Surprising moments were ten a penny in Avengers: Endgame – from the reveal of Smart Hulk to Thor’s weight gain to old Cap – but a strong contender for the most gleefully shocking of them all is when Steve Rogers summons Thor’s hammer Mjolnir and bashes Thanos with it.
Age of Ultron had already hinted that someone other than Thor could be worthy of wielding the hammer, and even showed Vision holding it, but Endgame confirmed that it can be held by anyone who’s worthy. There are plenty of brave heroes in the MCU, so here are 10 Other MCU Characters Who Might Be Worthy Of Wielding Thor’s Hammer.
Groot
This is the original version from the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, who sacrificed himself to keep his friends safe on Ronan’s crashing ship. James Gunn has confirmed that this Groot definitively died in that film and the replanted one was a completely different incarnation of the character.
That Groot would do anything for the people he loved, particularly Rocket, whose life he saved multiple times. The new Groot is a little bit of aging and character development away from being truly worthy, since he’s currently a bratty teenager who puts his own needs above everyone else’s, although he did wield an albeit unenchanted Stormbreaker when he sacrificed his arm to give it a handle.
Valkyrie
Some fans were confused when it was announced that Jane Foster would be taking on the mantle of Thor in Taika Waititi’s upcoming fourth solo movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, because it seemed as though Valkyrie was being primed to become the new Thor.
She spent years fighting for Asgard, she’s proven her nobility as a hero time and time again, she strides into battle atop a Pegasus, and she’s definitely worthy of wielding Thor’s hammer. Perhaps the reason for not making Valkyrie the new Thor is that she’s her own thing. She doesn’t need to be Thor, because she’s Valkyrie!
Spider-Man
Peter Parker is easily one of the most caring and considerate members of the Avengers. When he kept pestering Happy Hogan about his next mission with Earth’s mightiest heroes in Spider-Man: Homecoming, it seemed like he enjoyed the glory of fighting alongside those guys, but now, it seems like he just wants to help anyone he can.
He may have used “Instant Kill” mode to get rid of some of Thanos’ mindless Outriders, but on the whole, he doesn’t kill his enemies – even the ones who have threatened to murder him themselves. Spidey is noble, brave, and although he unwittingly makes a few mistakes here and there, he always does the right thing.
Black Panther
Someone who is worthy of wielding Mjolnir has to be courageous and heroic, has to always strive to do the right thing, and has to be willing to charge into battle if it’s necessary for the greater good.
T’Challa embodies all of these qualities: he’s a noble king who has finally opened his doors to the outside world, he doesn’t let anything (even death – twice!) stop him from doing the right thing (including providing political asylum for Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes), and he doesn’t just march into battle when he’s needed to – he brings his whole army with him, and they have an infectious war cry (“Yibambe!”).
Odin
This one is a little complicated, since Odin is the one who decides whether or not someone is worthy of wielding Thor’s hammer, so it’s unclear if he is worthy himself. However, there’s a good chance that he can wield it.
In Thor: Ragnarok, Thor caught out Loki for disguising himself as Odin by summoning Mjolnir towards him and telling him that if he didn’t admit who he really was, the hammer would go clean through him. The reason he used this test was because he knew that if it really was Odin, he’d be able to catch the hammer, whereas Loki wouldn’t. Ergo, Odin is worthy.
Phil Coulson
Not everybody who is worthy of wielding Mjolnir has to be a powerful superhero. Phil Coulson might be a bureaucrat on the surface, but his career with S.H.I.E.L.D. has never been about imposing order on people or controlling the world – he’s always simply strived to keep people safe and prevent cosmic threats from taking any innocent lives.
He’s not capable of doing this on his own, so he helped Nick Fury to assemble the Avengers to do it for them. Coulson believes that no lives are expendable, because everybody is special to somebody. He summed this up perfectly when he said, “Nobody’s nobody, Ward.”
Captain Marvel
It’s said that Captain Marvel is the most powerful character the MCU has ever seen, but is she worthy? There’s a case to be made that she is, because she was a hero long before she had superpowers. She was in the Air Force, she was fighting people’s battles for them, and she protected Dr. Wendy Lawson from alien invaders without thinking twice.
A big part of being worthy of wielding Mjolnir is living the warrior’s lifestyle. Well, Carol Danvers was in the U.S. military, then she was in the Kree Starforce, and then when she realized they were basically a radical terrorist organization bent on wiping out a peaceful people, she switched sides and took the Skrulls’ fight for them.
Peter Quill
The whole principle behind being worthy – particularly what Odin would deem worthy, since he was the guy in charge of those decisions before he died – revolves around being willing to put the greater good above your own self-interests. Peter Quill has always put the people he cares about before himself.
When he flew out into space to give his mask to Gamora, he might have died. When he grabbed the Power Stone from Ronan, he expected to die. When he killed Ego to save the world, he lost the godlike powers that he had just realized he had. Quill has never put his own self-interests in front of anyone’s (except for his major screw-up on Titan, but we all let our emotions get the better of us sometimes).
Heimdall
The clearest definition of someone who is worthy of wielding Mjolnir is someone who is willing to put the safety of Asgard above their own. As the protector of the Bifrost, this is Heimdall’s whole job.
He’s also heroic: he singlehandedly took down one of the Dark Elves’ ships without a second thought when they came to invade, he helped the Asgardians to survive Hela’s reign, and he sacrificed his life by resurrecting the Hulk and sending him to Sanctum Sanctorum, eventually leading to the Avengers’ victory over Thanos. There’s a good chance that Heimdall has been worthy this whole time; he just didn’t grab for the hammer out of respect for his best friend Thor.
Iron Man
In Avengers: Age of Ultron, it was confirmed that Tony Stark could not lift Thor’s hammer – even with his armor on and with War Machine’s help – but in his final moments in Endgame, as his flashy facade and selfish intentions faded away and he gave his life to save the universe, he may have become worthy of wielding Mjolnir.
We’ll never find out, because he’s one of the few MCU characters that we’ve lost forever, but that’s exactly what makes him worthy. Tony’s biggest fear was all of his friends dying while he was left alive with the guilt of being unable to save them, and the legacy he will leave behind is the exact opposite of that.