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Marvel’s Civil War continues! Just months after Robert Downey Jr. announced his return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Avengers: Doomsday, his on-screen one-time rival is following suit. The Wrap reports that Chris Evans will be back for the next Avengers film, along with directors Joe and Anthony Russo.
But who, exactly, will he be? You might be quick to answer “Captain America, duh!” but there are actually a surprising amount of options here, especially when you consider Downey’s own return to the MCU as baddie Doctor Doom and the multiversal shenanigans that have been the focal point of this era of Marvel movies. In fact, Evans technically already came back to the MCU earlier this year, thanks to said multiversal shenanigans, albeit in the form of a profane, ill-fated Johnny Storm in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Of course, it’s true that Steve Rogers didn’t die in Avengers: Endgame. Rather, he went back in time, decided he couldn’t do this all day, and lived a long life with Peggy Carter. So there’s every possibility he really is just back at the original Cap.
Deadline reports that Anthony Mackie‘s Sam Wilson will also be back as Captain America in Doomsday, which doesn’t necessarily rule out Evans playing the same Steve Rogers we know and love. In the pages of Marvel Comics, an elderly but still buff Rogers fought alongside Wilson’s Cap in Steve Rogers: Super Soldier. But it’s also possible that Downey’s villain turn is actually the start of a trend for the MCU, one that could see Evans also play a villain. If that’s the case (and we’re speculating in this article), the MCU certainly has many, many ways to play this. Here are a few options:
Captain America, Commie Smasher
After the end of World War II limited the amount of Nazis that Captain America could punch, Marvel’s predecessor Atlas Comics reimagined Cap and Bucky as foes of Communists in the US. The more conservative version didn’t take, and when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (who co-created Cap with Joe Simon) brought Steve back for 1964’s Avengers #4, they retconned the Commie Smasher version of Cap.
Now, the 1950s Cap was William Burnside, a right-wing history PhD who idolized Rogers. When Cap disappeared, Burnside found the Super Soldier Serum and modified his face to look like Rogers, and even legally changed his name to Steve Rogers. Burnside worked for the FBI for some years as an anti-Commie Captain America.
He didn’t disappear after Rogers came back, but rather continued his reactionary activity. Eventually Burnside, still a dead-ringer for Rogers, became the National Director, the leader of a Neo Nazi group called the National Force. As much fun as it would be to see Marvel take on such a politically charged character, the studio has done a lot to separate Hydra from the Nazis, making its films as middle of the road as possible. But in short, the multiverse means that we could get some version of Evans as Burnside.
Monster Cap
We’ve already seen Colonel America in the MCU, the Steve Rogers who becomes an undead flesheater in the series Marvel Zombies. He’s hardly the only monster Cap out there, though. There’s the infamous Cap Wolf, who was mainline Earth-616 Steve Rogers who sometimes became a werewolf, and then there was the Vampire King Captain America of Earth-3931, who was turned by the evil Baron Blood.
The best of the monster Caps, however, is the one from the Cancerverse. In 2009’s Realm of Kings #1, a continuation of the Annihilation storyline that created the most popular version of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Quasar visits the nightmarish Earth-10011. The Captain Marvel (the Kree male Mar-Vell, not Carol Danvers) has destroyed Death with the help of the Lovecraft creatures the Many-Angled Ones. Through Mar-Vell’s corruption, Earth-10011 becomes a hellscape, defended by the Defenders of the Realm, the Ex-Men, and the Ftaghn Four.
The horrific Cancerverse Captain America fights with the Revengers, who lead an assault on Earth-616 to destroy their Death and make way for the Many-Angled Ones. The Revengers still stand as one of the scariest takes on the Avengers, and there’s something horrific about seeing Evans play such a demonic Cap as a stark contrast to when we last saw him in Endgame. However, exciting as it might be, there are more likely stories for the return of Chris Evans.
Hydra Cap
Perhaps the most likely evil Cap for Doomsday is the Hydra Cap that debuted in the Secret Empire crossover from 2017, spearheaded by writer Nick Spencer. This Steve Rogers became a believer in Hydra as a child in the 1920s and was a true believer by the time he got the Super Soldier Serum and became Captain America.
Marvel pushed this Rogers as the real thing, claiming that Steve was always in league with Hydra (something they did with Tony Stark and Kang the Conquerer back in the 1990s, to even worse results). However, Secret Empire eventually revealed that this Steve was created by Kobik, a living version of Cosmic Cube (or the Tesseract, for you MCU viewers).
This version seems most likely for Doomsday because of the way Secret Empire climaxes. At the height of Secret Empire, Sam Wilson fights against his predecessor. Instead of just defeating the Hydra Captain America, Sam finds a way to bring back the man he knew and respected. Through Sam’s heroism and commitment to the dream of Captain America (and, to be honest, some help from Bucky, Ant-Man, and others), the 616 Steve we love returned. Given the MCU’s current commitment to bringing back familiar faces, adapting this storyline would allow them have Chris Evans as Steve Rogers without disrespecting Anthony Mackie’s current run as Cap.
Chris Evans as the Beyonder as Steve Rogers
Another, but so much weirder possibility, is that Chris Evans isn’t playing Steve Rogers or Captain America at all. Rather, he’s playing the Beyonder, the ultimate antagonist of the original Secret Wars storyline.
The Beyonder is a godlike figure from outside the multiverse. In the first Secret Wars from 1984, the Beyonder has no humanoid form, and instead appears like a non-corporeal entity who collects groups of heroes and villains and sets them against each other. In the 1985 sequel Secret Wars II, the Beyonder takes more interest in learning about humans instead of making people punch each other. And to do that, he needs a human body.
After cycling through a few possibilities, the Beyonder models himself on Steve Rogers, eventually adding Michael Jackson’s hairdo and a leisure suit. In this form, the Beyonder goes on adventures that range from making Spider-Man teach him how to use the bathroom to killing the teenage New Mutants and bringing them back to life.
We know that the sixth Avengers movie will still be Secret Wars, and all of the talk of multiverses and incursions in recent films suggests that the MCU will adapt the 2015 Secret Wars, in which the Beyonder is a member of an alien race that more resemble standard grey men than Chris Evans.
However, with a Doctor Doom who looks like Tony Stark, Doomsday seems primed to reimagine our favorite heroes in villainous form. Even if Doctor Doom and not the Beyonder is the big bad of Avengers: Doomsday, the Beyonder’s Steve Rogers form would be a good way to get Evans on screen without having him repeat the beats of Captain America, or even Johnny Storm.
Avengers: Doomsday is slated for release on May 1, 2026.
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