Some characters become iconic, making the actors who played them household names, such as Chris Evans’ portrayal of Steve Rogers/Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But at Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2), I was reminded why MCU fans should just let Steve Rogers go.
As Evans raced excitedly onto the C2E2 stage to AC/DC’s Back in Black and a screaming crowd, I was comfortably at home watching Popverse’s live stream of the session. Unsurprisingly, the first question from host Veronica Valencia was about the Captain America films. And that was fine, except that most media outlets seem to have run stories with headlines specifically about what Evans had to say about the role, despite the fact that the majority of the 30-minute session was about the rest of his career. Evans hasn’t been Captain America since 2019—Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson was given the mantle at the end of Avengers: Endgame, and after some hiccups, reclaimed the title again in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
It’s disingenuous to keep harping on about Evans’ Captain America when Mackie has the role now. The six main Avengers were an all-white team for 17 films. The far more representative Phase 4 of the MCU, which featured the introductions of superheroes of colour Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), Moon Knight (Oscar Isaac), Scarlet Scarab (May Calamawy), Ms. Marvel (Iman Veilani), Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), Werewolf by Night (Gael García Bernal) and the multicultural Eternals, has been vilified by way too many in the MCU fandom because of their diversity. There have been too many calls to bring back the original six Avengers in place of these new additions, despite half of the original Avengers team continuing to still be in the MCU—Thor, Hawkeye, and Hulk are alive and well and appearing in films and shows.
That fandom and media both continue to diminish a Black man taking on the mantle of Captain America by practically begging Evans to return to the role is frustrating, especially when Evans is clearly happy with how Steve Rogers’ story panned out. When asked about it at the C2E2 session, Evans said, “God, it’s tough. Look, I love that role deeply, it means so much to me. Do I think there are more Steve Rogers stories to tell? Sure, but at the same time, I’m very very precious about it.” In the MCU, they’ve told the Steve Rogers story they wanted to, and Evans said it doesn’t feel right to go back to the character now.
So, why are all the headlines about there being more Steve Rogers stories to tell? Or worse, about Evans’ imminent return to the MCU? It was a single sentence that Evans said but it’s literally every headline! The man doesn’t want to do more MCU. At the start of the session, Evans spoke about being hesitant to take on the role at all because of the multi-year commitment. He’s talked about the pressure of maintaining the physique of the character. While Evans acknowledged the “built-in fanbase” of comic books, he also admitted that that’s what makes superhero franchises so daunting. Other MCU actors have regularly spoken about losing out on challenging roles because of the grueling schedules of superhero films. Seriously, in the words of Elsa, let it go!
And, there’s more to Evans than Steve Rogers. He was talking about mental health struggles in the entertainment industry quite a while before many others did. He touched on the issue of burnout in the industry during the C2E2 session. When asked by Valencia about being an actor and producer on the mini-series Defending Jacob, Evans said it was a lot of work and not something he would do too often. Being a producer is exhausting and as Evans asked of actors who have production companies, “when do you wake up?” He also mentioned that he did three films in 2022 and won’t be repeating that experience either. It’s obviously not the life Evans wants—and he has the luxury to avoid hustle culture. Evans doesn’t live in Hollywood, as he mentioned. He’s got a dog, Dodger, comes from a big Boston family, and has a new girlfriend. Why would he spend time working so hard?
It was interesting to see Evans not want to talk too much about mental health at the session—maybe he doesn’t want to be labelled the ‘mental health guy’. But we’re in the fourth year of a pandemic; mental health resources are awful around the world. Inflation is a nightmare that never seems to end. Just talk about mental health, Evans. And then do something about it with your resources.
There were other highlights from the C2E2 panel that were so much more fun than wanting Steve Rogers back. Evans lit up when talking about Dodger, his dog. Valencia asked Evans about dressing up Dodger in shrunken versions of his iconic characters’ clothes. It was hilarious watching Evans re-enact Dodger becoming completely catatonic when having a sweater shoved on him.
When asked about voicing Buzz Lightyear in 2022’s Lightyear, Evans was transformed. Disney Pixar pitched Lightyear to Evans with a raw pencil-animation of a scene and it wowed him. He then talked about being an “animation nut” and having spent time watching BTS videos of the making of animation films—he was positively emotional that they’d created a presentation like the ones he’d seen, but it was for him. More of this; less Steve Rogers!
I also really liked how open Evans was about his past successes and failures. He knows his filmography very well, something I’m finding I really appreciate about actors after having attended Matt Ryan’s session at Toronto Comic Con 2023 where he passionately talked about his love for playing John Constantine. Evans spoke about watching Scott Pilgrim with his friends while shooting Captain America: The First Avenger and that his friends were delighted that he was “finally in a good movie”. Only for the film to not do well in the box office. Scott Pilgrim eventually became a cult favourite and is now set to return as an anime with the original cast voicing their characters. It’s a project Evans seems excited for, but that’s how he seems to be about everything he’s doing. He was so joyous talking about working with Ana De Armas again for the rom-com Ghosted, which he said “felt like a 90s movie”. And then there’s the Christmas film he’s done with Dwayne Johnson, a first for both of them.
We love fictional characters. They are reflections of us, better than us, they teach us, they help us find ourselves. But there are real people writing, directing, producing, and acting to bring these characters to life. And yes, we want to watch them forever and ever. But at some point, the characters we’ve all got used to need to move on, and so do the actors behind them. Fandom can often get stuck and inadvertently hold back the people who played their favourite characters. Let Chris Evans make his rom-coms. Let Anthony Mackie bring a new Captain America to the MCU. Let’s just accept that change is inevitable and enjoy what comes next!
