It's official: Robert Downey Jr. isn't the only Marvel icon returning for "Avengers: Doomsday." But the question remains: who exactly will Chris Evans play when he returns to the MCU? We have some guesses.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00It's official, Robert Downey Jr. isn't the only Marvel icon returning for Avengers Doomsday.
00:06But the question remains, who exactly will Chris Evans play when he returns to the MCU?
00:11We have some guesses.
00:13The most obvious and most likely thing to happen is that Chris Evans will return as
00:17a young and able Steve Rogers and put the Captain America costume back on.
00:21We can at least be certain Marvel is going to do all it can to bring Evans back and use
00:25him to his full potential, because they only get to do a grand return for him once.
00:30Yes, Avengers Endgame ended with Captain America going back in time to retroactively grow old
00:35with Peggy Carter.
00:36But presumably, the Avengers still have access to the reality-hopping tech they used to pull
00:41off the time heist.
00:42The setup would be pretty simple.
00:44The MCU faces a greater threat than ever before, and it needs its greatest hero back.
00:49It would also fit with Marvel's recent storytelling choices.
00:52After all, Deadpool and Wolverine did just turn Disney's buyout of 20th Century Fox into
00:57metatext about different universes colliding.
00:59After Hugh Jackman's Wolverine died in Logan, that film used a technicality to bring him
01:04back.
01:05The Logan from Logan remained dead, and Deadpool found a different Wolverine from an alternate
01:09universe that was close enough to the one we knew.
01:12In my world, you're, um, you're well regarded.
01:17Well, not in mine.
01:20Disney could probably pull a similar move with a close-enough Cap variant, which would
01:24let the sendoff from Endgame stand.
01:27At the end of Avengers Endgame, Falcon talks with a centenarian Cap played by Evans in
01:32digital old-age makeup.
01:33No.
01:34No, I don't think I will.
01:39This is naturally a consequence of Cap taking the long way around back to the present.
01:44Old Man Cap, and Falcon as his successor, goes back to a 2014 comic storyline from writer
01:49Rick Remender, where Steve Rogers lost his super-soldier serum and rapidly aged into
01:53an old man.
01:55Falcon and the Winter Soldier didn't provide clarity on what happened to Steve Rogers from
01:58there, beyond him being gone.
02:01We've yet to learn if Captain America Brave New World will offer any answers either, but
02:05since Evans' return is now locked in, some last-minute reshoots for a cameo are possible.
02:10Or perhaps Doomsday will reveal where Steve Rogers has been spending his secret retirement.
02:15This could even be combined with the first suggestion, where Steve begins the film as
02:18an old man, and is then restored into his younger self later in the film.
02:22If Evans is up for it, maybe Marvel will keep him around playing Captain America until he
02:26actually looks like he did in the last scenes of Endgame.
02:30When the news of Evans' return in Doomsday first broke, Slash Film's own Ryan Scott wrote
02:35that it seemed inevitable.
02:36One reason why this is true is that Evans already came back to a Marvel Studios production
02:41in Deadpool and Wolverine, just not as Captain America.
02:44Instead, Evans reprised his role from the 2000s Fantastic Four films as the Human Torch
02:49himself Johnny Storm.
02:51The nostalgia well is so deep that now we're referencing movies that most people didn't
02:54like in the first place.
02:56Will Evans' Johnny be back again?
02:58Maybe, but this seems less likely than him just playing Cap.
03:01After all, Evans' Deadpool and Wolverine cameo was built around the fakeout for the audience
03:05who believed him to be a Captain America variant.
03:08Oh my God, he's gonna say it!
03:10Say what?
03:11Avengers!
03:12Flame on!
03:13Sorry, what now?
03:14His Johnny also met a grisly end at Cassandra Nova's hand in that movie.
03:18On top of all that, Joseph Quinn will be playing the MCU's new Johnny Storm starting in the
03:22Fantastic Four first steps, which raises the question, did Doomsday and Avengers Secret
03:27Wars need two Human Torches?
03:30Robert Downey Jr.'s return in Doomsday is built on the twist of a hero transformed into
03:34a villain.
03:35Could Marvel be pulling the same move with Chris Evans?
03:38Well, there is precedent for Captain America going bad.
03:41One of the most talked-about and infamous comics of the 2010s was Captain America No.
03:451 by Nick Spencer and Jesus Saiz.
03:48In this comic, Steve reveals himself to be a villainous sleeper agent for the terrorist
03:52group HYDRA.
03:54Of course, it all turned out to be the result of some reality-warping shenanigans, and the
03:57proper good Captain America was restored after the 2017 event Secret Empire.
04:02The HYDRA Cap, sometimes known as HYDRA Supreme, has stuck around as a villain, though, having
04:07taken the name Grant Rogers.
04:09Will Downey Jr.'s Dr. Doom be partnering up with Evans as HYDRA Supreme?
04:13Well, it would certainly be cool to see the HYDRA Cap costume in live action.
04:17Let's just hope the story is handled with more care than it was in the controversial
04:21comics.
04:22HYDRA Supreme doesn't have to be the only potential Captain America variant in Avengers
04:27Doomsday.
04:28Deadpool and Wolverine featured a multiverse-hopping montage where Deadpool encountered Wolverines
04:32from various fan-favorite comic storylines.
04:35If the Avengers need all the Captain Americas they can get, they've got a whole multiverse
04:39to pull from.
04:40What about a harder-edged, more bullheaded Captain America like the one seen in the Ultimate
04:44Universe?
04:45Maybe we can even get some cameo from Cap variants previously glimpsed during What If?
04:50Versions like the zombie Captain America, or the Steve Rogers who never got the super
04:54soldier serum and instead pilots a HYDRA stomper mech in support of Captain Carter.
04:59Captain Britain in the comics is a completely separate character from Captain America,
05:03tied to the complicated astral mythology of Avalon and the Otherworld.
05:07Of course, the MCU isn't shy about making changes, so one could imagine a Captain Britain
05:11as a Steve Rogers variant draped in a Union Jack with a Cockney accent.
05:16Captain America is admittedly not as flexible a character as Wolverine, but if Evans wants
05:20to have some fun with the part, this could be it.
05:23And of course, since Downey is playing a villain whose only real connection to Iron Man is
05:27a metal mask, Evans may take on some different villain.
05:30One fan theory is the Beyonder.
05:32Avengers Doomsday is scheduled for release on May 1st, 2026.