‘Black Panther’ Director Addresses Wakanda’s Infinity Stone Mystery

Heading into Black Panther, Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are hoping to see the sixth and final Infinity Stone appear before playing a role in Avengers: Infinity War. Black Panther director Ryan Coogler has finally been directly asked about the subject.

Mild spoilers for Black Panther and the Infinity Stone in Wakanda mystery follow!

Despite being the final Marvel Studios film before Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther is fairly self-contained. It focuses on its own story rather than dedicating a considerable amount of its run time to setting up the ensemble movie. As a result, there is no mention of any Infinity Stones in the standalone movie. According to Coogler, the choice to leave the Stones out of the film was influenced by showcasing Wakanda’s true power without them.

“I love the Infinity Stones as much as any comic book fan, it’s just Wakanda already has its thing, which is Vibranium,” Coogler told IGN. “For us, that was special enough, so to throw in something like another special thing didn’t feel right. It felt like we should stick with our one MacGuffin for the country and explore that, let that be the important thing because, frankly we didn’t need to have another piece like that. [Marvel Studios] never really was interested in putting a stone in there, either.”

It looks like the LEGO sets which may have spoiled scenes and moments from Avengers: Infinity War may have been a bit off the mark, after all, seeing as one set featured on orange Stone with Wakandan builds.

Avengers: Infinity War aims to bring together every corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with a connection between the Avengers characters and the Guardians of the Galaxy finally having been revealed in the film’s first trailer. With Thanos attempting to assemble the Infinity Stones, the synopsis’ tease of the “deadliest showdown” could wreak havoc on characters from all ends of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s spectrum.

Black Panther is now playing in theaters. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Avengers: Infinity War on May 4th and Ant-Man and The Wasp on July 6, 2018. Captain Marvel arrives on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.