It looks like one of the most iconic weapons in superhero lore will make its return in next year’s Avengers: Infinity War.  Thor’s legendary hammer, Mjolnir, was spotted on set in a photo shared from Joe and Anthony Russo’s Instagram account earlier today.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUuC1qzgRZH/

The image shows Joe Russo standing next who a priest who is wielding the hammer.  The photo is simply captioned “Worthy”.

Of course, this image is only significant if you’ve seen the teaser trailer for this year’s Thor: Ragnarok.  Near the beginning of the trailer, Hela, the film’s chief antagonist, easily catches Mjolnir when thrown at her by Thor.  With one hand she holds the mystical weapon, and within seconds she crushes it and drops the pieces to the ground.

This trailer happened to coincide with promotional concept art for the third Avengers film.  One image depicted Thor wielding a weapon that wasn’t the hammer fans have come to recognize.  The handle of the weapon did, however, strongly resemble another, more recent, staple in Thor’s arsenal; the battle axe, Jarnbjorn.  Thor began wielding Jarnbjorn in the comics after he was made unworthy.

It seemed that Thor would bid farewell to Mjolnir for good.  However, the Russos appear to be confirming that Mjolnir is not lost forever.  It is not known whether Thor will regain Mjolnir in Thor: Ragnarok or Avengers: Infinity War.  While Thor is clearly wielding Jarnbjorn in the image above, it is only concept art, and hardly factual evidence that Thor will be without his hammer at any point.  It will be interesting to see Mjolnir’s status at the end of Thor’s solo film later this year. –Kevin Bond

Avengers: Infinity War – Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and the rest of the Avengers face their most powerful enemy yet, the evil Thanos (Josh Brolin).

Avengers: Infinity War – will be released in the US on May 4, 2018