Six years ago, the climax of Russo Brothers’ Avengers: Endgame saw Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers hang his shield as Captain America and go back to being a husband to Peggy Carter. After months of speculation, Marvel on Tuesday announced through a teaser of its long-awaited film Avengers: Doomsday that Evans will indeed return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Rogers, who’s now also a father. But what prompted Evans’ return to the MCU and the Avengers franchise?
Marvel initially had very different plans for its Phase 5. They roped in Jonathan Majors as Kang, the new chief antagonist of the MCU. But after he was convicted for misdemeanour assault and harassment in a domestic violence case against his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari, Marvel dropped him from all films, putting an end to the Kang Dynasty storyline.
Marvel then returned to familiar territory and brought back Robert Downey Jr, who like Evans, had also hung up his suit as Tony Stark aka Iron Man at the end of Endgame. In fact, he was seen sacrificing himself in order to save the world from Thanos (Josh Brolin). After months of speculation, at the San Diego Comic-Con last year, Downey announced his return to the MCU, but not as Iron Man. Instead, he’d play the new chief antagonist and Kang’s replacement, Doctor Doom.
Kevin Feige, Robert Downey Jr and Russo Brothers at San Diego Comic-Con. (Photo: Russo Brothers/Instagram)
But there was a caveat. Downey also ensured that Russo Brothers, the director duo behind past MCU blockbusters like the Avengers and the Captain America franchises, were brought back to the director’s chair on Avengers: Doomsday. With the trio reunited, how could Evans not have some FOMO? In fact, he even admitted to it in an interview with Screen Rant earlier this year.
“It’s sad to not be back with the band, but I’m sure they’re doing something incredible, and I’m sure it’s going to be that much harder when it comes out and you feel like you weren’t invited to the party,” said Evans, indirectly putting all rumours to rest and confirming that he’d indeed not return as Steve Rogers in Avengers: Doomsday.
Nostalgic, much?
FOMO is often in bed with nostalgia. One of the reasons Evans would’ve felt the FOMO so deeply was because Russo Brothers began their MCU journey with him. Their first directorial in the MCU was Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). Of course, Downey and other Avengers jumped into the next one, Captain America: Civil War (2016). That was Evans’ last Captain America movie as Avengers: Infinity War (2019) and Endgame took over subsequently.
Sharing the first teaser of Avengers: Doomsday on their social media handles, Russo Brothers also seemed palpably nostalgic while announcing the return of Evans’ Steve Rogers. “The character that changed our lives. The story that brought us all here together. It was always going to come back to this…,” Joe and Anthony Russo wrote in the caption.
Or is it something much deeper?
But bringing back both Rogers and Downey can’t be only a gratuitous move on part of Russo Brothers. Maybe there’s something bigger at play. There’s a fan theory doing the rounds online that explains why it was crucial for Evans to return to the franchise after Downey did. As per Den of Greek, it’s got to do with Doctor Doom disguising himself as Stark to trick his fellow Avengers into taking a revenge.
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What’s the revenge for? After Steve Rogers travels back in Endgame to fetch the Infinity Stones and ends up choosing a regular life with Peggy instead of becoming Captain America, that causes incursions and consequent havoc in Doom’s reality. He plans to get revenge, and part of his plan is to become Stark, who had an infamous ideological war with Rogers back in Captain America: Civil War.
It won’t be unusual for Downey to return to the MCU in a new character, despite his towering identity as Tony Stark since the inception of the MCU with Iron Man in 2008. It wasn’t too long ago when Evans also popped up, not as Steve Rogers but as Fantastic Four member Johnny Storm, in Shawn Levy’s buddy Marvel movie Deadpool & Wolverine last year.
Will other Avengers return?
Another leaked teaser of Avengers: Doomsday suggests that Chris Hemsworth is all set to return as well, as Thor. Jeremy Renner is also expected to reprise his role of Hawk-Eye for the film.
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Mark Ruffalo, who plays The Incredible Hulk, has denied he’s a part of the film, but that might be him trying his best to not spill out spoilers like he has in the past. “They decided that it was better to get rid of me than for me to tell the end of the next movie,” he joked on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon earlier this year.
Thus, the only Avengers most unlikely to return to Doomsday is Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, since the actor sued Marvel’s parent company Disney for releasing her standalone movie Black Widow (2021) directly on Disney+ during the Covid-19 pandemic.
