Earlier this year, a fan theory got a little attention online which said that Thor: The Dark World foreshadows the events of Avengers 4 with a scene where Jane Foster points out that the Asgardians are using a quantum field generator. Now, a recent piece of speculation builds on this idea to suggest that this brief exchange from the 2013 film could have more clues to give.
For those who don’t recall, the scene comes near the start of the flick, when Natalie Portman’s character is being examined in order to figure out what the mysterious energy is that moves through her body. When she makes the observation that the technology being used to examine her is a quantum field generator, one Asgardian corrects her, calling it a “soul forge.” This prompts Jane to ask, “Does a soul forge transfer molecular energy from one place to another?” to which the answer is yes.
So, why are we bringing all of this up again? Well, for one thing, as you’ll see in the first minute of the above video, the soul forge seems to give off much the same orange effect as the Soul Stone. But on top of that, to combine this with another theory from Ant-Man and the Wasp, a similar sort of orange energy seems to suddenly begin flying around Scott Lang while he’s stuck in the Quantum Realm at pretty much the exact moment that Thanos’ world-purging snap happens.
Add it all together and this observation from The Dark World serves as further evidence that these orange visuals in the Quantum Realm represent the souls of the Mad Titan’s victims, suggesting that this mysterious place will be crucial to recovering the souls (or, ‘transferred molecular energy’) of our heroes.
Yes, it’s just a theory, but not a bad one at that, especially when it’s been pretty much confirmed that the Quantum Realm will be integral to next year’s story. In any case, we’ll find out if there’s any truth to the idea when Avengers 4 hits theaters on May 3rd, 2019.