In the comics, Captain America has handed over his shield and status as a star-spangled hero multiple times, and right now he looks to be out of the hero business for the foreseeable future. Chris Evans, though, star of Marvel’s Captain America films, isn’t too keen on giving up the shield quite yet. In fact, he’s a bit coy on whether he might take on the lead for a new team of Avengers.
Evans’ turn as Captain America has taken the character from something of an also-ran among superheroes to a household name. The latest Captain America flick pulled in $258 million in domestic receipts, making it the highest grossing film of the year until it was supplanted by another Marvel film, Guardians of the Galaxy . Evans is enjoying the phenomenal success of the Captain America franchise, but even he admits that his turn behind the star-spangled cowl can’t last forever.
“I’m sure it’ll happen at some point,” Evans said to MTV News of him giving up the Captain America role, “all good things have to come to an end. But I’m really happy playing the character, and I’m honored to be a part of the Marvel Universe for now.”
In the comics, Captain America has allowed others to take over for him a number of times. Most notably, Bucky, the Winter Soldier featured in the second Captain America film, took over as the Captain for a while before Steve Rogers took the mantle back.
In the current comics, though, Steve Rogers has been sapped of the Super Soldier Serum that gave him his Captain America powers, rendering him a frail old man. In his place, Marvel is having his longtime friend Sam Wilson, the Falcon, take over. Evans was asked whether he thinks the Captain America movie versions of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier might step into the role in the coming years.
“Who’s handing off the shield?” he joked. “Don’t take my job from me prematurely, dude!”
Evans also held out the possibility that there could be some serious changes to the status quo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Avengers: Age of Ultron . The interviewer held out the possibility of Captain America leading his own, separate team of Avengers, and Evans didn’t exactly disabuse him of the notion.
“Marvel doesn’t disappoint,” Evans said, admitting that he knows the general plan for Captain America and the Avenges. “Whatever you’re hoping for, you’re probably going to get.”
What could that possibly mean? It’s hard to tell. Marvel is about as secretive as Apple with its iPhones when it comes to plot details on its forthcoming movies. The Wild Speculation Game for Marvel movies is super fun, though, so we’re going to say that it means we’re going to see a miniature Civil War starting with Avengers: Age of Ultron and spilling over into Captain America 3 .
Our reasoning for this? Well, we’ve already heard from Marvel that Ultron, the villain in the next Avengers film, will be an invention of none other than Tony Stark. In his quest to make things better for the world through technology and blowing things up, Iron Man is going to invent one of the Avengers’ greatest villains, and we’re betting a lot of lives are going to be lost in the process.
With Tony having a bit of blood on his hands for his responsibility in the creation of Ultron , how hard is it to imagine that Captain America would have serious problems getting along with Iron Man? How hard is it to imagine that the two would part ways for a bit, with Tony keeping his own Avengers team going and Captain America splitting off with some other like-minded heroes – say, the Falcon, Hawkeye, and Hulk? – and going off to form Avengers West Coast.
Just kidding. Tony, of course, would be the one to go to the West Coast.
Of course, we’d see that playing out throughout the next round of Marvel movies following Age of Ultron. That would include Captain America 3 , Thor 3 , and Iron Man 4 , in all likelihood. As Marvel is wont to do in such situations, though, the teams would definitely have to settle their differences in time to team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy against Thanos for Avengers 3 .