Weapon Secrets From Behind The Scenes Of The MCU

Thor's main tool is Mjölnir. But to beat Thanos, Thor needed something stronger. Stormbreaker, the combo ax/hammer, became that weapon, though Thor almost chose something more modern.

TheAvengers: Infinity Warart bookshows variations on Thor's lookin the film. An early version shows Thor using a space rifle and a blaster. Seeing Thor use a blaster would have been cool, but it doesn't feel right...Thor, is it? The MCU made the right choice using Stormbreaker.

Captain America's shield is a classic symbol. Redesigning it feels odd, but inInfinity War, that is what happened. However, the original redesign for his Wakanda-built shield was much more extreme than what the film showed.

Ryan Meinerding, Marvel’s head of visual development,posted some unused shield designs on Instagram.made the shield look more pointy and Super-Shreddery for Instagram. It wasn't a shield; it was a gauntlet Cap wore that served as both shield and weapon.

Visual artists who worked on The Avengers, decided the Chitauri design was their call. The alien race that destroys much of Manhattan in the film appears less in the comics. Their design is unique to the films, but what about their weapons?

The visual team knew Black Widow would get alien tech. Their first job was making weapons look super cool in her hands. Ryan Meinerding, the visual development supervisor onThe Avengers, told Thrillist:

Regarding weapons, they sought something Black Widow could use in an interesting way if she got one. This led to those long Civil War weapons.

One MCU film we will never see is Edgar Wright's version ofAnt-Man, a movie closer to the comics in some ways but weirder in others. (Peyton Reed directed the film.) A robot Arnim Zola never made it to the screen.

Audiences last saw Zola in Winter Soldier, but only in a recording where he told Steve Rogers his evil plan to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. If Wright's film happened, Zola would return in a giant metal body.

Concept art by Josh Nizzishows different versions of Zola's robot body. One version puts him in a view screen inside metal; another shows a robot body with a hologram head.

Stormbreaker did not come from the MCU. It dates to 1983. It appeared with Beta Ray Bill, an alien who could hold Mjölnir. Instead of fighting over Thor's hammer, Bill got Stormbreaker, a half-hammer/half-axe combo.

When bringing the hammer to Avengers: Infinity WarDesigners chose a different look because the comic version resembled Mjölnir too much. Ryan Meinerding, head of visual development at Marvel Studios, explained.Marvel Studios explained.They changed Stormbreaker from the comics to look less like Mjölnir.

I felt Beta Ray Bill's comic weapon, Stormbreaker, looked too much like Mjölnir. I wanted the Mjölnir from The Ultimates instead. That version has more corners and edges; it feels like a heavy, solid object, unlike another Mjölnir-sized weapon that feels unbalanced. It seems too powerful. It takes someone incredibly strong just to lift it because the weapon is so unbalanced.

In the climax ofEndgame,In 2014, Thanos arrives in the modern day to stop the Avengers from reversing his future self's snap. He wears golden armor and wields a double-bladed sword that looks awesome. The sword cuts Cap's vibranium shield, something thought impossible. This made audiences wonder where the sword came from.

The Russo Brothers, the people behindInfinity WarandEnd Game(as well asWinter SoldierandCivil War) have not explained the sword's origin, but they offered some hints.Joe Russo teased

Thanos is clearly a thousand-year-old character who fought everyone. He is the universe's Genghis Khan, so he deserves the best weapon. He knows Eitri; he visited Eitri to have his glove made. Did he have them craft his blade too? Maybe. But it is interesting that it could break the shield.

Going into the firstThorfilm, no one knew how big Mjölnir needed to be. They made a baseline hammer with several sizes, some bigger and some smaller. Once Chris Hemsworth joined, they made three Mjölnir versions with different weights for different shots.

The heaviest and most detailed hammerappears in any close-up where Hemsworth speaks. The lighter, less detailed hammer appears when Hemsworth swings Mjölnir with godlike power. Their heads screw on and off easily to cut down on setup time.

Like many MCU props, there are several versions of the Infinity Gauntlet. The gauntlet Thanos wears is sized for his body, making it huge. A smaller version was made for Josh Brolin to use during his mo-cap scenes.

At San Diego Comic-Con in 2018,Russell Bobbitt explainedthat because Brolin likes method acting, he built a detailed glove so the actor could enter Thanos's mindset.

He told me he was a method actor, so I started designing something to help him feel comfortable. Brolin almost never removed this gauntlet. He is Thanos. He got used to it. He became Thanos in the morning, and I took it off at night.

Black Widow uses different tools. She acts like James Bond, so having many spy items makes sense.

The batons she uses inInfinity WarThe batons were originally meant towrap around an enemyThey were meant to draw enemies in. However, rubber proved too hard. Metal versions caused pain for everyone. The idea for these bendy batons came from slap bracelets. They looked cool, but they hurt people.

Before most people knew about the multi-film story aboutthe Infinity Gauntlet, there was a shot of the glove in Odin's vault in the 2011Thor. That version, not what audiences saw inInfinity War, was built in one weekby a real blacksmithat Russell Bobbitt's request, the MCU prop master. He explained how the glove came together:

I called a blacksmith I know and said, "Pound out a gauntlet for me and put some stones in there and make it snappy, because I need it next week." I did not know they would eventually make a movie about it.

Robert Downey Jr. shaped the MCU. He is the perfect Tony Stark, an incredible Iron Man. His attention to detail for the character drives much of that.

Speaking withThe Mirrorin 2018, Russell Bobbitt discussed designing the Iron Man arc reactor with Downey Jr. before every film's production. Bobbitt talked with the actor about the reactor's look and its meaning for the character.He explained:

Every time Robert wears an arc reactor in a film, we change the design slightly. I drive to Robert's house in Malibu. We talk about what the arc reactor does for that film, and we redesign it personally for every film. One film uses a triangle. Robert says hexagons for another film, so we use others with thousands of hexagons. These designs come from personal talks with Robert Downey Jr.

When Bucky Barnes appears as the Winter Soldier, he has a sleek metal arm that causes real damage. It looks more like a chrome War Machine than a T-800, but it was almost a custom piece.

Marvel Studios head of visual development Ryan Meinerdingposted concept art for Barnes inWinter Soldieron his Instagram. Early visuals show a metal arm pieced together, not made from one solid metal. The arm looks like interlocking mechanical parts, which could have made for a more steampunk character.

InGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2Drax carries a huge laser cannon in early scenes. It must look big next to Dave Bautista. The close-up gun shows high detail and is super heavy, like Mjölnir.

The close-up version uses metal and actual moving parts. The version Drax moves with is one solid rubber piece. It is also very heavy.

Giving Spider-Man web fluid is easy. People forget how things work in the MCU.The Wakanda Files., An in-universe collectionThis collection includes scientific info. Peter Parker's notes explain exactly how his web-shooters function and what he uses for his web fluid.

A passage called "Web Fluid, version 3.01" shows Parker's thoughts on the best web fluid material. He discusses using real silk versus a synthetic one. Parker writes that natural spider silk has high tensile strength, but his synthetic version is weaker than he prefers.

Besides Parker's notes on chemical silk, diagrams and equations show how he reached his material choice.

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