Rumor: 'Avengers: Infinity War' Will Be Based On 'Infinity Gauntlet', Not 'Infinity War'

Among other things, 2018's Avengers: Infinity War promises to pay off a storyline that's been years in the making — all the way since the Mad Titan showed up smirking in the end credits of 2012's The Avengers. But it may not quite be the comic book arc you're expecting.

According to a new rumor, Avengers: Infinity War will not, in fact, be an adaptation of the Infinity War storyline from the comics. Instead, it'll be based on Infinity Gauntlet. Again, this is just a rumor for now, so proceed with caution. But it's got an air of plausibility to it, since Infinity Gauntlet seems more aligned with the big-screen developments so far than Infinity War. And if it's true, that means we may get to see Death herself join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

While the Marvel movies always take some licenses with the source material, the titles typically correspond to the arcs they're based on. Captain America: Civil War, for example, centered around the Sokovia Accords instead of the Superhero Registration Act, but the basic premise of Captain America and Iron Man facing off remained intact. But LRMonline's spies say that won't be the case with Avengers: Infinity War, which will lift its storyline from Marvel Comics' Infinity Gauntlet.

Published in 1991, Infinity Gauntlet sees Thanos using the Infinity Stones to wipe out half of all life in the universe in a bid to impress the object of his affections, Death. In the comics, Death is often portrayed as a woman and LRM says that'll be the case in the movie as well. Naturally, a whole bunch of superheroes join forces to try and fight back. The comic book version of Infinity War, on the other hand, was published in 1992 as a sequel to Infinity Gauntlet. It follows Adam Warlock coming into possession of the Infinity Gauntlet and going toe-to-toe with Magus. Neither of those characters have been introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at this point.

If you want to go further into the realm of speculation, one intriguing theory floating around is that the movie version of Death could turn out to be Cate Blanchett's Thor: Ragnarok character Hela, the Asgardian goddess of death. They are two different characters in the comics, but why introduce a second personification of Death when you've already got Blanchett on the payroll, right? It's worth pointing out, too, that while Kevin Feige has said Thanos will not show up in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Thor: Ragnarok really seems to be leaning into the whole Thanos connection.

We've still got another several films to get through before we reach Avengers: Infinity War, so it's not inconceivable that the franchise could find some way to skip past the Infinity Gauntlet storyline and go straight to the Infinity War one. But it seems quite possible that Avengers: Infinity War will draw from Infinity Gauntlet, maybe as a stepping stone to Infinity War. Remember, Avengers: Infinity War was originally announced as a two-parter to be released in 2018 and 2019, before Marvel decided to rename the latter film.

As for why the movie is going by the name Avengers: Infinity War instead of Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet, well, this is pure conjecture on my part, but I'm going to guess it has something to do with one of those titles sounding way, way cooler.

Avengers: Infinity War arrives May 4, 2018, followed by an untitled Avengers sequel on May 3, 2019.