NBA Draft Prospect Zion Williamson Thinks Thanos Should Have Won in Avengers: Endgame

Duke Blue Devils college basketball player Zion Williamson is projected as the number one overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft, but the star player won’t be signing with Earth’s mightiest heroes.

Asked by Slam NBA to name his favorite Avenger, Williamson scoffs. “Avenger? You know how we rocking with Thanos over here,” he says, snapping his fingers. “I think it’s a great movie, obviously.”

But Williamson admits he took issue with Captain America (Chris Evans) being able to wield Mjolnir, the mystical hammer belonging to Thor (Chris Hemsworth), during the climactic final battle of Avengers: Endgame.

“I’m gonna be honest. Thanos was supposed to win, and I’m [gonna] tell you why: when you think of Captain America, you think of red, white, and blue, and that shield. Tell me why Captain America did Thor’s technique and pulled the hammer,” Williamson says.

“What is that? Like, Thanos is about to kill Thor. And Captain America is able to hold Thor’s hammer, that no one else can hold? Are we really doing that? If Thanos took on six people — maybe six, seven, five — without the Infinity Stones, and he still almost won. Come on! Thanos is supposed to win, they just had to give you a good ending.”

Captain America was “always worthy” and capable of lifting Mjolnir, confirms Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, backing Endgame directors Anthony and Joe Russo, who explained the big moment “goes all the way back to [Avengers: Age of] Ultron.” That film also showed the just-birthed Vision (Paul Bettany) was capable of lifting the otherwise immovable hammer.

“He didn’t know that until that moment in Ultron when he tried to pick it up, but Cap’s sense of character and his sort of humility and sort of out of deference to Thor’s ego, Cap in that moment realizing he can move the hammer, decides not to,” Anthony Russo told the Happy Sad Confused podcast of a moment in Ultron where Cap stirs Mjolnir during a party game.

“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 if one day he did,” Joe added.

“And obviously if you create drama around the circumstances of him wielding the hammer and then kicking Thanos’ ass for 30 seconds after that, we felt like we could create a riseable moment for the audience.”