Fanfare was already at fever pitch when Robert Downey Jr. was announced as part of the cast of Avengers: Doomsday, but it’s about to hit the stratosphere with news of another beloved superhero’s return for the highly anticipated Marvel entry.
Sources have officially confirmed that Chris Evans will return to the MCU with a role in Doomsday, some seven years after sunsetting his character, Captain America, in Avengers: Endgame. According to The Wrap, the actor’s role in the upcoming Avengers installment is officially confirmed, but the extent and exact nature of his return is not yet known. It will follow Evans’ appearance in Deadpool & Wolverine, which saw him reenter the MCU not as Steve Rogers, but as a revived version of his Fantastic Four character, Johnny Storm.
Evans’ return confirms rumors that have long been circulating in Marvel fan circles in anticipation of Doomsday, but the circumstances around the nature of his role remain somewhat of a question mark. By the end of Endgame, Steve Rogers is an old man, but Downey Jr.’s reprisal of his role as a variant of Iron Man (named Doctor Doom) for Doomsday means that all options are on the table for Evans’ character. Could he too be a variant in the upcoming Avengers installment? Or perhaps Steve Rogers is still able to kick butt well into his twilight years?
Answers to those questions will probably remain unknown until 2026, when Doomsday is scheduled for release. It has also been speculated that Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson character will also return as Captain America, making Evans’ potential return as the same superhero feel less likely. It will mark Evans’ fifth Avengers film, but it’s not yet known whether his payday is quite as eye-watering as the one reportedly snagged by Downey Jr.
The Russo Brothers, who directed both Evans and Downey Jr. in various Marvel titles, including Endgame, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Infinity War — will again helm Doomsday and its direct sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars. Alongside Downey Jr. and Evans, other castmates confirmed to appear in Doomsday include all of the new Fantastic Four actors, namely Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Susan Storm, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing and Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm (a more definitive version of the character following Evans’ Deadpool cameo).
While the big screen return of Evan and Downey Jr. might’ve been enough to satisfy even the most diehard Avengers fans, there’s speculation that even more characters from the superhero group could appear in Doomsday. In August Hawkeye actor Jeremy Renner suggested that while it would be “challenging to get everyone [from Avengers] together” for Doomsday, he still “think[s] we’ll probably be doing it.”
Exactly who is included in that “we” remains to be seen, but given Marvel’s multiverse-jumping antics of late, it’s possible that even dead characters might somehow reappear, especially for a Marvel movie event like Doomsday. For his part, Thanos actor Josh Brolin said in October that he would “do anything that the Russos wanted me to do,” including a return for Doomsday, on the proviso that “it fits” with the story of the film.