As one of the founding members of the Avengers and a bona fide veteran of Marvel’s ever-evolving cinematic universe, Captain America and Chris Evans practically go hand-in-hand.
But it wasn’t always so easy for the creative minds at Marvel Studios. In fact, as Kevin Feige tells Vanity Fair, casting Steve Rogers was initially “super hard” circa 2010, when the MCU was still in its infancy. Back then, Feige feared that the Marvel Cinematic Universe would collapse in on itself if the studio didn’t find the right actor to become the star-spangled patriot.
And though the company’s executives initially dismissed Chris Evans because of his history with the Fantastic Four franchise, it soon became clear that he was the only man for the job:
Casting Captain America was super hard. I started to think, ‘Are we not going to be able to find Captain America, and if we can’t, what are we going to do with Avengers? Is the whole thing going to fall apart’ And, then, finally opening ourselves up to Chris Evans, who we had initially sort of just looked past because he was Johnny Storm in a Fantastic Four franchise. Then, bringing him in and showing him the artwork, showing him what was happening in this movie, and he took a weekend to decide.
In previous interviews, Chris Evans has recalled his hesitation about diving headfirst into a fledgling film franchise where multi-picture contracts were the norm, so it’s no wonder he took a few days to mull over his decision. He is, in the words of Kevin Feige, a “reluctant star,” but he’s since grown into one of the MCU’s leading mascots, which will only make his inevitable farewell all the more bittersweet.
Via Vanity Fair:
He’s a reluctant star, but I think he’s become—and I’ve said this to him—for as amazing as all of our actors are at embodying these characters, every single one of them, he’s one that reminds me, alongside Christopher Reeve, as just like ‘these are the characters.’ That’s high praise indeed and he went on to explain how the actor has come to embody the character he plays.
Continuing on, he noted:
I think he’s a great actor, and I think he can do whatever he wants to do, but even when you look at his Twitter account and taking a stand on things, it’s like, ‘Is he becoming Captain America?’ Which I think is great. People forget that we started filming Avengers before either Thor or Captain America were released. What if people hated Thor? What if people thought Loki was ridiculous? What if people didn’t buy this super soldier frozen in ice? We were in the first quarter of production on a giant movie at that time, and we weren’t going to stop. It was sort of all in at that point.
Next up for Captain America is the launch of Avengers: Infinity War in 2018, before Phase 4 begins to wind down with the release of the so-far untitled Avengers 4 in two years’ time. It’ll purportedly herald Marvel’s deadliest showdown yet, so it’s small wonder why fans are bracing themselves for one or three major deaths.
