SALT LAKE CITY— Warning: “Avengers: Endgame” spoilers ahead.
If you watched “Avengers: Endgame” in theaters this week, you might recall a moment like this after Captain America (Chris Evans) picks up Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) hammer for the first time.
Marvel fans have been raving about the scene since the film came out and the buildup for it has been a long time coming.
“Avengers: Age of Ultron” shows Cap’s first attempt to move/summon Thor’s hammer Mjolnir, which can only be summoned by those who are worthy. Cap only moves it slightly. In “Endgame,” we finally get the payoff when Cap is able to wield Mjolnir just in time to save Thor from Thanos.
Now, directors Anthony and Joe Russo are saying that Cap could always pick up the hammer and chose not to lift it in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” out of respect for Thor.
“In our heads he was able to wield it, and he didn’t know that until that moment in ‘Ultron’ when he tried to pick it up,” Anthony Russo said on the latest episode of the podcast “Happy, Sad, Confused. “Cap’s sense of character and his sense of humility, sort of out of deference to Thor’s ego, … Cap in that moment, realizing he can move the hammer, decides not to.”
Joe Russo explained that the moment has been a long time coming for fans.
“I think everyone who’s a Marvel fan, in that moment where Cap tested the hammer, felt deep down in their heart that he was worthy and that he could potentially lift that, and boy wouldn’t it be special one day if he did,” Joe Russo said.
He added, “Obviously if you create drama around the circumstances of him wielding the hammer, and then kicking Thanos’ (expletive) for 30 seconds after that, we felt like we could create a risible moment for the audience.”