The Complete History of the Tesseract in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

The entire Marvel Cinematic Universe currently revolves around the six, ever-powerful Infinity Stones, mainly how Thanos harnessed their collective power to wipe out half of all existence. These stones have been the focal point of several different MCU films to this point, but none have been around quite as long as the Space Stone, known better amongst Marvel fans as the Tesseract.

This blue square was the very first Infinity Stone to appear in the MCU, all the way back in 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger. We know the stone is the remnant of a singularity that existed before the dawn of time, just like the other five Infinity Stones, but the first time we see it show up on screen is during World War II.

Johann Schmidt, who later became known as the Red Skull, stole the Tesseract and used it as a power source for Hydra's weapon. By the end of the film, the Red Skull was seemingly killed by the stone, though we know now that he was transported into space to guard the Soul Stone, as revealed in Avengers: Infinity War. Meanwhile, the Tesseract was found by Howard Stark, who later gave it to SHIELD.

There's a large gap in MCU history between Stark's finding of the Tesseract and it's appearance in SHIELD headquarters during Avengers nearly 70 years later. In that film, Loki stole it to open a wormhole over New York City, allowing the Chitauri to invade Earth, only to be defeated by the Avengers.

To keep it safe, Thor took the Tesseract back to Asgard with him at the end of Avengers. He and Heimdall used its energy to fix the Bifrost before locking it away in Odin's vault. When Loki took on the form of Odin and took charge of the realm, he charged Heimdall with treason, causing him to go on the run, leaving the Tesseract unprotected. At the end of Thor: Ragnarok, Loki took the Tesseract before Asgard was destroyed, though Thor had no idea his brother had done this, and believed that the stone was destroyed.

This leads us to the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War, where Loki turned the Tesseract over to Thanos in order to try and save his brother. His actions did save Thor, but it got Thanos one step closer to accomplishing his goal of obliterating half of all life in the universe. Now the Tesseract, condensed to its concentrated form, remains in the gauntlet at Thanos' side.

There are a couple of big gaps in the Tesseract history, though a couple of upcoming Marvel films do take place during those time periods. Captain Marvel is set in 1995 and dealing with SHIELD, so it could always turn up there, and Chloe Zhao's Eternals will take place long before the rest of the MCU, so there's a chance we could see some of the history of the Infinity Stones there as well.

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