Another Marvel movie is in theaters and now we're one step closer to the release of Avengers: Infinity War, the highly anticipated superhero-fest that will find just about every MCU character battling Thanos (Josh Brolin) for control of the Infinity Stones. Five of the six stones have already appeared in the various MCU movies, but there's still one -- the Soul Stone -- left unaccounted for. Thor: Ragnarok has a lot of great things to watch, but the Soul Stone isn't one of them. With only Black Panther left to go before Infinity War, the hiding place for the Soul Stone is getting awfully small.
The location of the Soul Stone is an important detail and source of speculation for Marvel fans. It's the final piece of an almost decade-long mystery, a crucial MacGuffin needed by Thanos so that he can bend reality to his very will. There are only so many options left for the Soul Stone to pop up, but we've picked out some of the most likely places that could house the final Infinity Stone. Marvel has been keeping this one very close to the vest, but based on what we know, these are the five best options.
Wakanda
It's been mentioned a few times already in the MCU, but moviegoers will get their first view of Wakanda, the most advanced and secretive city on the planet Earth, in the upcoming Black Panther. Being the last movie before Avengers: Infinity War, it's a logical place for the Soul Stone. While Wakanda is an incredible, technologically advanced city, it is also deeply spiritual. T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) teased this somewhat in Captain America: Civil War, but Wakandans believe that death is not the end. The Black Panther is known for being able to communicate with the spirits -- or SOULS -- of past Panthers. This could be due to the Soul Stone existing in Wakanda, though, the Space and Time Stones were also found on Earth. It could be cheap if there was another one there the whole time.
The Quantum Realm
If you were going to hide one of the most powerful objects in the entire galaxy, then another dimension seems like a pretty good place to start. The Quantum Realm was first introduced in Ant-Man. It's a subatomic dimension where time and space have no meaning and a living creature will shrink endlessly for all eternity. Scott Lang is, so far, the only human to ever escape the Quantum Realm, and it's always a possibility that the Soul Stone is somewhere inside of it. Nothing about the Quantum Realm seems to shout "Soul Stone," but it's as good a place as any for the final stone to appear.
Thanos Already Has It
If Black Panther doesn't have the Soul Stone, then that means it'll have to make its debut in Avengers: Infinity War. If that's the case, then there's a pretty solid chance that Thanos already has it in his possession. So far, the Mad Titan hasn't seemed overly concerned with getting all the Infinity Stones, having actually lost two of them since the MCU began. Maybe he's not worried because he knows that he still has the Soul Stone in his back pocket. It would explain why he was so willing to give Loki the Mind Stone in The Avengers, but it is kind of boring if Thanos already owns it. That doesn't exactly make for an exciting reveal.
The Dark Dimension
Viewers caught their first glimpse of the Dark Dimension in Doctor Strange. It's described as being a place of only evil, where only the vilest of creatures live. Dormammu is the only being we know that actually lives in the colorful Dark Dimension, but the Soul Stone could be residing somewhere in his twisted realm. We don't really know anything about how the Soul Stone looks or how its powers work, but it's not that far-fetched to think that the otherworldly residents of the dark dimension draw power from a mystical object. Plus, it'd be pretty sick to see Thanos break into another dimension and fight demons.
Someplace Entirely New
The world of the MCU is incredibly huge and it's highly likely that we've yet to see the place that holds the Soul Stone. It could be somewhere out in the farthest corners of space or in any one of the dimensions briefly glimpsed in Doctor Strange (even the one with just hands). We know that Avengers: Infinity War was described as being like a heist film starring Thanos, so it tracks that Thanos might have to steal the Soul Stone from wherever it currently resides. The possibilities are limitless, but ultimately that's what makes this universe so exciting to watch.
