Avengers: Endgame Concept Art Shows Thanos Breaking Cap's Shield With His Bare Hands

Avengers: Endgame was packed with epic moments. What else would one expect from a film that served as the culmination of ten years and more than 20 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Still, even in a film packed with incredible scenes and moments there's one that stands out for fans: when Thanos breaks Captain America's shield during the final battle by cutting through it with his blade, chipping away at it until there's only about half left. As it turns out, though, Thanos destroying the shield with his blade was only one option the House of Ideas considered for that stunning moment. The recently-released Marvel's Avengers: Endgame: The Art of the Movie book reveals concept art of the Mad Titan destroying the shield with his bare hands.

As you can see in the video above around the 10:05 mark, that major fight between Captain America and Thanos was considered with Thanos using nothing but his fists against Captain America and smashing the shield to bits rather than slicing away at it with his blade. Of course, the concept art also shows that the end result of the action is largely the same no matter who Thanos attacks the shield. Captain America still straps the busted shield on and gets up to continue the fight. The art also shows that Captain America wielding Mjolnir was a constant for the scene even early on and when it comes to the matter of hammer versus shield, Captain America actor Chris Evans recently weighed in on during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Jimmy Fallon spoke to Evans all about Endgame, including what it was like to film the final movie in his Marvel arc, and during that conversation, the hammer happened to come up. Fallon recalled the audience in the theater cheering and losing their minds when that moment happened on screen, and then asked Evans which felt cooler lifting for the first time, the Shield or the Hammer.

"Hammer," Evans said. "Well, you know the Shield was destined for the character. The hammer was kind of this period at the end of a sentence in terms of his worth, and it was nice. And the Russo's really know how to build those moments. I'll say the hammer."

Avengers: Endgame is now available wherever movies are sold and will be available to stream on Disney+ when it launches November 12th. Avengers: Endgame - The Art of the Movie is due out November 19th and can be pre-ordered here.

Other upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Disney+ series without release dates include Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk. Ant-Man 3 and Blade are also without theatrical release dates.