Without even touching on the devastating losses Thanos causes with his Infinity Gauntlet, we’re pretty sure that one of Avengers: Infinity War‘s most shocking deaths won’t last. Namely, Gamora’s murder, as her own adoptive father threw her off a cliff in order to claim the Soul Stone on Volmir.
Based on knowledge of the comics and a cameo from young Gamora towards the end of the film, fans are generally in agreement that the Guardian’s spirit is stored in the Soul Stone. Our best bit of evidence for this came from Infinity War‘s directors themselves, when Joe Russo admitted that the dreamlike scene where Thanos talks with the child form of his daughter “implied” that Gamora still existed within the Infinity Stone. That seemed to be case closed on the matter. Yup, Zoe Saldana’s character’s likely going to come back. Or so we thought.
Speaking to ComicBook.com recently, Joe clarified his comments about Gamora and the Soul Stone and this time suggested that it wasn’t as conclusive proof of her survival as we thought. In fact, he encouraged fans not to “read much more” into the scene in question than it just being an important character moment for Thanos.
“The power that it took Thanos to click his fingers, he’s so dramatic that if you look closely at the film and the damage of the gauntlet. You look closely at the very last scene, it damages his arm dramatically. And that moment when he clicks his fingers sends him into this ethereal plane inside of the Soul Stone where as part of his quote unquote hero’s journey in the film, he has one last moment to convey a sense of guilt about what he’s done. It illustrates what a complicated character he is. So, to clarify, it’s a spiritual representation of her and obviously that’s something that the Soul Stone has power to do. But really it’s there to illustrate his pain and his guilt. I wouldn’t read much more into it beyond that.”
To further illustrate the point that Gamora – and the likes of Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther and the rest of Thanos’ victims – could actually be dead, Joe went on to discuss how difficult it is to kill off well-loved and long-running members of the MCU family, though he hopes that the stars understand that “story comes first” and believes they’ll continue to have “amazing careers” beyond the Marvel universe.
“They’re never easy conversations to have with people. But I think that people are understanding that the story comes first, and a lot of these people have really amazing careers and lots of films that they want to make so, ultimately, I think they go through a grieving process like anyone, but you come out the other side at some point and understand what being part of the Marvel Universe did for you. And, like with us, when we move on from Marvel, it’s done amazing things for us and allows us a lot of other opportunities in our careers.”
Of course, Russo’s backtracking comments here might just be to keep fans guessing, as the idea that Gamora’s spirit’s trapped in the Soul Stone makes too much sense to be wrong. That said, it’s clear from Russo’s words that some of the deaths in Avengers: Infinity War will definitely stick, even if Zoe Saldana will be back for more.