Chris Evans as Captain America
(Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

“They’re scared of trying anything new:” Fans aren’t into Chris Evans’ MCU return

Chris Evans’ Captain America has been MIA in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Avengers: Endgame, which saw him go back in time to return the Infinity Stones and remain in the past. He handed his shield and title over to Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, and that was that. Except apparently not, because now Evans has been confirmed to play a role in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, and fans don’t actually seem very happy.

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Fans weren’t sure about the choice to have Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. appear as Doctor Doom in the movie, and they seem equally unsure of Evans’ return as well. At the time of writing, it’s still not totally clear who Evans will play in the film.

The choice to bring back an actor who already departed the MCU has caused plenty of fans to raise their eyebrows. Long-time MCU viewers are, to put it bluntly, getting a little tired of the older characters constantly returning while newer ones never get a proper chance to shine. For example, Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) got one movie back in 2021, and then completely fell of the radar of the MCU. No sequel, no cameo in someone else’s movie, no nothing. Meanwhile Thor went on to his fourth movie, Love and Thunder, which fans hated. (I still don’t think it’s a terrible movie, I personally enjoyed it, but boy am I outnumbered.)

Another problem here is that Sam Wilson has only just taken over as Captain America, with his new movie Brave New World set to release next year. Bringing Evans back so soon—assuming he is in fact playing Steve Rogers again—leads to the idea that Wilson (who let’s not forget is the first Black Captain America) was only a temporary stand-in for the “real” one, regardless of whether or not Steve ends up in his old costume with the shield. Fans of Sam Wilson and Mackie don’t like that idea at all.

Of course, Evans may not be playing Captain America at all. Don’t forget, he played Johnny Storm/Human Torch (his old character from the Fox Fantastic Four films) in Deadpool and Wolverine this year. He met a messy end, but when has that ever stopped a Marvel character? And then there’s the possibility of him playing a variant of Captain America instead, like Hydra Cap. The Marvel universe is vast and complicated, anything could happen. But Evans doesn’t seem to be bringing back any of the audience members who’ve already checked out.


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Sarah Barrett
Sarah Barrett (she/her) is a freelance writer with The Mary Sue who has been working in journalism since 2014. She loves to write about movies, even the bad ones. (Especially the bad ones.) The Raimi Spider-Man trilogy and the Star Wars prequels changed her life in many interesting ways. She lives in one of the very, very few good parts of England.