Fans were surprised when Captain America had a relatively reduced role in Avengers: Infinity War. Many of the moments we expected for Steve Rogers in the movie never came and, all in all, he didn’t really have much of an arc. However, with the number of heroes drastically reduced by Thanos’ Snap of Doom, we imagine that Chris Evans will get a lot more material to sink his teeth into in next May’s Avengers 4.
Putting together what we can infer about the film from rumors and theories, it’s actually not too hard to figure out what Cap’s arc over the course of the movie might be. Hugh Armitage of Digital Spy had a go at it recently and came up with a pretty convincing rundown of what Steve might get up to in Avengers 4, theorizing that his story could come to an emotional end.
First off, you’d expect that Cap will still be grieving the deaths of his friends at the start of the film. In particular, he lost his best buddy Bucky Barnes. Steve’s done everything he can to protect his pal and prevent anything from happening to him since he discovered he was still alive in The Winter Soldier, so the fact that he was dusted by Thanos must hit him hard.
That said, one positive of the fallout of Infinity War is that he could have another broken friendship restored. Cap and Iron Man didn’t share any scenes in IW, so the long-awaited reconciliation after their colossal lovers’ tiff in Civil War will surely be dealt with in Avengers 4.
Where things get really interesting, though, is in how the time traveling that’s set to feature in the film could affect Steve. Evidence suggests the remaining heroes will revisit the events of past movies like The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man. So returning to the wartime period of The First Avenger doesn’t seem too far-fetched. Especially not with rumors pointing to Hayley Atwell reprising her role as Cap’s first love, Peggy Carter.
With that in mind, given the chance to return to the past, could Steve take the opportunity and live out his life with Peggy, leaving the world of the Avengers behind? It’s certainly possible, as Evans has suggested he’s departing the franchise and Sebastian Stan has already spoken about what Bucky might be like as the next Cap.
Again, this is all just speculation for now, but we’ll find out for sure when Avengers 4 hits cinemas on May 3rd, 2019.