Published 08:52 IST, April 28th 2020
Avengers makers reveal Captain America almost became the Soul Stone, end Mjolnir mystery
Captain America ended Avengers: Endgame as perhaps the most powerful character in the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe, including near-deities like Odin & Thanos
Just over a year since the release of Avengers: Endgame, which went on to become the highest-grossing movie of all time and has come to be considered a worthy ending to perhaps the most extravagant film franchise in history, the film's makers, Vince and Anthony Russo - collectively known as the Russo brothers, have held a watch party, and answered a lot of fantastic trivia for the first time.
Some of the biggest theories from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the twin films Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame find their place here, and the biggest of them all revolve around Captain America - specifically, his link or lack-thereof to two of the most powerful objects in the series and its mythology - Thor's hammer Mjolnir and the Soul stone.
Captain America - the strongest Avenger
Captain America went through a very significant character arc over the course of the two last Avengers films, with the conception in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, which had then also introduced Black Panther and his kingdom of Wakanda. Steve Rodgers alliance with T'Challa saw the Winter Soldier get a hideout, and Cap', a place from where to monitor things as the Avengers lay split apart. It was from there that he appeared in Scotland to rescue Wanda Maximoff and an overwhelmed Vision from Thanos' elite minions as they came for the Mind stone.
However, for almost the entirety of the series up to that point, whereas other characters developed various different superpowers, or added tech upgrades, Captain America had remained rather old-fashioned. By comparison, Bruce Banner donned a Hulkbuster, Iron Man's suit was embued of essentially all-purpose nanoparticles, and Thor became 'God Of Thunder' and made his axe Stormbreaker. Nonetheless, Captain America ended the series as perhaps the most powerful character we've seen in its entirety, including near deities like Odin and Thanos, as he came into possession of a complete Infinity Gauntlet as well as Mjolnir at the end. Here's his relation to both, as per the Russos.
Captain America picking up Mjolnir
The link to Thor's hammer, which only the worthy could use, had been hinted at in Avengers: Age of Ultron, as Cap' was the only one to be able to move it, though barely, even surprising Thor. It's a different matter that the just-born Vision managed to use it effectively later in the film. However, the moment that Captain America picks up Mjolnir and hurls it at Thanos when the Mad Titan is about to kill Thor in Endgame with his own axe is one of the film's most whoop-worthy, and so clearly, Age of Ultron's hint wasn't unintended.
In the watch party, the Russos were asked when they told Chris Evans he would be using Mjolnir. Here's their answer.
So Chris Evans was psyched just like everyone else in the crew, and so came to be his fans. He went on to use the hammer to almost defeat Thanos, but was unsuccessful, his shield shattered, until help arrived.
Captain America, the Soul Stone?
The second question regarding Captain America actually goes even deeper into the mythos. Perhaps the most mysterious object in the entire series till the end was the Soul Stone. All other Infinity Stones were known of as of the end of Thor: Ragnarok. Only the Soul Stone, which even among the six holds a special place hadn't yet been spoken of. As it turned out, Gamora was the only one who had an inkling as to its whereabouts, protected by Red Skull on Vormir, and the sacrifice of a loved one required to possess it.
Before Vormir though, numerous spots had been proposed for being its possible location. One of the theories, written about on this website itself, was that it was embedded in the Vibranium comet that forms the foundation of Wakanda. And another was that it lay inside Thor's hammer, the aforementioned Mjolnir. However, Hela showed that the latter was untrue as she destroyed Mjolnir in Ragnarok, before Thor snuck it back from the past. The Russos were asked about the Soul Stone, and revealing a play reminiscent of Harry Potter, where the boy wizard turned out to be a Horcrux himself, they said that they had thought Captain America himself could be the Soul Stone, but the idea was discarded.
What do you think of the twin revelations? There's this and a lot more on the Russos' Twitter feed.
Updated 09:09 IST, April 28th 2020