Everyone is so invested in thinking about how the Avengers will take on Thanos that no one is actually thinking about what will exactly happen towards the very end of the film, Avengers 4. Specifically speaking, the big question that people should be asking is that what will be the fate of every Infinity Stone after the Avengers successfully defeat Thanos in their next and possibly final battle against him.
The first three Phases have all been specifically about the Infinity Stones as the story of almost all the Avengers were written around them. They have been the most important relics of the MCU and Avengers: Infinity War was precisely all about them. The 6 Infinity Stones helped Thanos wipe out half the population of the entire Universe, and the Avengers will now fight back to undo what Thanos did. But since these Infinity Stones are so powerful and so overused by now, do you think that the heroes and Marvel would want to base their future upon them again?
The next Phase of MCU is said to be totally different from what we have seen till now, so the Infinity Stones have to go out of the picture and make way for the stories to be based around something else. In the comics, the Illuminati was formed, and they took care of every Infinity Stone as each one of those were dispersed amongst 6 members including Iron Man, Black Bolt, Professor X, Doctor Strange, Mr. Fantastic and Namor. While the MCU version of Illuminati is going to take a lot of time as only 2 members of the team are currently operating, and even amongst those, Iron Man is going to be retired, so the MCU has to try out something different with the Stones.
Or they could do it in a similar way, but only the members and the reasons for them getting the stones have to be different. A theory is given by Reddit user, meme_abstintent proposes a similar outcome for every Infinity Stone as it explains why the Infinity Stones must be given to these characters in particular:
“Strange – Time: Because it’s his.
Captain Marvel – Power: Because she’s the most powerful
The Guardians – Soul: Because Gamora is still in there (the plot of Guardians of the Galaxy 3).
Vision – Mind: Because it’s his.
Scarlet Witch – Reality: I mean, she’s already halfway there power wise.
Tony Stark (retired) – Space (So that he can travel though-out Space when necessary to unite the team or Avengers (he will direct S.W.O.R.D)
Bonus Round: Thor is still alive, but he does not want an Infinity Stone near Asgard again (for obvious reasons).
While the members that this theory gives the stones to do seem a little justified, but the theory does feel a bit incomplete, and vague at some places. Still, it does establish the Infinity Watch which may have the similar job as the Illuminati does. The theory continues to explain that:
“The Infinity Watch will meet again, down the MCU road when needing to assemble or destroy the stones.
The members pledge to protect the stones and to also never use them.
This keeps all of them nerfed, including Doctor Strange. Because let’s face it, if he could just always rewind time, he would be unstoppable.”
The one thing that won’t work will be giving Tony Stark an Infinity Stone. Him being the director of S.W.O.R.D moving to space might be a good way to retire his character, but giving him an Infinity Stone just becomes a greater risk as he did create Ultron who accidentally ended up being a murder bot, so given a Stone with an Infinite power to keep, he himself might become unstoppable. Also, since Tony would not return to the MCU as Robert Downey Jr. will be done with it post-Avengers 4, giving him the stone closes the option of the possibility of its use later in the MCU.
Rest we’ll see what happens in Avengers 4 as it arrives on April 26, 2019. Here’s the official Synopsis:
“A culmination of 22 interconnected films the fourth installment of the Avengers saga will draw audiences to witness the turning point of this epic journey. Our beloved heroes will truly understand how fragile this reality is and the sacrifices that must be made to uphold it.”
