Chris Evans has denied rumours that he will return to play Captain America in Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday, due to be out in 2026.
Reports emerged of Evans potentially making a return to Marvel, and it appeared that Evans had confirmed he is returning to the Marvel franchise.
Asked whether he could be tempted to return to the Captain America/Steve Rogers character, Evans previously said in 2023: “I’ll never say never, just because it was such a wonderful experience. But I’m also very precious with it. It’s something that I am very proud of.
“And like I said, sometimes I can’t believe it even happened. And I wouldn’t want the black eye if it felt like a cash grab or if it didn’t live up to expectations or if it just felt like it wasn’t connected to that original thing. So, no time soon.”
However, the actor will not be making a return for Avengers: Doomsday. In Esquire‘s profile of the new Captain America, Anthony Mackie, the actor said he reached out to Evans after rumours first broke out.
He said: “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 then said he is “happily retired” from the role, and said the same in a statement to Esquire when they asked him to confirm.
Ahead of his film debut as the character in Captain America: Brave New World, Mackie revealed that his predecessor Evans was the one to tell him he was taking on the mantle – showing him an early version of the script for Avengers: Endgame.
In the 2019 Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Evans’ character Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, arrives having grown old after going back in time to live with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Mackie’s character, Sam Wilson, also known as Falcon, is handed Rogers’ famous shield.
Speaking to Fandango ahead of the film’s release on February 14, he said: “It was a bunch of us at (Chris Evans’) house—he had this crazy house—sitting there watching a game, shooting the shit. He goes, ‘Have you read the new script?’ I said, ‘Nah’.”
He recalled: “He gets the new script. He goes to like the last 10 pages, and he goes, ‘read it!’ So I’m thinking they killed me off… I get to the part and it’s like, you know, I’m reading the scene between us, and it goes, ‘He hands him the shield.’ I’m like, ‘so why did you give me the shield?’ He’s like, ‘because you’re fucking Captain America’.”