The Infinity Stones are going to play an increasingly important role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — including in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The Guardians sequel, in addition to complicating Gamora and Nebula’s relationship, will reveal what happens when a half-human like Star-Lord comes into direct contact with an Infinity Stone.
In the climax of Guardians of the Galaxy, the entire Guardians team kills Ronan the Accuser by grabbing the Power Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones in the Marvel Universe, and blowing him up. The whole sequence was pretty trippy, with Star-Lord beginning to disintegrate because of the stone’s power before its effects were mitigated after each Guardian grabs his hands, effectively channeling the power between the five of them. If not for them, Star-Lord would have surely been killed by the Power Stone, which is important to consider going into the sequel, because that near-death experience will play some role in Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
According to CinemaBlend during a tour of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 set, Chris Pratt revealed that the Power Stone’s side effects will be addressed in the sequel saying, “It plays a certain role. [Star-Lord’s] interaction with the Infinity Stone in the first movie becomes — there’s a thread there that gets pulled in the second movie like you get to know a little bit more.”
In the Marvel Universe, the Infinity Stones are six space rocks which contain inside them all the power of such abstract, universal concepts, such as “power,” “time,” or “mind”. Benicio Del Toro’s The Collector explained them as “six singularities,” before the universe was created in the Big Bang, “and the remnants of this system were forged into concentrated ingots, Infinity Stones.”
The power contained in each Infinity Stone is said to be enormous, as evidenced by the fact that a single stone can do anything, from destroying an entire planet to creating a sentient life form (e.g. Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron). And while the Power Stone channeled through all five of the Guardians, Peter was the one to directly grab onto it. It’s kind of crazy to imagine that Peter Quill can hold one in his bare hands and not suffer any consequences. Even Thanos needs a gauntlet to hold a couple of them.
While the plot details for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 are still fairly mysterious, only revealing that the film will feature Quill’s planet father, Ego (Kurt Russell), a race of genetically superior aliens led by Kismet (Elizabeth Debicki), and Baby Groot trying to blow everyone up, it will be interesting to see how the Infinity Stones factor into the story and presumably set the stage for Avengers: Infinity War in 2018.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 flies into theaters May 5, 2017.
