The Infinity Stones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe were a massively significant plot point that directed the entire franchise for several years.
There's the Space Stone, Mind Stone, Reality Stone, Power Stone, Time Stone and Soul Stone.
It was Thanos' mission to collect them all so he could create the Infinity Gauntlet and that gave him power to do anything he wanted, which was kill half the population of the universe.
Each stone is the remnant of six singularities that existed before the Big Bang and they were then dispersed through the cosmos.
Advert
This all gets explained in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film by the Collector.
It sounds like a pretty impressive bit of lore that served as the centrepiece for several movies within the MCU.
However, James Gunn, who directed that movie, says he invented that origin story fairly quickly.
In an interview with Phase Zero, Gunn and Chris Pratt were asked to name all the Infinity Stones in a quick-fire Q&A.
The director had a pretty cheeky grin on his face because he would be the best person to answer that question as he was the one who came up with their backstory.
"I wrote that scene in about an hour and a half, it just like came up with what the Infinity Stones were... and everything's [the entire MCU's] based on that..." Gunn said.
"They were like, 'You know, we're thinking about putting the Power Stone in'.
"I was like, 'That's cool. The Power Stone. The Collector has the Power Stone....' And I just made up this bulls**t."
And the rest, they say, is history.
But Gunn isn't the true architect of the Stones themselves, just where they came from.
The Space Stone was first introduced in the MCU in Thor, and the Mind Stone and Thanos came in The Avengers.
The idea of them is also heavily described in the comic books.
Funnily enough though, Gunn's mention of the Stones in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 helped shape the MCU forever.
He revealed on Twitter that Marvel wasn't even going in that direction with the Avengers franchise.
The director was asked whether he knew what was going to happen in Infinity War or Endgame and he replied: "I didn’t know much when I pitched [Guardians of the Galaxy].
"And I didn’t know what was going to happen in IW & Endgame (Infinity Stones weren’t even a part of the MCU until AFTER my first draft of Vol 1).
"But once I was writing I knew the arcs of all the major characters except Gamora, which changed."
Topics: James Gunn, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Stewart Perrie