UPDATE: These photos have been removed. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.
The uber-powereful Infinity Stones are the big MacGuffins of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and fans everywhere are counting down the weeks until we get to see what Thanos the Mad Titan does when he gets his purple hands on all six of them in May’s Avengers: Infinity War. But what would Earth’s Mightiest Heroes themselves do if they got hold of these gems that can alter reality? Well, some new set photos seem to hint that we’ll find out in Infinity War‘s sequel, Avengers 4.
As seen in the pics below, snaps taken from filming on the much-anticipated movie feature Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr. and Paul Rudd in character as Captain America, Iron Man and Ant-Man. As well as the interesting fact that Evans is decked out in his brighter Cap outfit from 2012’s The Avengers, these pictures are of note as you can see that the three actors have strange devices strapped to their hands.
The theory goes: what if these are proto-Infinity Gauntlets, perhaps devised by Stark himself, that allow the heroes to wield the Infinity Stones. As we know from Guardians of the Galaxy, the Stones will destroy any mortal that touches them, but these devices could be a way for the Avengers to split the power between them and go up against Thanos that way.
If you ask us, this development would make a lot of sense. Again, it would act as another callback to GotG, as Star-Lord’s gang were able to defeat Ronan the Accuser by sharing the power of the Power Stone amongst them. On a thematic level, it also works: it’s all about heroic teamwork defeating the selfish greed of Thanos.
We can also infer, though, that the devices don’t protect the Avengers completely from the harmful effects of holding the Stones. The CGI reference dots on the actors’ fronts could well indicate that the heroes will be irradiated with the power of the gems (see GotG for reference). No doubt this is the reason for Chris Evans’ hilarious expression in one of the images.
What do you think, though? Are fans on the right track with this one? We’ll find out for sure when Avengers: Infinity War arrives May 4th, while Avengers 4 lands a year later on May 3rd, 2019.