We still don’t know a great deal about how Avengers: Endgame will play out when it finally arrives in theaters next April, but there is one assumption that’s lodged itself in just about every Marvel fan’s brain: it’ll be the last we’ll see of Captain America. We’ve been led to expect at least one major exit, and Chris Evans has implied many a time that he’s hanging up his shield for good pretty soon. So, it looks like we should prepare for the death of Steve Rogers. Or should we?
The soldier that he is, our instincts tell us that Cap will be written out in a blaze of glory, perhaps sacrificing himself to save the universe. However, what if Steve actually got a happy ending instead, which brought his story full circle by tying directly into Captain America: The First Avenger?
This alternative idea has been rolling around for a while now, but Reddit user InGenNateKelly has summed up the notion best in a new post. The twist ending for the character hinges on the wide-ranging belief that Endgame will make heavy use of time travel, as well as revisiting the events of previous MCU movies.
“Basically, I think that if time travel is involved in Endgame, which could not be the case, Avengers use it and save the day, yada yada yada. We know that this is (probably) Chris Evans’ final appearance as Captain America, so there’s probably some sort of definitive fate for him – popularly, death. But it doesn’t have to be that.”
The crux of it is that Steve gets to go back in time to be with his one true love Peggy Carter (sorry, but that fling he had with her niece Sharon was gross).
“So, my theory is that through all the time travel things, Steve ends up going back to 1945, and makes his date with Peggy Carter, possibly in the post-credits stinger. And he stays. He hangs up his shield, and sets down for the life he was going to live before sacrificing himself. For a person who gave so much, it would be a fitting ending. Ignoring the implications of confusing timeline stuff, it would be quite cool. And he could appear in future movies if they really wanted him this way.”
The theorist goes on to say that Steve’s Wanda-induced vision back in Avengers: Age of Ultron could have been foreshadowing this turn of events, as it saw Cap imagining he was back in the 1940s and about to finally have that dance with Peggy.
“My primary evidence/inspiration for this comes from that Age of Ultron weird vision thing with him. While I’m not too sure that those visions are overtly relevant to the MCU as a large, I think it’s telling that Cap went back to that moment, and the date he never had. Even many years later, it still means so much to him. End of Captain America: The First Avenger, also had the line about missing the date. And he’s got his old look back in Endgame! So that’s something.”
There are obviously some wrinkles in this theory – what about Peggy’s husband, as mentioned in Captain America: The Winter Soldier? – but you can’t deny that it’d be a tear-jerking, heartwarming end for the Sentinel of Liberty. Do you believe that it could play out in Avengers: Endgame, though? Have your say in the comments section down below.
