How Many Infinity Stones Are There In Post-Endgame Stories?

Nothing feels wilder to me than how the Infinity Stones went from the ultimate MacGuffin to a subplot you can unpack for days after 'Endgame'. In the straightforward, primary MCU timeline that the films treat as canon after the climactic events, there are still six Infinity Stones — Space, Mind, Reality, Power, Time, and Soul. The important nuance is that after 'Avengers: Endgame' those six stones were returned to their original points in time by a very careful Captain America, so they aren’t floating around in modern-day Manhattan or on Vormir for anyone to casually grab. They exist, but they’re scattered back into history the way they were supposed to be, which is why later stories rarely show a villain assembling them again in the mainline universe.

If you broaden the view to the multiverse, however, the picture explodes. Alternate timelines created during the time-heist (and other branchings) mean there are countless repeats and variants of the six stones across realities. 'loki' made that messier by showing that branching timelines and artifacts from branches can end up in the custody of outside forces; the TVA treats some of these powerful artifacts as items to be cataloged or quarantined, which implies stones exist in their vaults as well. Meanwhile, 'What If...?' explicitly plays with the idea that different universes have their own versions of these stones — and some of those universes combine stones in terrifying ways.

So the short practical takeaway I use when debating friends is: in the post-'Endgame' main MCU timeline, there are still six Infinity Stones, but they’ve been returned to their proper centuries and are effectively out of play for the current crop of heroes. Across the multiverse there are effectively infinite copies or versions of those six stones, and some series have shown organizations or beings that can collect them from alternate branches. That mix — a fixed set within the prime timeline and an endless array of variants across realities — is what keeps the Stones narratively relevant without letting them wreck every story. It’s a clever way to keep their mythic weight without turning every villain into a one-shot god, and personally I love how messy and creative it’s gotten.

Right off the bat: if you’re asking about the MCU after 'Endgame', the clean timeline answer is simple — six. The six classic Infinity Stones still exist in the primary MCU timeline because they were returned to their original points in time. They’re not sitting together in any villain’s basement anymore; they’re scattered back through history where they belong, so the modern-day heroes don’t have an easy route to gather them again.

But if you widen the lens to include alternate realities and the shows that play with branching timelines, you get many more. Series like 'Loki' and 'What If...?' make it clear that other universes or pruned branches can have their own copies of the six stones, and sometimes organizations end up collecting or holding them as artifacts. So practically: six in the main post-'Endgame' universe, but a potentially endless number across the multiverse — which keeps the concept useful for storytelling without making everything trivial. I kind of enjoy the ambiguity; it lets writers use the Stones when they want scale and ignore them when they want a smaller, character-driven plot.