Today in Of Course He Is news, Chris Evans is returning to the MCU in Avengers: Doomsday, which will also star Robert Downey, Jr. in his new capacity as Doctor Doom. The film, which is due in 2026, won’t even be Evans’ first return to Marvel since Avengers: Endgame, as he appeared as Johnny Storm in Deadpool & Wolverine this summer. It’s not clear what role he’ll play in Doomsday, Steve Rogers or Johnny Storm, and if it is Steve Rogers, whether or not he’ll play a variant or the Old Man Steve we met at the end of Endgame. Why not all of the above? Let’s go nuts.
Much like RDJ’s return to Marvel, I see the pros and cons. The most obvious con is that we simply have not been given enough time to miss any of the OG Avengers since Endgame. There won’t even be a full decade between that film and Doomsday, and between the two films, Evans has already made one appearance in another movie. RDJ will, at least, have a whole seven years between his appearances. This gives us no time to build up any nostalgia for the original cast, and thus cheapens their eventual, even inevitable, return to the MCU.
But the other side of that is aging. Steve Rogers isn’t supposed to age, so that problem comes built in. (Tony Stark is at least a normal guy who’s allowed to get old.) There is also the other problem facing the MCU, which is that very little of their post-Endgame storytelling has been embraced by audiences. Much like RDJ’s return, I think if Anthony Mackie was better received as the new Captain America, Chris Evans probably wouldn’t be coming back quite so soon—I do think the OG cast’s return was always inevitable in the context of Secret Wars, due in 2027, which features many Marvel characters in an intergalactic battle royale—but I think this is a sign that Marvel is anticipating that Captain America: Brave New World is going to fall flat on its face.
That sucks for Anthony Mackie, who hasn’t done anything to deserve this bad turn of events, but also, Sam Wilson as Cap isn’t super popular in the comics. The most popular non-Steve version of Captain America is far and away Bucky Barnes. I understand why they wanted to move forward with Anthony Mackie as Cap, because Sam Wilson is the most aligned character with Steve Rogers morally, and handing the shield to Bucky would involve a lot of heavy lifting for that character the films simply haven’t done, but I also won’t be surprised if Brave New World ends up being Mackie’s only film as Cap. I think they’re really about to eat sh-t with that movie.
Which brings us back to Chris Evans’ inevitable return to Marvel. The best “trick” would be if he’s playing another version of Johnny Storm in this film, especially since RDJ is playing Fantastic Four villain Doctor Doom—believed to be a Tony Stark variant in this telling, not Victor von Doom himself—which can then lead into Secret Wars and Evans returning again as Steve Rogers. I assume there’s going to be some mechanism between these two films that will allow Marvel to recast many of these characters with new, younger actors.
Or Old Steve will show up to introduce us to his son, James Rogers, who will become the legacy Captain America. Whatever, I don’t think audiences will eat it up. The only option for a new Cap that audiences would probably embrace with enthusiasm is Bucky Barnes, but good luck getting Sebastian Stan to keep doing this sh-t now that he’s emerging as a legit leading man in Hollywood. If they want to do Bucky-Cap with Sebastian Stan, they’ll have to back up the Brinks truck.
