Chris Evans rejected 'a dozen' Captain America comeback ideas before 'Avengers: Doomsday'
It turns out Chris Evans didn't jump at the chance to pick up Captain America's shield again, as he passed on many story pitches to have him return for the upcoming Marvel film Avengers: Doomsday.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor said that he rejected several ideas that the studio had pitched because none of them felt like the right continuation of Steve Rogers' story.
"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.' And I said, ‘Okay, well, what do you got?’" he recalled.
Nomad is an alternative identity adopted by Captain America in the comics when he becomes disillusioned with the United States government and gives up his patriotic mantle to become a "man without a country."
"They showed me a pitch, and it was a great pitch, but for whatever reason, it just didn’t feel right at the time. I kind of wanted to… I was a little precious. I wanted to preserve it. But I just said, ‘Please keep pitching,’" Evans explained.
"Over the course of eight years, I probably heard at least a dozen pitches, 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," he added.
Eventually, the studio came up with a pitch that sat just right with the Marvel star.
"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,'" he said.
Following this, Evans is now keeping an open mind when it comes to playing Rogers for future projects.
“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. This stuff, it’s earned its position over a long period of time. You don’t want to mess with that,” he said.
Evans has not played as Captain America following Avengers: Endgame in 2019. In the film, Rogers traveled back in time to return the Infinity Stones to their proper timelines, then chose to remain in the past and live a quiet life with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). He later returned as an elderly man and passed his iconic shield to Sam Wilson, officially making him the new Captain America.
Avengers: Doomsday is set for a Dec. 18, 2026 release date. The story follows the Avengers, Wakandans, and New Avengers from Earth-616; the Fantastic Four from Earth-828; and the "original" X-Men from a separate universe as they face Doctor Doom.
