The events of Avengers: Infinity War established that Thanos is the most powerful being in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially after acquiring all of the Infinity Stones. But the God of Thunder still came close to taking him down.
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After using Mjolnir, Thor makes a trek to Nidavellir and acquires a new weapon; an ax-hammer hybrid called Stormbreaker. The weapon is shown to be capable of taking down the Mad Titan, but the Odinson makes one huge mistake:
He should’ve gone for the head.
The power levels of Thor with his weapon have been disputed as some people wondered if Stormbreamer was more powerful than the Infinity Gauntlet. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo addressed that question at a recent screening of Infinity War presented by Collider.
“It certainly has the ability to counteract the Infinity Gauntlet,” said Joe Russo.
“I think that key moment, though, is that Thanos was caught off guard,” added Anthony Russo. “He literally just didn’t know the power of what was coming at him. I mean, maybe he could have used the Stones in a different way had he understood what that weapon was, but it came out of nowhere.”
Stormbreaker is definitely a step up from Mjolnir, if only for functional purposes, but the weapon’s name might throw some fans off. Beta Ray Bill originally wielded the weapon known as Stormbreaker, but Thor’s new weapon looks more like the hammer from the Ultimate Comics line.
Marvel Studios’ Head of Visual Development Ryan Meinerding spoke about Thor’s new weapon in Avengers: Infinity War – The Art of the Movie, revealing why they chose to follow that angle.
“I always felt that Beta Ray Bill’s weapon form the comics – Stormbreaker – was a little too similar to Mjolnir,” Meinerding said. “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.”
Fans can see Thor continue to use his new weapon Stormbreaker when Avengers 4 premieres in theaters on May 3, 2019.
