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Peter Dinklage’s Avengers: Infinity War Character Explained
Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Infinity War sees Peter Dinklage make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as Eitri, the dwarf leader of Nidavellir. The Game of Thrones star’s role was carefully kept secret, with fans still trying to guess who he might be playing right up until the last minute.
Throughout all that time, Eitri was one of the more popular suggestions, since Thor lost his beloved hammer Mjolnir in Thor: Ragnarok, making it likely that he would be searching for a new weapon – and who better to turn to than the weapons forger who originally crafted Mjolnir?
Despite the fact that Eitri’s involvement in Avengers: Infinity War was kept under wraps, Dinklage actually has a significant amount of screen time and plays a vital role in Thor’s storyline. While Ragnarok‘s final act proved that Thor is still incredibly powerful without Mjolnir, Infinity War opens with him being easily defeated by Thanos and left to drift in space until the Guardians of the Galaxy come along to rescue him. Because of this, Thor decides that he needs a weapon powerful enough to kill the Mad Titan, and travels with Rocket and Groot to Nidavellir, one of the Nine Realms and the home of the dwarfs. Before we get into Dinklage’s portrayal of Eitri, however, let’s first recap the character’s role in the comics.
EITRI IN MARVEL COMICS
Like many of the characters in Thor’s corner of the Marvel universe, Eitri is taken from Norse mythology. Eitri and his brother Brokkr (Brokk, in the comics) are known for forging three magical items: Gullinbursti, a living golden boar; Draupnir, a gold ring capable of producing copies of itself; and, of course, Thor’s mighty hammer, Mjöllnir. This story was first retold in Thor Annual #11, right down to the amusing detail of Loki appearing as a bug and trying to distract the dwarfs so that they mess up their masterpieces.
Eitri isn’t a major character, but he popped up occasionally in Marvel Comics over the years, with later comics clarifying his status as the leader of the dwarfs of Nidavellir. He made a noteworthy appearance in The New Mutants during a story arc that saw the mutants face off against Hela and her minions, and he also forged a mighty weapon for Beta Ray Bill – a hammer called Stormbreaker.
Because Eitri doesn’t have a great deal of backstory in the comics, most of what he does have makes it into Avengers: Infinity War. But the movie also expands the character by revealing that he crafted one of the most powerful and dangerous artifacts in the universe. That’s right – in the MCU, Eitri was responsible for forging Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet.
EITRI IN AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
Perhaps the biggest departure from the comic book version of Eitri in Avengers: Infinity War is his size. Dinklage’s Eitri has dwarf proportions, but is actually a giant compared to Thor – standing at around twice his height. When Thor, Rocket and Groot arrive at Nidavellir, they find the star that powers the forge is cold and the rings that surround it are frozen. Even worse, all of the dwarfs have been killed except for Eitri, who himself is a bit of a wreck. He’s wracked with grief, angry that Asgard didn’t protect Nidavellir (until Thor explains that Asgard has been destroyed), and Thanos has cruelly turned his hands to metal, robbing him of his craftsmanship abilities. However, the mold for Stormbreaker (which has been forged before) is still in his workshop.
Thor and co. also find a mold for the Infinity Gauntlet, and Eitri explains that he agreed to make the artifact in the hope that Thanos would spare the lives of the dwarfs he hadn’t already killed. Thanos isn’t known for being a nice guy, however, so he spared only Eitri and left him alone with a cold forge and useless hands. Eitri agrees to forge Stormbreaker in the hope that Thor can kill Thanos before he manages to collect all the Infinity Stones.
The iris mechanism that feeds the heat of the star into Eitri’s forge is broken, so Thor has to open the iris manually – exposing himself to the lethal heat of the star. He very nearly dies in the effort to forge Stormbreaker; even when the hammer’s head is forged, Eitri shouts that it needs a handle in order for Thor to actually wield it. Fortunately, Thor brought along sulky teenage Groot for the ride, and so Groot wraps his arm around the hammer head and then slices it off, creating a handle out of his severed arm. Thor is then able to call Stormbreaker to his hand and restore his strength.
WILL EITRI RETURN IN AVENGERS 4?
We don’t see whether or not Eitri survives Thanos’ devastating finger snap at the end of Avengers: Infinity War (like everyone else, he has a fifty-fifty chance of vanishing into dust), but even if he is spared it’s unlikely that we’ll see him again in Avengers 4. The character had a very specific purpose in Infinity War: creating a weapon that could be used to kill Thanos before he completed the Infinity Gauntlet and carried out his plan. Since Thor’s attempt to kill Thanos failed (he really should have aimed for the head), it will now take a lot more than a magic hammer to undo the damage that Thanos has done. While it would be cool to see Eitri again, the upcoming sequel will almost certainly focus on more abstract ways of defeating him, like time travel, rather than physical weapons.
With that said, Eitri could easily return in Phase 4 of the MCU – perhaps in the next Thor movie, or Guardians of the Galaxy 3, or another cosmic adventure. Now that the character is established, there are any number of ways that he could be brought back. After all, there will always be bad guys around, and weapons needed to fight them.
KEY RELEASE DATES
Avengers: Infinity War / The Avengers 3 release date: Apr 27, 2018
Ant-Man & The Wasp release date: Jul 6, 2018
Captain Marvel release date: Mar 8, 2019
The Avengers 4 / Untitled Avengers Movie release date: May 3, 2019
Untitled Spider-Man: Homecoming Sequel release date: Jul 5, 2019
