How Chris Evans changed Captain America for Marvel's future

Chris Evans changed Captain America, and Captain America changed Chris Evans. Take a closer look at the first Avenger in this week’s Deeper Cut.

Chris Evans tweeted his apparent farewell to Captain America last week, leaving movie fans to think about how strange the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be without him.

It’s about as strange as it sounded when Evans was cast as Marvel’s most iconic hero eight years ago. Why Chris Evans? some of us wondered. Why cast the guy who played Johnny Storm in those two Fantastic Four movies that weren’t even that good? Shouldn’t they find someone who’s as big a name as Captain America, or at least who hasn’t played another Marvel character?

The skepticism was understandable. When it comes to superheroes, there’s almost no one bigger than Captain America. Superman may be more well-known, but even he’s an Other, an alien from another planet; Cap is an Everyman, whose very identity is about representing an entire country. Where other heroes defend their cities, he literally carries America on his back, in the form of that timeless shield.

It’s fitting that he carries that shield, a defensive weapon, because Captain America is a defender first and foremost. When Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created him in 1940, he came from the minds and hearts of two men very similar to their hero — hard-working, overlooked and morally upright.

“Kirby had a dislike for bullies in any form,” Marvel editor Tom Brevoort explained in the company’s recent anniversary special.

So, too, did Simon, who also experienced bullying. “That played a big part in the creation of Captain America,” his daughter Melissa Groben revealed in the same special. “Somebody who would take on the bullies.”

That’s what makes Cap a legend. It has nothing to do with his superpowers. In fact, his origin story is precisely about how the super-soldier serum he takes only enables him to physically do what he is already mentally and emotionally committed to doing. Early scenes in Captain America: The First Avenger show him taking a fight in an alley even though he’ll lose, and diving on a grenade even as his fellow Army recruits run in fear.

Cap is timeless because even though the country has changed, and the world has changed, the things he stands for will never change. He represents standing up for what’s right, no matter what it costs; working hard, even if no one else believes in you; and being willing to put yourself second to the greater good. In fact, the more difficult things get in the world around us, the more valuable Captain America is, because he is that paragon of persistence, faith and courage.

Chris Evans was able to bring forward all those virtues that audiences love about Captain America. He made Steve Rogers a hero before he ever put on the suit. Evans (and Leander Deeny, who was his body double for those pre-transformation scenes) created a guy whose inner strength was felt even when his physical strength wasn’t. It was self-belief that made him, along with an innocence that was portrayed as a positive, not a negative.

Where many superhero projects treat the origin story as mere exposition to be laid out before the real plot starts, Evans told Steve Rogers’ story, not Captain America’s. Steve Rogers becomes Captain America, but that isn’t all he is or ever will be. His physical transformation doesn’t alter the way he sees the world, and Evans carried that vulnerability through — not only through the rest of First Avenger, but also in the eight other films that have followed.

There’s no doubt that Evans is a perfect choice to play Cap; he looks like he’s jumped off one of Kirby’s pages, and he even hails from Boston, one of the key cities in the American Revolution. But as Cap himself illustrates, looking like a hero doesn’t make you one. What Evans has that makes him aces is that he’s able to play Steve Rogers to a deeply affecting degree.

He experiences the same vulnerability: He’s openly admitted he was “scared” to take on the role. But he also grasps, as Steve does, that there’s something bigger than himself at stake. He’s not saving the world, but he is inhabiting a character that means a lot to a lot of people. Evans has a keen self-awareness of what it means to be Captain America.

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It should be noted that his outstanding take on the character is helped by an equally remarkable supporting cast. Marvel couldn’t have gotten it any better than Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, or Sebastian Stan as James “Bucky” Barnes, or Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark. Each of them took their respective characters and elevated them beyond what they ever were on the comic book pages, and Evans certainly benefited from interacting with people whose characters were just as rich and remarkable as his. But to properly discuss them would be a whole other article.

Rarely do actors get the chance to be completely surrounded by other performers who are also on top of their game. Nor do they get to play the same character multiple times in an entire cinematic universe that’s now spanned more than a decade. Evans’ success comes not just from himself, but also from an advantageous situation that enabled him to give the best possible performance, and to push Steve Rogers forward as a character.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier showed us the more difficult side of Steve, the part that still dealt with the guilt of Bucky’s death, and later of what his childhood friend had become. It was a reminder that doing good things for good reasons doesn’t make them easy, and Evans showed us how those harsh realities — not to mention the updated reality of decades later — was wearing on Cap. That comes to a head in Captain America: Civil War, where there’s so much in play for the character.

We see better than in any other film how he’s become a leader, not only for the Avengers but as someone who’s now at the forefront of the entire superhero discussion. We see a man whose life has been in service of the American government — all he ever wanted to do, what drove him going back to the start of First Avenger — now having to stand up and say he thinks the government is wrong. And we see a man who has to face that his best friend killed Howard Stark, someone who was one of Cap’s close friends and the father of another one.

Evans has to take his character through emotional turmoil in between the various action scenes, because at its heart, Civil War is an ideological drama as much as it is a superhero movie. Captain America has been hurt tremendously. He’s had to face a world that’s nothing like he ever wanted it to be or fought for it to be.

Evans plays that pain, that confusion, that frustration so well with each line or sometimes just the way he carries himself. And yet, under all those scars, he has still never lost Steve’s innocence, his idealism, his belief that things can be better. He is the beating heart of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, always carrying that hope and warmth that audiences can hold onto. He has layered so much onto the character with each passing film, but stayed true to those wonderful beliefs that always have a place in the world.

But Captain America has left his own impression on Chris Evans, too. The role has undoubtedly changed the way Evans is perceived as an actor. No longer do we look at him as the best part of those two lukewarm Fantastic Four movies, or remember him from playing Scarlett Johansson’s “hottie” love interest in The Nanny Diaries five years before they’d join forces in The Avengers.

Taking on a role with the gravitas and expectations of Captain America was definitely worth being scared about, but it proved that Evans has that gravity and can rise to those expectations. It’s not just that he played an iconic superhero; it’s what he was able to do with the role, whether it was fully realizing Steve Rogers’ rich backstory or being able to deliver the big, epic speeches and even bigger action moments that come as the leader of The Avengers.

One could argue that he essentially worked himself up to this point by taking several smaller and not quite as well-fitting comic book-related projects: Fantastic Four, The Losers, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Movies that gave him experience in the genre, and performances that were good, but didn’t seem like they were tapping his full potential. He was the evil ex, the hothead (sometimes literally). He needed a role that would let him grow up, just as the man himself was on the verge of turning 30.

Captain America was that role. It allowed Evans to not only mature and grow as an actor, but be seen doing it. Some actors fear being typecast; Evans has an almost opposite outlook, where he took a character who is so revered and means so much, and proved that he could do amazing things with it. In a genre that isn’t necessarily known for its characterization, he — along with other actors like Atwell, Stan, Cooper and more — showed that superheroes can be as well-crafted as any other heroes.

The parts he’s played since have proven how the film world looks at him differently. From his strong performance in Snowpiercer to the underrated work he did in Gifted, to his directorial debut with Before We Go, to even his recent Broadway run starring in Lobby Hero, he’s given now roles with more depth. Characters with a certain vulnerability to them, even in the toughest of times. It’s as if he unlocked something new and different by playing Captain America, and maybe he did; it’s hard to engage with a character so unique and resonant, and not be affected.

The question, of course, is what happens to Captain America in Avengers 4, and what the character will be like without Evans. Perhaps he’ll be written out for now, or we’ll get archive footage, or maybe Evans will be able to come back and reprise the role if the circumstances are right.

But one thing seems almost certain: This won’t be the last we see of Cap. The Marvel Cinematic Universe will go on, and Captain America is too important of a character in Marvel canon to never see him again. He has to return somewhere, if only to keep all the things he believes in — and the message that they will never fade — alive.

But the next time we see Cap, instead of asking “Why Chris Evans?” we’ll be asking “Why isn’t it Chris Evans?” He’s earned his place in history, just like the hero whose shield he just hung up.

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