Is Doctor Strange's Eye Of Agamotto The Fifth Infinity Stone?

Infinity Gauntlet - doctor strange Eye of Agamotto is An Infinity Stone

By Peter ScirettaSept. 30, 2016 9:00 am EST

Earlier this week, Benedict Cumberbatch let slip that he will probably play a role in Avengers: Infinity War. The epic event film will bring together many of the major players in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but how does Doctor Strange fit into the mix? Could his Eye of Agamotto actually be the fifth Infinity Stone?

image credit: CBM

A History of the Infinity Stones Thus Far

Before we delve in, let's back up and take a look at the playing field. Thanos, in an attempt to court Death herself, is trying to destroy Earth, obtaining the six Infinity Stones to put in his Infinity Gauntlet, which will make him unstoppable. The Marvel Studio films have introduced us to four of the Infinity Stones so far. Each stone has its own unique powers and color:

Space Stone[Blue]: Nazi/Hydra commander Johann Schmidt found the Tesseract in a box hidden behind a sculptured mural of Yggdrasil, the world tree. He tried to use the object's power to take over the world but was stopped by Captain America, as seen in Captain America: The First Avenger. The cosmic cube fell into the dark depths of the ocean, from which it was recovered by SHIELD founder Howard Stark. Years later, SHIELD director Nick Fury hired astrophysicist Dr. Erik Selvig to research and study the Tesseract with hopes of unlocking its power. In The Avengers, Loki was able to steal the cube and use its power to open a portal allowing a Chitauri army to attack Earth. After the Avengers helped save the planet, Thor used the power of the Tesseract to transport Loki back to Asgard where it has remained in Odin's vault. But with Loki taking the form of Odin, is the stone safe?

Reality Stone [Red]: Malekith and his army of Dark Elves attempted to harness the power of the Aether and use its destructive power to destroy all of the Nine Realms. In Thor: The Dark World, the Aether was regained by Asgard, where it was decided that it was too dangerous to keep two Infinity Stones so close together. So they gave the Aether to Taneleer Tivan (aka the Collector) for safe keeping. But is the stone safe? Tivan seems to be after the other gems, and his museum blew up during the events of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Power Stone [Purple]: Discovered by Star-Lord hidden away in Morag's Temple Vault, the Orb now is safely locked away in Nova Corps' high-security vault on Xandar.

Mind Stone [Yellow]: Thanos gave Loki a Scepter containing the Mind Stone to aid him in the invasion of Earth (as seen in The Avengers). After the Battle of New York, Tony Stark experimented with the Stone as a power source. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, he stone was implanted by Ultron in the Vision's head to bring him to life.

Those are the four known Infinity Stones already introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The other two gems seen in the comics include Soul and Time stones. Is it possible that Doctor Strange's Eye of Agamotto could be the Time Stone?

What If the Eye of Agamotto Is an Infinity Stone?

In the comic books, Doctor Strange's Eye of Agamotto is an amulet that Strange wears on his chest.Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, it first appeared in "The Origin of Dr. Strange," an eight-page story in Strange Tales #128 published in December 1963. In the comics, Strange has described the Eye as "one of the most powerful mystic conduits on this physical plane." The Eye is a weapon of wisdom that can radiate a mystical light which allows Strange to see through all disguises and illusions, witness past events, and track both ethereal and corporeal beings by their psychic or magical emissions. Strange even used the amulet to combat Thanos in the comics.

The Time Gem is green colored in the comics, the same color as the glow from inside the amulet in the movie. The gem grants its user "total control over the past, present, and future," which includes seeing into the past, slowing down the flow of time and traveling through time. Marvel Studios has adapted many of the above MacGuffin from the comics into Infinity Stones for the movie universe, so why not the Eye of Agamotto? It seems to fit better than any of the other examples.

Kevin Feige Provides Some Clues

Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has said that the movie version of the Eye of Agamotto has the ability to "screw around with time." Here is the full quote:

In this film, the Eye is a very important relic that can be quite dangerous if used in the wrong hands, because it has the ability to do any number of things, the most dangerous of which is, it can sort of manipulate probabilities. Which is also another way of saying, 'screw around with time' — which is part of our story.

More recently, we talked to producer Kevin Feige on the set of Doctor Strange and asked him if an Infinity Stone that we haven't seen yet might appear in Doctor Strange. Here is what Feige said:

If you're tracking such things, perhaps. But we don't get into it in this movie because, again, we've got...

At that moment, one of the journalists interjected, asking "Shall we look at an eye of Agamotto?" as the prop was sitting right behind Feige. The Marvel Studios head quickly responded:

It's closed. You can look at it as long as you want. But again, there's a lot to take in in this movie, there are a lot of new concepts, there are a lot of new characters, there's a lot of new mythologies that we didn't to clutter up by telling you about other MacGuffins.

These new comments seem to suggest that the Eye of Agamotto is the time stone but that this film will not delve into that fact. So if this is the case and Doctor Strange is in possession of the Eye of Agamotto at the end of the film, it seems like the brilliant yet arrogant sorcerer will have a much larger role to play in Avengers: Infinity War than most fans are anticipating.

The Infinity War Will Change Dimensions

Doctor Strange will also introduce the idea of multiple dimensions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And remember that Infinity War co-director Anthony Russo has used that word in his teases for Avengers 3:

Those movies are intended to be the culmination of everything that's happened in the MCU from the very first Iron Man movie years ago. So they will end up changing the MCU more profoundly than any movie has yet, and there will be some things that come to an end in those movies, dimensions of the MCU will end in those films, dimensions will change forever in those films, dimensions will find new life in those films. They're a real threshold for what we've come to know as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I think that dimension can be a little intimidating but also exciting.