Kevin Feige Initially Hesitated About Casting Chris Evans As Captain America

You really have to hand it to Sarah Halley Finn.

For 10 years and 21 movies, she’s been the MCU’s go-to casting director, and was responsible for the casting of Brie Larson, Chadwick Boseman, and everyone in between. She’s also part of the reason why Chris Evans landed the role of Steve Rogers/Captain America, despite him initially saying “thanks, but no thanks” not once, but twice.

As a matter of fact, back when The First Avenger role was still vacant, Kevin Feige himself had second thoughts about drafting Chris Evans into his fledgling universe, simply because he was still coming off his role in Fantastic Four – another big-name Marvel property that released via Fox.

But Feige ultimately decided that Evans was the perfect fit. And thank the heavens for that, as he’ll soon be on the frontlines of Avengers: Endgame.

We thought, OK, well, he’s that character. Let’s keep looking. As we [continued] not finding people, we went back to the initial lists. And that brought us back to Chris. And I thought, well, Patrick Stewart played Jean-Luc Picard and Charles Xavier. Harrison Ford played Han Solo and Indiana Jones. Who cares?

The Marvel Studios president makes a good point, too; if Harrison Ford can jump between Han Solo and Indiana Jones, then why can’t Chris Evans embody Captain America long after Fantastic Four has come and gone? It was the same logic that allowed Michael B. Jordan to be cast in Black Panther, meaning two Human Torches have now been successfully redeemed by the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But only one will feature in Avengers: Endgame (that we know of) when it lands on April 26th. And according to the Russo Brothers, you may want to see this one as soon as humanly possible.