Avengers: Endgame had 3 most iconic & memorable moments. One of them indeed was Tony’s final snap. He said I’m Iron Man & from that moment onwards, our hearts shattered into a million little pieces. Before that, we had the Avengers Assemble moment staring from Sam’s amazing entry and ending with the Avengers running into battle. Rewind a little more and you get the biggest Captain America moment in the history of MCU. Captain America lifts Mjolnir. We get the payoff for the setup in Age of Ultron.
It’s crazy that we initially thought Cap wasn’t fully worthy in MCU. It felt funny that Cap could lift the hammer back in Age of Ultron, but he didn’t do it to save Thor’s pride. He didn’t want to undermine his friend in front of others and give him the biggest shock of his life. Later it was proven that this analogy indeed was true. The moment Cap realized that he could lift it, he stopped and gave up. But when push came to shove in Endgame, he lifted it and saved his friend’s life.
We originally had a different analogy that made us think that Cap actually couldn’t freely lift the hammer in Age of Ultron. It would’ve taken him a whole lot of strength and that’s why he was seen trying too hard. That’s because he wasn’t fully worthy yet. The reason behind this felt believable as Cap is supposed to be the most righteous person we’ve ever known. But since he hid a deep dark secret from his friend, i.e. Bucky was the one who killed Howard Stark, until Civil War, he wasn’t fully worthy.
When it was revealed by the creatives that Cap was worthy in Age of Ultron as well, our second analogy seemed to have been proven wrong. But as it turns out, we were indeed right to think that. Cap wasn’t fully worthy back in Age of Ultron and the writers of Avengers: Endgame have confirmed this now. They have revealed that he became fully worthy in Captain America: Civil War. During ComicBook.com’s recent Quarantine Watch Party of Avengers: Endgame, writer Christopher Markus revealed:
It’s good to know that both the analogies behind Captain America not lifting Thor’s hammer are true. It was in fact a mix of both. Cap didn’t fully lift the hammer off the table to save Thor’s pride when he realized that he could fully lift the hammer if he uses enough strength. But once the truth about Tony’s parents was out and a heavy weight was lifted off of Cap’s chest, it became easy for him to lift Mjolnir just as Thor. Red Skull had predicted this back in Captain America: The First Avenger. He said “you could have the power of the Gods”. And Steve did exactly that once his conscience was clear.
“Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.”
Odin’s spell on Thor’s hammer allowed Captain America to not just wield it, but actually summon lightning. It would’ve been insane if Cap even flew around with the hammer just like Thor does. Anyway, we witnessed enough insanity during the third act of Avengers: Endgame. It would be criminal of us to ask for more.
Chris Evans himself was extremely excited to lift the hammer. Marvel producer Trinh Tran described the day when Evans got to shoot the scene. She said:
“I remember how excited Chris was. Obviously he’s read his scene and knew what was going to happen, but when you’re standing there holding it and lifting it up, it’s a pretty amazing feeling. I think the excitement on him was so captivating. I know there were certain moments – people portal-ing in, him holding the hammer – there are certain moments where they’re so excited, and having him lift it up was gratifying knowing that what we had teased in Ultron kind of came to an end in terms of, he really can lift it. I can’t describe it.”
It’d be crazy if Marvel would be able to replicate such awesomeness in future films as well.
