Captain America’s whole look changed in Avengers: Infinity War. Not only had he grown out a fetching beard, darkened the colors of his suit and ditched his helmet, but he was also without his iconic red, white and blue shield. As this is his signature tool in battle, though, King T’Challa famously got the man a new one when Steve Rogers arrived in Wakanda to fight Thanos’ army.
The resulting shield was very much a typical piece of advanced Wakandan tech. It was chrome rather than Cap’s usual color scheme and was wrist-mounted, expanding out of a small strap. It proved to be a handy device for Steve during the intense battle, too. For some Marvel fans, though, it was a little bit of a disappointing design and never came close to replacing the hero’s old faithful shield.
Perhaps the reason for this is because the replacement originally looked very different. AL.com caught up with Marvel props guru Kenneth Spivey who revealed that the props he initially developed for Infinity War were never actually used in the film. His first design was much bigger – as you can see in the gallery below – extending towards the upper arm. It also featured claw-like detailing, recalling the Black Panther suit motif.
After spending three months making this prop, however, Marvel told him that plans had been altered and they wanted something else. This change of pace left him with just a day to come up with a new shield “pretty much from scratch.” That included molding a completely new sheet of metal.
This time, though, it was made out of aluminum to keep it light for Chris Evans to hold. The shield was eventually used during filming but, in post-production on Infinity War, Marvel changed their minds once again and painted over Spivey’s second prop with a CGI version of the shield. This just shows how much attention the studio pays to every little aspect of their movies – including Avengers: Infinity War – revealing that it’s an ongoing process that evolves throughout the entirety of production.
