Kevin Feige Confirms Cap Could Lift Mjolnir in Avengers: Age of Ultron

Avengers: Endgame plunged the Marvel Cinematic Universe into a whole new direction — but it also raised some pretty big questions surrounding the franchise’s previous entries. Thankfully, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has helped settle one popular fan theory that has popped up since the film.

Earlier this week, Feige participated in an “Ask Me Anything” Q&A on Reddit, where he was asked if Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) became worthy to lift Thor’s hammer during Endgame’s fight scene, or if he had always possessed that ability. As Feige put it, he was under the impression that Steve was always worthy, and was just choosing to be “polite” when he attempted to lift the hammer in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

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The notion of exactly how long Steve has been worthy has been debated quite a bit since Endgame‘s debut — but few have been able to deny how awesome of a moment it is.

“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,” co-director Joe Russo said in a recent interview. “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.”

And while Steve wielding Mjolnir is a small (but awesome) part of his journey, Endgame’s creative team made a point to properly evolve the star-spangled man’s story even more.

“I think our great discovery with that character was how much inner dimension that character ultimately has,” Anthony Russo said in an interview before the film was released. “And I think that’s the journey that we went on with Chris Evans as our partner, and the writers, Chris Markus and Stephen McFeely as partners in terms of how we begin exploring Captain America starting with Winter Soldier. It was really important to us to find a way to involve them past that golden age character that First Avenger was very much about.

“We wanted to challenge that character in ways where we could really see his cracks and really find his vulnerability,” Russo continued. “And while, certainly, his superpowers, his moral fortitude and his ability to be very simple to his principles, dedicated to his principles, we wanted to find a way to get past that with the character [and] take that character into areas where he can’t find easy answers. So I think that was really what it was — the degree to which we could continue to explore this character’s very complex humanity and vulnerability, relatability to all of us. And I think that’s a great joy, and I think you will see that very, very much in Endgame as well.”

What do you think of Feige’s ruling about whether or not Cap could lift Mjolnir in Age of Ultron? Do you think it fits, or is just a retcon? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame are in theaters now. Spider-Man: Far From Home will land in theaters on July 2nd.