Infinity War Concept Art:
Avengers: Infinity War was a big McGuffin chase event as Thanos finally stood up from his chair and went straight after the Infinity Stones like a Meteor shower coming for a planet! Before the film came out, we all knew where Thanos could find 5 of the Infinity Stones and Thor: Ragnarok already ended with Thanos going for one.
But the Soul Stone was the only Gem which we knew nothing about. The reveal of the Soul Stone was one of the story arcs of Infinity War, but even after so much fuss for it, we didn’t really get to know the true strength of it.
Red Skull mentioned that the Soul Stone holds a very special place amongst the 6 Infinity Stones, but Infinity War did not specifically do anything to justify the “why” for that. It did set up the basis for it, but the Soul Stone was not specifically used a lot in the film. In fact, it was only used once before Thanos attacked Thor and made the Snap at the end.
In the commentary for Avengers: Infinity War, Co-Writer Stephen McFeely, and Directors Joe Russo & Anthony Russo talked about the one time the Soul Stone was specifically used by Thanos. Here’s what they had to say:
“McFeely: Joe and Anthony had a peculiar obsession with “The Raven.”
Joe: I did. I loved “The Raven” growing up. And I wanted to see a scene in this movie where Thanos’ full powers went against Doctor Strange’s full powers… And this is one of the only uses of the Soul Stone in the film.
McFeely: Right
Joe: Right there.
Anthony: Until its final use.”
The scene that these creatives are talking about here is when we got the visually spectacular moment where Doctor Strange makes numerous copies of himself and uses every one of those to hold off Thanos by attempting to snare the Mad Titan in a net of energy bands.
Now if you focused properly here, you would have noticed that the Power Stone and the Soul Stone were glowing as Thanos sent back a mighty reply using the power stone, while the Soul Stone helped him to figure out the real Doctor Strange who had a Soul eliminating all other Soulless copies at once!
While this scene was pretty amazing, we did not really get to see the real power of the Infinity Stone over here. We could only imagine that it will be shown to us in Avengers 4, but we will have to wait for that to happen.
Until then, it is good to know that the early plans of Infinity War did have the usage of the Soul Stone in play as we do get to see that now through a Concept Art that has made its way online. Have a look:
This is one of the various leaks that have hit the net through a book called Avengers: Infinity War – The Art of the Movie, as this book contains all the various concept arts that went unused in the film.
The one in question showcases Thanos using the Soul Stone and we can actually see him torturing the souls of Star-Lord, Drax, Mantis, Nebula and Tony Stark. The scene obviously takes place on Titan and it would have involved Peter Parker & Doctor Strange as well since they were there as well.
Honestly, after hyping up the Soul Stone so much, we would have loved to see this scene in particular, but we could imagine that it will come into a major use in Avengers 4, so that is why the creatives of the film might have opted against using this scene in Infinity War.
The Soul Stone holds a special place amongst the 6 Stones of Infinite power as it has its own world, called the Soul World. It has been confirmed that we saw the Soul World at the end of Infinity War when Thanos talked to baby Gamora. Also, recent reports have established the Quantum Realm with the Soul Stone so it will be interesting how Marvel connects all dots and builds upon the Soul Stone.
Avengers 4 comes out on May 3, 2019.
