Captain America’s ending was rather quiet and subdued and it was definitely not the most dramatic finish in Avengers:Endgame.
However, that made for one of the most poignant moments in all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Actor Chris Evans changed although the character of Steve Rogers didn’t change much over his 11 appearances – and we are not referring to the old age makeup he wore.
Chris Evans was famous for playing a different Marvel character in another studio’s Marvel movies.
He played the Human Torch in the two Fantastic Four movies Fox made in 2005 and 2007.
Prior to that, he had roles in Not Another Teen Movie with future Supergirl star Chyler Leigh and The Perfect core, with fellow future co-star Scarlett Johansson.
Evans appeared in two other comics adaptations that flew under the radar after he broke out with Fantastic Four.
The Losers is about a team of special forces operatives which co-starred Zoe Saldana.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is where Evans played one of the seven evil exes of female protagonist Ramona Flowers.
Brie Larson was one of his co-stars, the future Captain Marvel.
In 2011, Evans joined the MCU with Captain America: The First Avenger.
The film grossed $176 million and it was a relatively inauspicious debut – it would be loose change by today’s Marvel standards.
This was when Marvel was still finding its feet before Disney bought the company.
First Avenger was the last MCU film to be distributed by Paramount.
Captain America gained more respect with The Winter Soldier after The Avengers turned Marvel into the juggernaut that is today.
Viewers also regard The Winter Soldier significantly better than First Avenger. From then on things have been going good for Captain America.
Captain America is endearing to viewers is because he is relatively consistent from film to film.
His essence largely remained unchanged even after being frozen in ice for decades, staying the same while the world around him didn’t.
Evans himself changed a lot.
“When you’re playing a character for a long time, you start to see the parallels between what the character’s going through and what you’re going through. You start to look at your own conflicts and circumstances through the eyes of someone who might handle it better than you would,” Movieweb quoted Evans as saying.
The co-director of Civil War, Infinity War and Endgame, Joe Russo said that Evans had the hardest job of all the actors, similar to the way that playing Superman is harder than it looks.
“(Captain America is) one of the most difficult roles you could possibly ask an actor to play. He’s playing integrity and moral fortitude, and making it complex and interesting at the same time. It can be very difficult.”
That’s what made Evan’s performance richer than it seemed – Evans was making it look easy.
Captain America did not die in Endgame, although he finally made a significant change.
After completing his mission to return the Infinity Stones, he settled down with his beloved Peggy Carter.
A movie, indeed a whole series of movies full of bombast, ended on a graceful shot of Evans and Hayley Atwell dancing.
“It felt like graduating high school or college, you know … For the last month of filming I was letting myself go to work every day and be a little overwhelmed and a little nostalgic and grateful. By the last day, I was bawling. I cry pretty easy, but I was definitely bawling,” he said.
He wasn’t the only one. -TISG