Though there have been reports claiming that Chris Evans is coming back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to reprise his role as Captain America, a new interview suggests that the actor has no plans of returning to the role, at least in the near future.
Evans was promoting his new Pixar film Lightyear on the Disney D23 Podcast when he was asked if he would reprise his Captain America role in a future MCU project. The actor’s previous answers to the same question were pretty coy, but his latest response sounded like the possibility of him returning as Captain America is very small.
“No, I don’t think so,” the actor said. “I mean it was a really unbelievable ride and the character’s just so dear to me and I’m just so precious with it… But the role isn’t even mine anymore. The role is Anthony Mackie’s.”
Evans continued, “Even if there was a different incarnation, not as Captain America, but you know for Steve Rogers, even that would feel… I’d be very cautious, just because I love that chapter of my life professionally, personally. I love what those movies accomplished and to revisit it and potentially have some weird extension to that legacy would be upsetting if it didn’t land. So it would require a near-perfect recipe and it may just not be in the cards.”
Chris Evans as Captain America
Evans made his debut appearance as Captain America in the 2011 movie Captain America: The First Avenger. He then reprised the role in 2012’s The Avengers, 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.
At the end of Avengers: Endgame, Captain America took a journey through time to return the Infinity Stones to where the Avengers obtained them and ultimately decided to stay in the past to live a life with his love Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell).
So if Evans will ever return to the MCU, he can play a version of Captain America who travels back to the present time, or a version of the character living in the past that needs to protect the world. Additionally, after the most recent MCU movies solidified the concept of the multiverse, Evans can also return to the franchise as a completely different version of Captain America.
Anthony Mackie as Captain America
While a lot of fans want to see Evans return as Captain America, bringing him back to the MCU could be very tricky, especially after his character handed over Captain America’s shield and mantle to Sam Wilson (Mackie) at the end of Avengers: Endgame.
The story of Wilson as Captain America was first explored in the Disney+ miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, in which he teamed up with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) to stop anti-patriots who believe the world was better during the Blip.
After the show’s final episode was released in April 2021, series creator Malcolm Spellman and series writer Dalan Musson were revealed to be writing the script for a fourth Captain America film, which is expected to revolve around Wilson and serve as a follow-up to the series. In August of that year, Mackie signed a deal to star in the film.
The yet-to-be-titled Captain America 4 movie doesn’t have a release date yet.
Chris Evans misses the MCU
Though Evans doesn’t seem to have any immediate plan of returning to the MCU, the actor admitted that he misses appearing in Marvel Studios projects.
In an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment earlier this month, Evans said: “For 10 years, you always have a movie around the corner. For ten years… it’s always, you finish one and your life is scheduled by, ‘Okay, six months, we have press. Six more months, we start up on the next movie.’ To kind of have open waters, there’s parts of it that are nice and there are parts of it that I really, really miss, because it was a role that meant a lot to me. And I love those people and, you know, it’ll be the best 10 years of my professional life without any question forever.”
Chris Evans talks life post-Marvel (“I’ve shed like 15 pounds… Every time people see me, they’re like, ‘Are you okay?’”) and Anthony Mackie taking over as Captain America (“No one better to do it. He does it justice”). pic.twitter.com/5w1tx3HS4h
— Kevin Polowy (@djkevlar) June 10, 2022