With Avengers: Infinity War a little over a month away, we take a look at the location of the six Infinity Stones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how Thanos might go about getting his hands on them...

Avengers: Infinity War is going to revolve around Thanos collecting the Infinity Stones so he can restore order to the universe (presumably by wiping out half of it and controlling the other half). Marvel Studios has been teasing the presence of these powerful artefacts since Captain America: The First Avenger was released in 2011, so no one would blame you for losing track of where they all are!



So, with this massive superhero ensemble just over a month from being released, we've decided to take an in-depth look at what's become of the Infinity Stones and where they all currently reside.



We also keep track of their history and try to figure out how Thanos will get his hands on them. Avengers: Infinity War has been described as a heist movie pitting Earth's Mightiest Heroes against The Mad Titan as both parties attempt to track down the stones. With that in mind, here's your refresher...

The Reality Stone



We were first introduced to the Reality Stone in Thor: The Dark World when Jane Foster discovered it (via a portal) in London. Centuries before, the Dark Elf Malekith had attempted to use it to plunge the nine realms into eternal darkness but was stopped by Bor (Odin's father) who hid the Infinity Stone - which takes on the form of a liquid as opposed to a stone - and managed to wipe it from history.



Malekith ultimately got his hands on it in the present day but was defeated by the God of Thunder who then gave the Reality Stone to Sif and Volstagg. That was so they could deliver it to The Collector, someone the hero presumably assumed could be trusted to look after it. Leaked footage from Avengers: Infinity War showed Thanos attacking him, though, so he'll likely retrieve it easily.



As the name suggests, the Reality Stone is capable of to bending the very laws of reality and physics, so Thanos will be able to wreak havoc when he manages to get his hands on it next year.



The Time Stone



One of the biggest twists in Doctor Strange came when we learned that the Eye of Agamotto is, in fact, the Time Stone. That was mentioned by Wong when Stephen Strange - Earth's new Sorcerer Supreme - placed it in Kamar-Taj and took his friend's advice that wearing it in public may not be a good idea. Despite that, he had it on in Thor: Ragnarok and the Avengers: Infinity War trailer!



That's no doubt going to attract Thanos as it's seemingly been hidden for centuries up until now after the first Sorcerer Supreme (Agamotto) created the Eye to house its power. The Time Stone's abilities could be seen on full display in Doctor Strange as Stephen was able to use it to create a time loop and actually reverse time, something which could come in handy to undo some big deaths...



The Mind Stone



The Mind Stone has played a huge role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far and first appeared - not that we all realised it at the time - in The Avengers. Thanos gave Loki a sceptre which would make his planned takeover of Earth much easier and we then saw him put it to good use when he took control of the likes of Erik Selvig and Hawkeye. S.H.I.E.L.D. took it into custody and that led to it being retrieved by HYDRA and Baron Von Strucker who used it to create Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.



After finding its way back into the hands of The Avengers, Tony Stark proceeded to inadvertently create Ultron with it and the villain then used the Stone to make and power The Vision, a host body he was going to use before J.A.R.V.I.S. took control. It was recently revealed that The Avengers will bring the hero to Wakanda to protect him from Thanos' army of Outriders, a fight it's now easy to imagine concluding with The Vision being killed to set the stage for the events of Avengers 4.



The stone is ridiculously powerful and who knows what else it's going to be capable of doing!



The Space Stone



The Space Stone contains unlimited energy and his housed within the Tesseract (that's the Cosmic Cube to you and me) in order to contain that power. Originally stored in Odin's vault, it was hidden on Earth and guarded by devout Asgardian worshipers before being discovered by HYDRA leader the Red Skull during World War II. He used it to create weapons capable of defeating the allies.



However, after getting his hands - literally - on the Tesseract, the villain vanished and the ancient weapon was lost at sea until Howard Stark managed to retrieve it and it was placed in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. During the events of The Avengers, Loki was tasked with using it to open a wormhole above New York City which would allow Thanos' Chiaturi army to invade the planet.



From there, it was returned to Asgard before Loki decided to save it from being destroyed alongside the Ancient Realm during Surtur's attack. However, the God of Mischief can be seen seemingly presenting it to Thanos in the trailer for Avengers: Infinity War, so he'll soon have even more power! Still, it's hard to escape the feeling that we've yet to see the extent of what this stone can do!



The Power Stone



The Power Stone came into Ronan the Accuser's possession after he was tasked by Thanos to track it down and he wanted to use it in order to help him get his revenge on Xandar and take the Nova Corps out of play (something which would benefit the Mad Titan to no end). However, his plan was foiled by the Guardians of the Galaxy and it now resides in a vault on Xander under the watchful eye of the Corps.



Unfortunately, without THE Nova around to safeguard it, Thanos is likely to easily defeat them in Avengers: Infinity War and the planet will probably be among his first stops on the way to Earth!



The stone can destroy entire planets with a touch, wiping out a whole civilisation in the process, so it's fair to say this might just be the most dangerous weapon in Thanos' collection. Even Star-Lord, who is half celestial , was only able to hold it for a matter of seconds and needed the help of his team to do so. Thanos will presumably need to wield its power solely through the Gauntlet.



The Soul Stone



Here's where we get to the speculation part of this post as the Soul Stone is the only one of the Infinity Stones we've seen nothing of in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! The prevailing theory is that it's being kept in Wakanda but we've since learned that's not why the Avengers: Infinity War trailer showed a huge battle taking place in the African nation; instead, it's because T'Challa is protecting The Vision!



Despite that, it's worth noting that T'Challa was granted his powers in Black Panther by eating a heart-shaped herb and entering Wakanda's spiritual realm, so it's not a stretch to assume that the Soul Stone will be responsible for that process in the MCU. It's also feasible that the Soul Stone is what helped create Vibranium and that it's buried deep beneath Wakanda without anyone knowing. Time will tell.

