In the Infinity War trailer, we see Loki handing the Tesseract (containing the Space Stone) to Thanos. Obviously wary, Loki knows to never take his eyes off Thanos even for a second.
Loki is "contractually obliged" to produce the Tesseract for Thanos because that was Thanos' price for the loan of the Chitauri army when Loki attempted to conquer Earth. If Loki tries to get out of that contract, Thanos will kill him. As Loki was famously warned in the first Avengers movie --
But I predict that Loki, God of Mischief, will be so bold and daring as to DOUBLE-CROSS Thanos! Yes, Loki gives him a Tesseract -- but is it THE Tesseract?
Remember in Thor: Ragnarok, Hela says that Odin's treasury is full of fakes. She contemptuously knocks over Odin's "Infinity Gauntlet" as an example. Walking by the Tesseract, she says something like "Oh, that's good!" What does she mean? That the Tesseract is real or that it's a particularly convincing fake? I think she means it's a good fake.
Later, when Loki is on his way to summon Surtur the Fire Demon, he spots the Tesseract in the treasury and slows down to look at it. We don't see Loki actually take the Tesseract but clearly, that's where he gets it from.
But if the Tesseract and its Space Stone are fake, why doesn't Thanos find out right away? As shown in the Infinity War trailer, it's only the second Infinity Stone obtained by Thanos for the Gauntlet. When he fights Steve Rogers, you can see that the Gauntlet only has two Stones at that point. It is not yet up to full power.
I think the Space Stone is a good enough fake or has been put under a powerful enough spell by Loki that its diluted power, but its deficiencies will not be discernible among the other real Stones until the crucial moment when Thanos finally tries to use the complete, fully armed Gauntlet for its intended purpose -- to wipe out half the universe with a snap of his fingers. At that moment, when full power is needed, the Gauntlet will fail because of the inadequate Space Stone. And the remaining Avengers will then be able to defeat Thanos.
Loki's trickery will therefore save the universe and he will finallydeserve that saviour statue he had already narcissistically erected to himself in Thor: Ragnarok!
Only Loki would have the skill, guts and unmitigated gall to coolly double-cross Thanos like that. As Loki always said, "Trust my rage."
If my prediction comes true, remember -- you read it here first!
I think Steve and Bucky's mutually enmeshed story arc will indeed finally come to an end in Infinity War. There's really nowhere else for the story to go. So either Steve Rogers will be killed or he will eternally wander the universe in a state of "non-being" as solitary, unhappy, disillusioned Nomad. It will break my heart but I actually think his getting killed would be preferable -- give poor, tired Steve Rogers the chance to end his lifetime of warfare and heartache and "go home."
Chris Evans' Marvel contract is up after Infinity War, Part 2 (I think he'll appear in that film only via flashbacks). In my opinion, Marvel will kill him off rather than recast the role or sign Evans up for more.
So, alas, I'm afraid that those Brooklyn Boys are coming to the end of the line.
The advantage for Marvel in killing off Steve Rogers is that it will free up the Bucky Barnes character for new plot developments. Sebastian Stan still has at least three Marvel films in his contract. I'm pretty sure he will be given Steve's shield and become the new Captain America, at least for awhile.
And I also think Bucky and Natasha will commence a (safely hetero) relationship, given their common background involving the Soviets and the Red Room. There is precedent for that in the comics apparently. And it seems there will be a forthcoming Black Widow origin story movie in which it is speculated that the Winter Soldier's training of, and brief romance with, the young Natasha will feature.
Sorry, Steve, but bisexual Bucky has got to move on.
I think the answer is pretty obviously "yes." Not only is Robert Downey Jr aging out of the role, but Tony Stark's tech role for the Avengers is clearly going to be inherited by Shuri, who is brilliant and unencumbered by Tony's dubious morality around the arms business.
In honour of Infinity War opening on Friday, this week's posts will explore various speculative ideas about what might happen in the movie. But first, everyone grab a coffee!
Yeah, Bucky looks like the guy who just woke up from a long nap and hasn’t had his coffee yet so is kinda a little fuzzy round the edges and Steve looks like he stayed up for three days straight drinking a double espresso every twenty minutes and is about to start a hallucination induced fight
Another poignant parallel: the last shot of Steve Rogers in Captain America: Civil War and the first shot of Steve Rogers in The Avengers: Infinity War --
