Thor Almost Had a Completely Different Quest in 'Avengers: Infinity War'

There are many stories that take place over the course of Avengers: Infinity War but one of the biggest and more interesting is Thor's quest for a weapon capable of killing Thanos. While that ultimately leads the God of Thunder, along with Rocket and Groot, to meet Eitri on Nidavellir, it turns out it wasn't the only version of that quest considered for the hero.

Avengers: Infinity War co-director Joe Russo explained in a new interview that different ideas were kicked around as to where to send Thor for Stormbreaker, including one where he would have visited the ghost of his grandfather.

"We explored a lot of different ideas of where Thor could go for that weapon," Russo said. "We even had versions of the story at one time where he was going to visit this sort of ghost of his dead grandfather - which was one version we were playing with that we didn't end up using. I am happy where we had settled."

In Infinity War, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) ends up journeying to Nidavellir, the same place where Mjolnir had been forged. However, upon arriving, Thor, Rocket and Groot discover that the quest isn't going to be quite as direct as believed. Instead of finding the world's forges alive, everything was cold with Eitri left alone, the other dwarves were killed and his own hands were encased in metal, courtesy of Thanos. It presents Thor with a significant challenge in getting the weapon he seeks, something that Russo explained was part of his "hero's journey" and it was deliberately done to get the audience invested.

"[Thor] really goes on kind of a like a classic hero's' journey," Russo explained. "We wanted to create the feeling in the film that Thor was actually going to save the day. So, him going to get this weapon that could kill Thanos was a critical part of the story and we had to give a lot of screen time and a lot of strong dramatic interest because we really wanted people invested in that - so that they would be coming into the climax of the film with that feeling."

It's a strategy that worked. Thor's arrival in Wakanda — the location the Russo Brothers say he knew to head to due to the location of Infinity Stones on Earth — was one of the highlights of the film. Too bad things didn't exactly play out quite the way that Thor, or the audience, might have hoped.

Do you think a different quest for Stormbreaker would have worked as well in Avengers: Infinity War? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Avengers: Infinity War is now available on digital HD and will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on Aug. 14. Ant-Man and The Wasp is in theaters now.

Other Marvel projects coming soon include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019; the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019; Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5, 2019; and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.

Via CB