This Thursday we received some news that came right out of left field (insert “on your left” joke here). Deadline reported that Chris Evans is in talks to return as Captain America, less than two years after his much-vaunted final MCU appearance in Avengers: Endgame. Marvel fans went wild over the announcement – though some had mixed feelings about it – but now it looks like we might’ve celebrated too soon.
Evans himself has responded to the report on social media and the Knives Out actor shared a brief but telling tweet. “News to me,” he wrote, along with a shrug emoji. He didn’t link back to an article talking about his apparent Cap return, but he didn’t need to for us to get the gist. It seems he’s claiming that these reports are bogus and he hasn’t heard anything about a comeback.
https://twitter.com/ChrisEvans/status/1349835808497229824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Obviously there were a lot of confused fans responding to the star in the comments, often using appropriate GIFs from Evans’ movies. The actor clearly kept an eye on the replies, too, and followed up his previous tweet with another, more light-hearted message.
https://twitter.com/ChrisEvans/status/1349840031653928961
So, what are we to make of this? Well, it’s par for the course for Marvel stars to try to throw fans off the scent in an attempt to maintain the surprise, and an old pro at the game like Evans could well be doing that here. Deadline’s intel is usually reliable, after all, so there must be some grain of truth to it. It’s possible that the deal isn’t as clinched as we were led to believe, though, and Marvel and Evans are still working out the details.
From what we understand, the actor is in talks to return for at least one new project, but potentially more after that, too. These would only be in a supporting capacity, though – comparable to Robert Downey Jr. in Spider-Man: Homecoming – and not for another starring role like, say, Captain America 4.