out by Marvel. And since the internet picked up early on the obvious missing Stone, it did what it does best: speculate. Pulling in theories made up of information from the comics lore, upcoming movies and surprising character traits -- we’ve looked into some of the most interesting Soul Stone theories that actually turned out to be false. From Wakanda, Heimdall and even mirror universes, we’ve really gone down the rabbit hole on this one. Here is your final spoiler warning before you read 20 fan theories about the Soul Stone that turned out wrong.
20 BEHIND ODIN’S EYE PATCH
Whilst the first Thor film might’ve established Norse mythology into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as the franchise thundered on it became very clear that whilst Asgard and the Gods were ethereal and mystical -- they were just extremely advanced aliens. It was a great way of introducing these characters whilst still ensuring there was a practical backstory. And this is where fans began looking for hints towards the Soul Stone.
With some thinking Heimdall had the Stone and used it to see all the souls in the cosmos, there was another prominent theory many had their eye on.
Screen Rant suggested that the Soul Stone was actually behind Odin’s eye patch. No, really. And to be fair, it does make sense. Having the Infinity Stone as the source of the ‘Odinforce’ explains his immense power. We know from Thor and Thor: The Dark World that Odin waged wars across the nine realms to ensure its’ safety, this could also have been to keep the Stone happy, since it requires souls to feed it. It even explains another theory, that Heimdall was given the powers of the Soul Stone since it allows the user to share its abilities with anyone it chooses. However, this clearly wasn’t the case by the time Infinity War rolled around, but it would’ve worked so well.
19 SCARLET WITCH
Out of all the characters that could have the Soul Stone, Scarlet Witch seemed like one of the least likely. But one theory on reddit seemed to think that this was a red herring to hide the true location of the Stone and explain the true extent of her powers. Specifically, it refers back to her actions during Captain America: Civil War and what supposedly really happened at the end of the airport fight scene.
When Vision accidentally shoots down War Machine, the theory suggests that since Wanda was in close vicinity of Vision at the time, she was able to manipulate the powers that the Mind Stone grants him. And since Infinity Stones do sense when others are near, that does make some sense. However the theory doesn’t attempt to dive into the reasoning behind Scarlet Witch having the Soul Stone in the first place, only suggesting that it’s the two Stones that are attracted to each other and not Wanda or Vision. Plus, it would make more sense that she’s strangely attracted to the Mind Stone since that’s how Wanda and Pietro originally got their powers before Age of Ultron’s beginning. We’re not surprised Kevin Feige didn’t choose Wanda as the keeper of the Stone.
18 CAPTAIN AMERICA
Another character supposedly in control of the Soul Stone was Captain America, according to the New Rockstars, thanks to a slight yellow/orange tinge to Steve’s eyes and the immense strength he’s using to hold Thanos back during that Wakandan fight scene. Alongside nearly being able to lift Mjolnir in Age of Ultron, his strength is clearly fantastic.
They also suggest that since the rest of the Infinity Stones cause characters’ eyes to shift to the signifying color of the stone that the yellow/orange tinge is a hint towards that.
And finally, they round in the Wakandan theory that the Soul Stone is in the meteorite, suggesting that whilst Cap is in Wakanda to get Bucky he’s allowed to take the heart shaped herb and is given superior strength because of the Soul Stone. We’re guessing it would make his soul more resilient, but the theory just seemed a little too coincidental to us, as it pulled in far too many elements just to get it towards Steve Rogers. We already know that Cap is an incredibly powerful human being in the MCU, let’s just leave it at that. Luckily, this wasn’t the case, but Cap wasn’t strong enough to hold back Thanos for long.
17 ADAM WARLOCK
When Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ended and the credits rolled, we were treated to a scene that confirmed the High Priestess Ayesha was creating the perfect being using a special birthing pod that had depleted the Sovereign’s resources. We’d seen a proto-version of the pod during a scene at the Collector’s facility on Knowhere before, and this new pod was definitely far more advanced.
The theory suggests that in between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 and Avengers: Infinity War, Adam Warlock had been born. And after his birth, Ayesha took the Soul Stone that had supposedly been adorned on the top of the pod and fixed it to Adam’s forehead, similar to how he owned it in the comics. However, James Gunn quickly shot down any rumor of Warlock appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe within the next year since there are specific plans for Warlock’s introduction. Supposedly, this means he’ll be making his entrance in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 -- which is a shame since that won’t be for a few years. It would’ve been great for the incredibly iconic character to appear alongside some of the things he’s most famous for, the Infinity Stones. But who knows what James Gunn has in store for us...
16 COULSON
Wait, what? Agent Phil Coulson is the Soul Stone? Well, not quite. This theory blends some thematic notes from Coulson’s arc during the MCU as well as his handy resurrection that kickstarted Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. To start with, it mentions that Coulson was the very soul of the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since he appeared Iron Man, Thor, the One-Shots and The Avengers, the theory suggested that he was the thing that continuously inspired heroism in the team without them knowing it. This only grows further when he’s killed by Loki during his escape from the Helicarrier.
Then, it moves on to suggest that T.A.H.I.T.I. was actually part of the pocket dimension within the Soul Stone, the Soul World.
All that and that he was able to be revived because of the fragment of his soul kept within the Stone and when he became the Ghost Rider, he was able to do so because he’s cosmically enhanced. Now obviously, this is a theory mainly for fans of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. but we know that Marvel TV and the film division are kept quite separately so it’s really not surprising that this did not come around for Avengers: Infinity War.
15 CAPTAIN MARVEL’S NEW HOME
We’re all avidly awaiting Captain Marvel’s live action debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but since many of the Infinity Stones were introduced in solo movies, many fans assumed that she would be the way that the Soul Stone would be introduced. However that would mean that Infinity War wouldn’t include the Stone, which would be disappointing. We’ve previously assumed that the Soul Stone would appear in a similar manner to the recent retcon of the Stones’ origin in the comics.
During her adventures in a mirror universe, Captain Marvel discovers an Infinity Stone after crossing paths with a mirror version of Star-Lord named Lord Starkill. However, to start with, this stone she comes across is actually the Reality Stone rather than the Soul Stone. And even though a mirror universe would explain where Captain Marvel has been all this time since the MCU began, it’s been blown out of the water already thanks to Thanos finding the Stone on Vormir. It was a heartbreaking introduction to the Stone with Gamora’s death, but we think it resonated with audiences more than a mirror universe would. But at the same time, it would also be a tidy explainer for her absence.
14 T.H.A.N.O.S. THEORY
One of the most popular theories floating around the internet for the last year or so has been the T.H.A.N.O.S. theory. It suggests that each Stone is housed by something that equates to a letter of Thanos’ name. Tesseract for the Space Stone, Aether for the Reality Stone, Necklace for the Time Stone, Orb for the Power Stone and Scepter for the Mind Stone. Although first off, does anyone really refer to the Eye of Agamotto as a necklace? We sure don’t.
But it all led to multiple theories regarding the letter ‘H’ to try tie the Soul Stone into the T.H.A.N.O.S. theory.
Spanning from Howard Stark using the Stone to create Tony, to the Heart Shape Herb being a creation of the Stone thanks to its crash landing in Wakanda all the way up to Heimdall having the Stone within his head. There have been plenty of theories tying into it. However unless you count the ‘H’ in Johann Schmidt, aka The Red Skull, who guards the shrine on Vormir the theory fails now that the Soul Stone has been revealed during Avengers: Infinity War. We’re glad that the writers wholly decided on choosing their own path rather than just following fan theories.
13 IT WON’T APPEAR AT ALL
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has frequently used the Infinity Stones as macguffins, aka plot devices, throughout several instalments of the long running franchise. They’ve been at the heart of post-credits scenes, in the midst of city-shattering events and the occasional attempt at warping dimensions. But with the Soul Stone still missing in action in the run-up to Infinity War, some fans believed that Marvel were hyping up the reveal so much that it was not going to arrive during the ensemble film.
The theory pointed out that usually the Stones are the focal point of a singular movie rather than a team up adventure. And whilst the Stones were a part of The Avengers and Age of Ultron, they weren’t were the audience was focused on. And since Thanos was such an intimidating character, the theory suggested that we wouldn’t learn the location of the Stone at all and that’s how the heroes would defeat Thanos, since his Gauntlet wouldn’t be complete. It backed this up by using the confirmation that Adam Warlock was coming in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. It incorrectly assuming that his origin would be tied into the Soul Stone since there is a synergy between the hero and the Stone within the comics.
12 TITAN
When the first trailer for Infinity War debuted on our screens, it showed us the far reaches of the cosmos. Specifically, a very orange looking planet that Tony and some of the other characters were fighting Thanos on. And in one particularly poignant moment, Tony looked to be incredibly upset in the clear aftermath of a battle with Thanos. And this huge planet seemed to have varying types of gravity since there were rocks floating across the atmosphere, and it seemed almost ethereal.
This led fans to believe that we were actually being shown the Soul Stone and this final battle was taking place within the pocket dimension within the Stone.
The orange hue of the planet matched the color of the missing Stone and it would’ve been a great way of dialing the stakes down if their fight was contained within its own dimension. But later on it was confirmed that this was actually the planet Titan, Thanos’ decimated homeworld. And it was actually his motivation for his quest to rid the universe of half the life. Some did think that the actual planet itself was the Soul Stone, but that borders on Ego the Living Planet territory from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
11 THE SOVEREIGN
During Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, James Gunn introduced us all to the Sovereign which is his way of teasing the introduction of Adam Warlock into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We saw the Sovereign exhaust themselves of numerous resources throughout the film, and their High Priestess pushed them into desperation by the post-credits scene as she claims she’s made the perfect being, and intends to call him… “Adam”. This is a chilling moment, since the Sovereign were a villainous component to the second Guardians film, so will they try turn Adam Warlock against the lovable team of rogues?
We do see a brief shot of this new birthing pod that she’s created, and it has a distinctive glowing light at the top of it. When fans first saw the film, it was suggested that the Soul Stone was being used by Ayesha to bring Adam Warlock to life, and it would end up being embedded in his forehead. But James Gunn later killed the theory by saying that there are specific plans for Adam Warlock in the MCU down the line, most likely with the third Guardians of the Galaxy film. So for those expecting to see Adam Warlock debut during Infinity War, we’re sorry to disappoint you.
10 NEBULA
As Infinity War grew closer and closer, fans began to look further afield for where the Soul Stone could be hiding. Perhaps connected to a character with an already established emotional backstory so that their potential death would cause tension and heartbreak amongst the other characters within the film. And since we knew that Gamora would feature heavily thanks to the quick shot of her as a child on her homeworld -- fans quickly questioned what exactly was keeping her cybernetic sister Nebula alive. She seemed to be able to come back from the most horrific injuries, but what was it that kept her going?
The theory guessed that somewhere within Nebula was a unique power source that held all of these robotic parts and the remains of her together.
It would explain why the Stone hadn’t featured in any of the other films beforehand, since Thanos would know where it was, but would cause heartbreak for Gamora if killing Nebula was the only way of getting the stone. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case, although we did see a painful scene showing Nebula being pulled apart piece by piece by Thanos. Disney weren’t holding back with the torture during Infinity War at all.
9 AVENGERS 4
But imagine if after all this time and hype about the location of the last Infinity Stone and it didn’t even appear during Infinity War? That might’ve pushed fans over the edge if they didn’t receive answers on where the Soul Stone has been kept and who by. But one theory suggested that its’ introduction was going to be too big to contest with Thanos attempting to assemble the Infinity Gauntlet and connecting all these different heroes as they try to stop him.
The idea was that the Soul Stone’s location would be discovered towards the end of Infinity War and then the race to find it would happen during Avengers 4. This mainly stemmed from the idea that originally Avengers 4 was going to be Infinity War: Part II. And that the discovery of the Soul Stone was going to be the cliffhanger that set the Avengers in a race against time as Thanos also made his play for it. It also reasoned that each Avengers film so far has centered around an Infinity Stone; The Avengers being the Space Stone and Age of Ultron being the Mind Stone. We’re glad we got answers though, because otherwise we would not have had that incredibly powerful ending.
8 HULK
We all know that Lego sets have the tendency to occasionally spoil the plot of a film. And with the Avengers it’s happened for numerous films. And of course, Infinity War was no different, or so we thought. One of the Lego sets featured the Wakandan fight scene with the Avengers fighting the Outriders and the Black Order.
Specifically, it came with Bruce Banner and the Hulkbuster that he wears in the film, but one of the accessories that also came with the set was the Soul Stone itself.
Now whilst some thought this would mean the Soul Stone was hidden in Wakanda, other fans theorized that before the Hulk crash lands to Earth -- he’s given the Soul Stone by someone on the Asgardian ship that he was on at the end of Thor: Ragnarok. Although why he’d be wielding it in battle against the Outriders didn’t really make sense, surely they’d want to keep the Stone as secret as possible. But luckily, this was just a misleading toy with no actual accuracy when it comes to the real location of the Soul Stone. We hope they don’t make a Lego Vormir sacrificial mountain, that would be very grim thanks to what Thanos does to Nebula.
7 THANOS
This theory could quite possibly be the most annoying of them all. Mainly, because it suggests that Marvel would choose the easy way out and spend more time with the conflict between the Avengers and Thanos rather than actually giving the audience some closure about the location of one of the most important artifacts in the MCU over the past decade. The suggested reason that there hasn’t been an appearance of the Soul Stone is because Thanos had already found it, and all the footage shown off during the trailers had been edited so that we couldn’t see it fixed into the Gauntlet.
The theory mentions that since all of the Infinity Stones are attracted to one another, it would make sense that it’s easier to find more of them if you already possess some. Luckily, the film doesn’t go down this route with the Soul Stone, however it does use this plot point with the Power Stone. We never once see Thanos decimate Xandar or the Nova Corps, we simply hear about the event instead. So whilst the theory was partially right, it just didn’t have the right stone in mind. We’re glad though, otherwise we wouldn’t have got THAT cameo.
6 NORWAY
Totally set apart from the usual theories, one suggestion sees the Soul Stone actually concealed in Norway. Why Norway, you ask? Well during Iron Man 2, S.H.I.E.L.D. was keeping an eye on Norway on the giant map that also teased Wakanda. And although the Space Stone/Tesseract was found there and propelled the Red Skull into supervillainy during Captain America: The First Avenger, the really important part comes from Thor: Ragnarok.
The theory suggests that since Odin continues to appear to Thor in visions after his death, that his soul is kept there.
Add the to the fact that Odin’s body disintegrates into a flurry of orange light that could’ve matched the same hue of the Infinity Stone, that’s why his soul still manages to discuss Thor’s powers with him after his death. And since Norway was the place that Asgard eventually settled to in the comics at one point, it would make sense that Odin’s soul from the Stone could draw them there. Unfortunately for Asgard, there’s a slight flaw in that theory: Thanos destroying their ship, killing Heimdall and Loki, along with many other citizens. These Asgardians haven’t had anywhere close to an easy time over the past few films, have they?
5 TIME
We’ve all known for a while that thanks to the inclusion of the Time Stone in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there was going to be an element of time travel along the way during Avengers: Infinity War at some point. And after seeing the film, there wasn’t as much as we expected. But one theory suspected that time travel was going to be a key aspect to finding the Soul Stone after Kevin Feige confirmed that the giant orange planet was Titan, Thanos’ decimated homeworld. Feige said that Titan is “no longer inhabited because of things he thought he could help prevent and he was not allowed to do that”.
The theory suggests that the Soul Stone absorbed all the inhabitant’s souls and Thanos wants to travel back in time using the Time Stone to prevent that from happening and take the Soul Stone to assemble the Infinity Gauntlet. Which actually is a decent idea, but unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. Titan went extinct because of over-population and mass consumption. But after the devastating ending, it’s most likely time travel will heavily play into Avengers 4. Whether that’s to stop Thanos from ever assembling the Gauntlet or to grab more heroes on the Avengers side, remains to be seen.
4 NICK FURY & CAPTAIN MARVEL
When Ryan Coogler and Kevin Feige seemed to steer fans away from the Soul Stone in Wakanda theory, it seemed as if we might not even see the missing Stone during Avengers: Infinity War. And with the Captain Marvel solo film on the horizon, fans began looking back into the past for the answers, since Carol Danvers origin story will take place in the '90s. The theory suggests that Nick Fury actually found the Soul Stone back then, and guessed that it had similar powers to the Tesseract that S.H.I.E.L.D. already had in their possession.
The theory goes onto even tie in the reason why we haven’t met Captain Marvel in the MCU just yet.
This is all because she’s been out in deep space hiding the Soul Stone from the entire cosmos and everyone on Earth. Although why Fury would shoot the Soul Stone into space and then decide to simply keep the Tesseract on Earth doesn’t exactly make sense. Clearly, this theory didn’t play out, as the Soul Stone did appear during Infinity War and Captain Marvel was sent a distress signal from Fury. So she probably is in deep space somewhere fighting in the Kree-Skrull War, hence her absence in the MCU.
3 TONY STARK
When Infinity War was approaching, we got a look at a group of posters that showed off all the Infinity Stones alongside various characters. For the most part, the characters used for each stone were related in some way. The Space Stone had Captain America on it for example. But on the Soul Stone, Iron Man was the biggest character featured in the design. So that led fans down the rabbit hole that somewhere along the line, it was related to Tony Stark, the character that really kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The idea also pieced together the final showdown we saw with Thanos punching Iron Man as hard as he could into the rubble of Titan. He was attempting to cave his skull in since the Soul Stone was inside his brain. In the Ultimate Universe, Tony Stark actually had one of the Infinity Stones hidden in his brain, and it spawned an entirely separate personality named Anthony. And since Howard Stark constantly referred to Tony as his greatest invention, many believed that he brought him to life using a Soul Stone. Obviously, we now know that the Soul Stone was in a completely separate area of the galaxy, but at least the theory’s fun.
2 HEIMDALL
When discussing ideas for where the Soul Stone could be, many fans realized that it could be hidden within another character. Since this would then cause tension if Thanos was coming for it, that character would likely die in his quest. It would have to be someone that had a relative power to that of the Stone with signifying colors to the orange hue it emits and it could’ve been right in front of us since the fledgling days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
On Asgard, Heimdall had the ability to see across the entire universe, easily focusing on specific individuals.
He was able to tell Thor exactly what Jane was doing at the end of his first solo film. This led some fans to believe that he could see every soul in the universe because he had the power of the Soul Stone within him, specifically -- his eyes. Since they glowed orange, many believed that Odin had bestowed the Soul Stone to Asgard’s protector so he could see all the souls in the universe and see when an Asgardian wanted to return home. But Infinity War very quickly snuffed that theory out when Heimdall was killed by Corvus Glaive.
1 WAKANDA
After Black Panther was introduced during Captain America: Civil War, fans began to assume that the Soul Stone would be associated with him since we’ve never visited Wakanda (until now) and the city state could be a great hiding place. Although Ryan Coogler ensured everyone that he wouldn’t be tying the solo film to the rest of the MCU because there were enough world-shattering ramifications at stake thanks to Erik Killmonger. But that didn’t stop fans from speculating about the origins of the country tying into the hunt for the Soul Stone.
At the beginning of Black Panther we get a brief introduction about a meteorite of pure vibranium falling to Earth and Wakanda being built atop of it. The theory suggests that the Soul Stone was encased in the Vibranium so it couldn’t be found, and then shot off into space so not even the person who hid it would know its location. Then, when the trailers for Infinity War showed a huge battle taking place in Wakanda, this only added more strength to the theory. Was Thanos making a final play for the missing Infinity Stone perhaps? No, he was actually trying to get his hands on Vision’s Mind Stone.