We first saw Thanos don his Infinity Gauntlet back in 2015’s Age of Ultron, but it wasn’t until Avengers: Infinity War that its origins were explored. It turned out that the Titan had slaughtered the dwarfs of Nidavellir and ordered their king, Eitri (Peter Dinklage), to make him a weapon that could harness the power of the Infinity Stones.
When Thor, Rocket and Groot arrive at the realm in order to get the God his new hammer, Stormbreaker, the Asgardian’s shocked to discover what Thanos has done to the place. This suggested that the villain had only recently got his gauntlet, which is somewhat confusing given the fact that we saw him with it three years ago. Of course, this led some fans to theorize that perhaps Ultron‘s post-credits scene is actually set later on in the timeline.
That theory has now gained some more credence, as Infinity War co-writer Christopher Markus recently spoke about when he believes Thanos got hold of his Infinity Gauntlet. During a chat with Collider, the scribe confirmed that the intention is for the Titan to have decimated Nidavellir quite recently. He agreed with the host that it likely happened during Loki’s reign of Asgard, from Thor: The Dark World to Thor: Ragnarok, when he let the Nine Realms govern themselves.
“I think the gauntlet was made, yes, probably when Loki was pretending to be Odin because presumably Eitri was running a relatively regular business there, and people would come there for things, and somebody would have said something. So it hasn’t been that long.”
All this info holds up, but Thanos’ recent acquisition of the Infinity Gauntlet is once again muddled when you consider that Odin’s had a fake version of the glove in his vaults on Asgard since 2011’s Thor. How – let alone why – did the All-Father have a copy of the weapon when it wouldn’t even exist for several more years?
It’s possible that the Gauntlet is an ancient device that was rebuilt by Eitri, but there’s nothing to confirm this in Avengers: Infinity War. Perhaps the history of Thanos’ favorite accessory will be explored a little more in next year’s Avengers 4? We can only hope.