‘Avengers: Infinity War’: Why Stormbreaker Looks More Like Ultimate Mjolnir and Not Beta Ray Bill’s Hammer

Fans of Marvel Comics may have noticed that the Stormbreaker introduced in Avengers: Infinity War actually more closely resembles the Mjolnir from the Ultimate Marvel Universe than the original Stormbreaker hammer bestowed upon Thor‘s rival turned ally Beta Ray Bill. The concept artist behind the film weapon’s design has explained why that is.

In The Art of Avengers: Infinity War, Ryan Meinerding explains that he felt like the original Stormbreaker looked a bit too much like the original Mjolnir, and so he turned to the Ultimate Mjolnir for inspiration instead.

“I always felt that Beta Ray Bill’s weapon form the comics – Stormbreaker – was a little too similar to Mjolnir,” Meinerding says. “So I was looking to more of the Mjolnir from The Ultimates, where it has more corners and edges, and feels more like a heavy, solid thing as opposed to another Mjolnir-sized weapon–almost that it feels unbalanced. It’s almost too powerful. It really takes someone incredibly powerful just to pick it up because it’s such an unbalanced weapon.”

The Stormbreaker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is unique compared to its comic book counterpart in another way. Its handle is made out of a piece of Groot. In the early phases of the film’s development, Groot had another role to play: acting as hands for Eitri the dwarf.

“The original scene in the script just said ‘Groot helps Eitri,’ giving me a lot of freedom to come up with something interesting and unique,” concept artist John Staub says in the book. “I was handed the script with the scene and was trusted to come up with something cool. Minimal direction was given to me, which left room for my ideas to come through. We already know that Groot can extend and reshape his arms when he fights I thought it would be cool to see him use them in a more utilitarian manner, like to help pick things up or to build something. I also thought it would be kind of cute to see Groot hanging on the back of Eitri like a backpack as they banter to each other about their situation I set up the scene in a simple way that focused on showing how Groot would help Eitri–nothing to dynamic or intense, something more straightforward. It was really fun to draw this scene thinking about the different ways Groot would act almost like a living exosuit and help Eitri do his work.”

Avengers: Infinity War is now available on home media.

Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019; Avengers 4 on May 3, 2019; Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th, 2019.