Thor: Love and Thunder introduced a new Thor, but it just as quickly did away with her. Dying after succumbing to cancer, Jane Foster reaches the gates of Valhalla. This afterlife for Asgardian warriors is pulled straight from Norse mythology, and it’s even the new home of the deceased Heimdall. Of course, this opens the realm’s gates to another warrior who once wielded the hammer, Mjolnir.
In Avengers: Endgame, Captain America briefly wielded Mjolnir during the final fight against Thanos and his army. And as evidenced by a recent thread on Reddit, this has some fans wondering whether he would also venture to Valhalla whenever he died. However, that would all hinge on two factors, with both likely to prevent Steve Rogers from sharing the company of Heimdall and Jane Foster. Here’s why the First Avenger may or may not enter Valhalla.
Non-Asgardians Can Enter Valhalla in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Jane was a mere mortal, a fact which had become abundantly clear in Thor: Love and Thunder. Having been diagnosed with cancer and on the road to an early death, Jane’s life gets briefly saved when the fractured hammer Mjolnir reforms to bond with her. Giving her the powers of the Mighty Thor, she’s given an Asgardian form that coincides with her human form. Despite this, she is still effectively just a human, as her new godly powers exacerbate her condition.
By the movie’s end, she finally succumbs to her ailment, but in an after-credits scene, she’s shown entering Valhalla. That presents the idea that anyone who’s accessed Mjolnir, and thus Thor’s power, would be considered “Asgardian” enough to go to Valhalla. If that’s the case, Steve would be eligible for this afterlife, as he used the hammer in Endgame. Unfortunately, using the weapon might not be enough for the hero to see the fallen Asgardians after he passes away.
Wielding Mjolnir Might Not Be Enough to Enter Valhalla
There’s a big difference between when Cap used Mjolnir and when Jane became the Mighty Thor. In Cap’s case, he merely picked up the weapon and armed himself with it. He failed to use it to its full power as Thor had in the past, nor did he gain Thor’s powers from wielding it. On the other hand, Jane Foster was transformed into the powerful Mighty Thor, now having abilities and a physique similar to the true God of Thunder. Since this transformation got denied to Steve, it’s doubtful that he counts as an Asgardian, even a pseudo-Asgardian, in the same way that Jane does.
There’s also the matter of death. Jane’s dying and reawakening in Valhalla lines up with how the realm works in the Marvel comic books and in Norse mythology. There, only a valiant warrior’s death would guarantee entry into Valhalla. Given that Jane died fighting against the alien Gorr the God-Butcher, she definitely had such a death. In the case of Steve, he likely died in peace and old age, retiring to live with his wife, Peggy. Even though the world at large believes Cap died fighting Thanos, the reality is something far more wholesome and tranquil. Of course, if he got in one last scuffle and died during said feud, there’s a slight chance he would go to Valhalla. However, givene his circumstances with Mjolnir, it seems that Captain America was worthy but not truly mighty.
To see Jane enter Valhalla, Thor: Love and Thunder is in theaters now.