The trades reported that Chris Evans was set to reprise the role of Steve Rogers a few years ago, and even though the actor denied his involvement for as long as possible, the former Captain America will return to the MCU in Avengers: Doomsday after initially stepping away from the franchise following Avengers: Endgame.
By all accounts, Rogers will have a significant part to play in Doomsday after incurring the wrath of Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom.
Nobody really believed that Evans would stay away from the MCU for good, and the Snowpiercer star has now revealed that Kevin Feige actually tried to get him back on board "dozens" of times before the Doomsday pitch finally sold him on the idea.
“When we finished Endgame in 2018, Lou [D’Esposito] and Kevin [Feige] took me to dinner and they were like, ‘We’d love to keep doing movies with Steve Rogers as Nomad,’” Evans tells EW. “And I said, ‘Okay, well, what do you got?’”
Before the release of Avengers: Infinity War, there was a lot of speculation that Rogers would ditch the Captain America persona and suit up as Nomad, and while he did wind up embracing the spirit of the wandering vigilante in the movie, he never officially took up that mantle.
"They showed me a pitch, and it was a great pitch, but for whatever reason, it just didn’t feel right at the time,” Evans continued. “I kind of wanted to… I was a little precious. I wanted to preserve it. But I just said, ‘Please keep pitching.’”
When Evans heard that RDJ was returning, he decided that the time was right.
“Over the course of eight years, I probably heard at least a dozen pitches,” Evans added. “And they were all wonderful. It just never quite felt right. And you do start thinking maybe that’s the expiration — whatever it is — maybe it’s not right because it’s just not right.”
“I got a phone call from my team saying there’s a rumor [Robert Downey Jr. is] talking to Marvel, and I was like, ‘Uh, oh. What does this mean? And all of a sudden it felt right. [Doomsday co-director Joe Russo] gave me the pitch, and Downey was [back]. It just all of a sudden… it was like, ‘This is it.’”
Evans has previously confirmed that he will appear in Avengers: Secret Wars, but will he be sticking around as Rogers when we head into the Mutant Saga?
“I guess it’s a never-say-never, but certainly not willing to just jump back in for anything because I think everyone here is precious with their role in the universe,” he explained. “This stuff, it’s earned its position over a long period of time. You don’t want to mess with that.”
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars were hit with significant delays last year, with Doomsday now set to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars positioned for December 17, 2027.
Both movies 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.
"Universes collide and the Multiverse Saga begins its final chapter in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Doomsday. Beloved heroes from three distinct universes will be set on a deadly collision course and ultimately face an existential threat unlike anything they’ve ever encountered. This epic film will lay the foundation for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe."
Doomsday will star:
Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Lewis Pullman as Sentry, Florence Pugh as Yelena, Danny Ramirez as Falcon, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Sebastian Stan as Bucky, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Kelsey Grammer as Beast, James Marsden as Cyclops, Channing Tatum as Gambit, and Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent
Along with Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, Letitia Wright as Black Panther, Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor, Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, and, of course, Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.