Avengers: Infinity War: The history of the Infinity Stones

Credit: Marvel Studios/Paramount Pictures; from Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

The Space Stone

The object known as the Tesseract, or the Cosmic Cube, first appears as a notation in Howard Stark’s journals in Iron Man 2 (2010). Its first appearance on-screen is during the post-credits sequence from Thor (2011), and it later becomes a key plot element for both Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and The Avengers (2012). Only it turns out the Tesseract is really a box holding the real source of its power: the Space Stone.

Initially belonging to Thor’s father, Odin, the Tesseract can open stable wormholes allowing for instant interstellar travel. Somehow, it wound up on Earth in the Norwegian village of Tønsberg, the same village Odin and the Asgardians defended from the Frost Giants centuries earlier. For centuries, it remained hidden in the local church until 1942, when Johann Schmidt, aka the Red Skull, and his Hydra forces invaded Tønsberg in search of “the Jewel of Odin.”

The Red Skull, along with Arnim Zola, used the Tesseract to power Hydra’s advanced weaponry during World War II. This included a flying fortress called The Valkyrie, capable of launching nuclear missiles. As shown in Captain America: The First Avenger, Steve Rogers was able to stop the Red Skull from destroying the eastern seaboard of the United States by crashing the Valkyrie into the Atlantic. The Red Skull, meanwhile, in a desperate attempt to use the Tesseract, accidentally opened a wormhole which also disintegrated him.

During their search for Captain America, S.H.I.E.L.D. found the Tesseract and conducted their own research. During The Avengers, Loki found the Tesseract in a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. facility and, with the help of a brainwashed Dr. Erik Selvig, used it to create a giant portal above New York for the alien Chitauri army. Once the Avengers defeated the Chitauri, Thor took the Tesseract, along with Loki, back to Asgard.

Since then, the Tesseract remained in Odin’s trophy room until the events of Thor: Ragnarok (2017). Just before the demon Surtur destroys Asgard, Loki heads to the trophy room, giving a cursory glance at the Tesseract. The trailers for Avengers: Infinity War confirm that, once again, the Tesseract is in the God of Mischief’s possession. What’s more, they also show Thanos destroying the Tesseract and placing the Power Stone into the Infinity Gauntlet.