Avengers: Doomsday Wasn't The First Time Chris Evans Was Asked To Return

Marvel Never Wanted Steve Rogers Benched, And Kept Trying To Bring Chris Evans Back Published Jul 27, 2026, 12:31 PM EDT Sign in to your TheGamer account Avengers: Endgame was the end of an era, bringing a story that was a decade in the making to a close. Many actors saw this as the natural jumping-off point, leaving their characters behind to explore other opportunities. Now, a couple of the biggest names are coming back, with Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans joining the cast of Avengers: Doomsday. While this is a grand return for both actors, Marvel didn’t want it to take this long to get Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers back on the big screen, and had been pitching him ideas for new projects over the past eight years. Despite Getting The Perfect Ending In Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Wanted Steve Rogers Back In The Films Right Away Evans confirmed this in an interview with EW, revealing that he has received a “dozen” pitches to return to Marvel before finally agreeing to be in Avengers: Doomsday. “Over the course of eight years, I probably heard at least a dozen pitches,” Evans says. “And they were all wonderful. It just never quite felt right.” In fact, the pitches started as soon as Evans was done with Endgame, so I suppose his big, climactic, tear-jerky ending in that film wasn’t supposed to be a grand send-off after all. “When we finished Endgame in 2018, Lou [D’Esposito] and Kevin [Feige] took me to dinner and they were like, ‘We’d love to keep doing movies with Steve Rogers as Nomad.” Nomad is one of Steve Rogers’ alter egos, so this would have still allowed the Captain America mantle to be passed on to Sam Wilson. Still, Evans kept putting it off - until he found out Downey Jr was returning as well. A lot is riding on Avengers: Doomsday. Culturally, the series has lost the hold it had on us back when Endgame hit theatres, so this already feels like much less of an event than the last Avengers film did. Doomsday not only has to win everyone back, but it also has to pay off on everything being set up in the last few years of films and TV shows - while still, presumably, being accessible to those of us who haven’t kept in the loop. That’s not even getting into all the nods to movies from the 00s, with the X-Men joining the team. Release Date December 18, 2026 Runtime 165 Minutes Director Anthony Russo, Joe Russo Cast Vanessa Kirby Sue Storm / Invisible Woman Joseph Quinn Johnny Storm / Human Torch Ebon Moss-Bachrach Ben Grimm / The Thing