Back in 2015, Avengers: Age of Ultron got the fans speculating with a scene in which the various heroes try their hand at lifting Thor’s hammer. Though the mighty Mjolnir only seemed to budge slightly when Captain America attempted to lift it, it was a popular theory for years that Steve Rogers was fully capable of carrying the weapon but pretended otherwise to avoid bruising Thor’s ego.
After Mjolnir was destroyed in 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, many assumed that the question of whether or not Cap actually passed the hammer’s worthiness test would remain unanswered. Thanks to the time travel plot of Avengers: Endgame, however, Mjolnir was temporarily brought back into the fold, and in one of the film’s most crowd-pleasing moments, it was revealed that the First Avenger could indeed lift Thor’s cherished weapon.
What’s more, in the new book Avengers: Endgame – The Art of the Movie, Marvel Studios co-president Louis D’Esposito confirms the old fan theory when he explains that Cap could’ve lifted Thor’s hammer during Ultron but simply chose not to:
“I think one of the most special moments in this film is when Captain America picks up Mjolnir. If you remember from Ultron, they were all sitting around in the Avengers complex in Manhattan, and there’s a party, and they’re all a bit inebriated, and they’re loose, and they’re having fun, and they’re all trying to pick up the hammer.
“It’s Captain America’s turn to try, and you look over to Thor’s face, and he says, ‘I think he might be able to do it,’ but Cap doesn’t pick it up. But Cap could’ve always picked it up. He didn’t want to at that point because it would’ve not been right.”
Though Endgame served as the swan song for Captain America, and Thor looks like he might soon be on his way out, the journey of Mjolnir itself may well continue for a few years yet. In the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, it’s expected that the hammer will be lifted by none other than Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster, who replaces Chris Hemsworth’s character as the star of the series.
Seeing how the main MCU timeline is once again missing its Mjolnir, it remains to be seen how Love and Thunder will make this happen, but all will be revealed when the film hits theaters on November 5th, 2021.
