‘Avengers: Infinity War’: Who Has The Reality Stone?

Avengers: Infinity War will see Thanos (Josh Brolin) hell-bent on collecting all six of the […]

November 30, 2017, 10:47pm

Avengers: Infinity War will see Thanos (Josh Brolin) hell-bent on collecting all six of the Infinity Stones in a desire to “balance the universe.”

The trailer tells us the Mad Titan comes to possess at least two of the all-powerful MacGuffins — the Power Stone from Guardians of the Galaxy and the Space Stone (a.k.a. the Tesseract) from The Avengers — and a theory suggests Thanos may also have a third Stone, making his mission halfway complete.

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The Power and Space Stones are accounted for. The Time Stone is with Doctor Strange. The Mind Stone is embedded within Vision’s forehead (but possibly not for long). The Soul Stone may be under Black Panther’s protection in Wakanda. Where is the Reality Stone?

One of Thanos’ coveted prizes, the Reality Stone (a.k.a. the Aether), first popped up in Thor: The Dark World, when Malekith and the Dark Elves attempted to possess the stone. They were thwarted by Thor, and because the Tesseract was already on Asgard, the Asgardians entrusted the reality-bending Aether to Taneleer Tivan, the Collector, for safekeeping.

When the Aether came into his custody, Tivan knew what he had, saying “One down, five to go,” meaning he knew about the importance of the Infinity Stones — a fact confirmed in Guardians of the Galaxy, when he informs the team of the true strength possessed by the Power Stone.

As revealed by footage leaked ahead of the arrival Infinity War trailer — mild spoilers ahead — Thanos confronts the Collector, who says of the Reality Stone, “I don’t have it.”

“The reality stone. Now,” Thanos says, pressing his boot into Tivan’s chest. Crunch.

“I told you… I sold it,” Tivan swears, through gasps. “Why would I lie?” Tivan says it would be like suicide.

“So you do understand,” Thanos concedes. “Not even you would surrender something so precious.”

Tivan struggles. He’s helpless. “I didn’t know what it was.”

“Then you’re more of a fool than I took you for.” Thanos’ patience is exhausted. “Last chance, charlatan. Where’s the stone?”

We know Tivan is lying about not knowing what he had. And while the slimy Collector seems like the type who would give in to Thanos’ demands to save his own hide — if he had it, he would hand it over to save his own hide — but if he really did sell the Aether, why wouldn’t he then sell out the buyer?

Tivan’s refusal to name the exact location of the Reality Stone suggests it’s still in his possession, somewhere among the rest of his treasures collected from across the cosmos, but it’s likely we won’t know its true hiding spot until Avengers: Infinity War opens on May 4.