Endgame Pym Particles What If

Something came across my mind while rewatching clips of Endgame today (which happens to involve one of my favorite scenes).

When Thor went to the past to get the Reality Stone, he "reclaimed" Mjolnir.

And when Steve and Tony went back to Camp Lehigh, Steve grabbed 4 vials of Pym Particles.

We all know by now what happened next. Cap lifted Mjolnir (one of the biggest moments I love in the movie), they had their battle, won, and then Steve returned everything to the past before going to live with Peggy.

My "what if" (if you can call it that) is: What would have happened if Steve *couldn't* lift Mjolnir? Say they got through the whole battle and everything, but for some reason, Steve still wasn't worthy to lift it? With their limited supply of Pym Particles, how would Mjolnir have gotten back?

Would Thor have to be the one to return everything? Would they need to hijack *more* particles from the past? Would they have to wait for Hank to make more, and risk unstable alternate timelines like the Ancient One said would happen? Or could waiting for more simply introduce the multiverse saga a few movies earlier?

I have seen some people saying Thanos got to the past by having Maw reverse engineer particles, but I'm thinking that when Tony did his snap, any remaining particles Maw created were erased along with Thanos, his army and their arsenal. So that doesn't seem like a viable option.

All in all, I'm just noticing that Thor, when he "reclaimed" Mjolnir, either assumed he'd survive and thought he'd be the one to return the stones, or else took a really big gamble on his past-self losing Mjolnir (I know he said he "knew" Steve could lift Mjolnir, but there was never any certainty that it *would* happen).

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Commentaires

Goldman2502025-12-09 21:17

Hank probably had a stash or two of Pym Particles hidden that he didn’t tell Scott about - he’s the sort of guy who doesn’t trust anyone except for Janet and Hope.

Freedog6662025-12-09 23:20

It's Hank Pym, he definitely has a stash that he told no one about. Not even Janet or Hope. At least comic book Hank would. And I say that being a huge fan of comic book Hank. Two of my all time favorite comic books were the successive issues of Marvel Team-Up where they hook up with Spidey to fight Equinox. Decades later Marvel even did a one shot collecting those two issues along with some of others including a banging two issue MTU Spider-Man-Iron Fist-Daughters of the Dragon team up. Personally, I consider that Era peak comic book story telling of the day. Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two in One(mostly Team ups with the Thing and co-stars) are mostly all incredibly enjoyable works. A lot of content and cross over with Byrne and Claremont and other artists and writers. And there is one of the best Thanos storyline EVER in there. Of course, that's all my humble opinion true believers. Excelsior!

Hustler-Two2025-12-09 21:37

It's not his past self losing Mjolnir. It's essentially another universe losing Mjolnir, since if it never came back it wouldn't have changed what happened to it in the Sacred Timeline. Which is the same risk they ran everywhere for each stone.

StylishSloth2025-12-09 21:47

If not for fan service, their first step should have been to go back in time to get more Pym particles and, from there, develop a proper plan.

As it was, when Thor and Rocket were on Asgard for the Aether, the Tesseract was easily accessible in the vault… but they thought getting it from the Battle at NY would be better. It makes no sense.

Ranos1312025-12-09 22:14

The timelines would not have become unstable because they were going back to the very moment the stones were taken. So it wouldn’t have mattered if they took the stones back the same day the battle ended or months later.

beardiac2025-12-09 22:32

I imagine by the time the battle is won, their access to Pym particles is pretty unfettered as Hank is back and available to make more.

As for the logistics of returning things, I'd imagine they'd have sent Thor for just the one mission of returning the hammer and the reality stone, and Steve would still have the task of returning everything else. Then we'd have had a scene where only Thor came back, and then everything else would proceed as it did in the movie.

The other question you didn't ask though is how they would have won against Thanos. Steve's wielding of Mjolnir was pretty critical to at least occupying Thanos and keeping him from killing Tony or Thor prior to the return of all the other heroes.

Freedog6662025-12-09 23:05

They really Maguffined the fuck out of the Pym particles for the MCU.

PezDiSpencersGifts2025-12-10 00:19

Here’s a thought: the Avengers all travel thru time, they never planned that that would have to return the stones to where they got them from. It wasn’t until Hulk talked to the Ancient One. So really, Thor just stole Mjolnir from his last self and had no intention of having to give it back

Defiant_Wheel48882025-12-10 11:51

>My "what if" (if you can call it that) is: What would have happened if Steve *couldn't* lift Mjolnir?

**Silly explanation:** The plot needed him to lift it.
Another explanation is that Thor’s hammer had to be returned to the past to its original timeline, and because the hammer has some sort of will of its own, it allowed Steve to lift it so he could return it. If Steve *couldn’t* lift it completely, they could’ve built some kind of device, engine, or container to send it back with him.otherwise they have to take a company with him.

>Tony did his snap, and any remaining particles Maw had created were erased along with Thanos, his army, and their arsenal.

I think there weren’t any Pym Particles left. They used all of them to transport the entire army to our timeline. So there’s a chance Maw had *something*, but if they had any plan to go back to their own timeline, they would’ve kept the return path active. But Young, aggressive Thanos planned to destroy this universe’s people and rebuild a new one here, so I don’t think they intended to return.

When they arrived at the Avengers’ time-travel platform, they also destroyed it instead of preserving it, which means they had no plan to go back.

So:

1. Someone had to go with Captain America to return the Stones.
2. Thanos and his minions had no plan to return to their own timeline, so there were no extra Pym Particles left. also snap cannot erase these objects particle anything only life if i am not wrong.

NPPraxis2025-12-11 08:35

Thor isn’t returning it, because had Cap not lifted and thrown Mjolnir, Thanos would have killed Thor with Stormbreaker moments later, before Cap could get there.

souledgar2025-12-11 19:03

Pym particles became a non-issue if they succeeded, because they'd have Hank Pym back. Hank can take all the time he needs, because no matter how long it took they can use it to travel to the instant the stones left the universe they borrowed it from.

Its probably also wasn't planned how exactly they'd return the stuff they borrowed. It didn't *need* to be Steve solo, and in hindsight, it could easily be reasoned he planned it that way so he could do the thing. But in the scenario that Steve couldn't lift the hammer, then Thor could easily have come with him.

As for Thor during the heist, he had a panic attack that could have screwed the whole mission. I don't think he was in the headspace to think about anyone else.