Late last year, The Wrap reported that Chris Evans will make his return to the MCU for Marvel Studios' next big event movie, Avengers: Doomsday. Fans expected Evans to show up as Steve Rogers in Avengers: Secret Wars, anyway, but it was nice to finally have confirmation that the OG Sentinel of Liberty would be suiting-up for action once again.
This wasn't the first time we've heard that plans were in place for Evans to return to the role, but the actor has always denied the reports - and continues to do so!
In Esquire's profile of our new Captain America, Anthony Mackie, the Brave New World star revealed that he reached out to Evans after the news broke, but was met with a denial.
“I didn’t know! I talked to Chris a few weeks ago and it wasn’t on the table then. At least, he didn’t tell me it was on the table, because I asked him. I was like, ‘You know, they said they’re bringing everyone back for the movie. Are you coming back?’ ”
Evans told his Avengers co-star that he was "happily retired," and Esquire got the same response.
“That’s not true, though,” he said of the reports of his MCU return. “This always happens. I mean, it happens every couple years—ever since Endgame. I’ve just stopped responding to it.Yeah, no — happily retired!”
The last time we saw Rogers, he had handed his iconic shield over to his friend Sam Wilson (Mackie) after first deciding to remain in the past and live out his life with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) in Avengers: Endgame. We had assumed that, if Evans did make his MCU return, that he would be playing a Multiversal variant, but that's not the only possibility.
Evans appeared as Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, in Deadpool and Wolverine, and there have been rumors that he may not be quite done with his old Fantastic Four role.
So, will it be Rogers, or Storm... or someone else entirely?
The Hot Mic podcast's Jeff Sneider recently said he heard that Evans will actually be playing Nomad. Though several characters have held this mantle in the comics, the name was originally introduced as an alternate identity that Steve Rogers adopted after he abandoned the Captain America costume and title.
If this is accurate, it remains to be seen which version of Rogers suits-up as Nomad in the movie. It's highly unlikely to be the original (unless he's really upped his Callisthenics regime), so a variant from another timeline/reality makes the most sense.
There's been some speculation that Doomsday might introduce a new team of "Evil Avengers," which could potentially see Nomad join forces with Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom and some other variants.
Of course, none of this really matters, because Evans says he won't be back, and that's all there is to it (insert whichever emoji you deem appropriate).
Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters on May 1, 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on May 7, 2027. Both films will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
Have another look at some photos Downey Jr. shared to Instagram after the big reveal below.