“He’s like George Clooney”: Not Anthony Mackie, Marvel Almost Fired Chris Evans For Another Actor in $2.7B Avengers Movie

With the release of Avengers: Endgame in April 2019 as part of MCU Phase Three, actor Chris Evans, best known for playing Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, said goodbye to the franchise. The audience responded favorably to the film and expressed appreciation for the direction, acting, action sequences, and many other aspects. The film went on to gross nearly $2.7 billion worldwide.

In just eleven days, Avengers: Endgame outperformed the entire Avengers: Infinity Wars theatrical run, making it one of the all-time biggest-grossing films. Marvel Studios reportedly considered using a new actor to play the part when Evans said goodbye to his character.

Also read: “I can’t see myself pursuing acting”: Before Passing the Torch to Anthony Mackie, Chris Evans Almost Quit Acting if it Meant He Could No Longer Work With Marvel

Anthony Mackie revealed Marvel Studios brought in three actors to play Old Cap

During an appearance on The Jess Cagle Show via Screenrant back in 2021, actor Anthony Mackie, who played Falcon in the MCU and has now taken over the role of Captain America, shared that the studios had brought in three actors to play Old Captain America.

Old Captain America is when Steve Rogers a.k.a. Captain America a.k.a. Chris Evans travels back in time with the help of Bruce Banner, played by Mark Ruffalo, to place the infinity stones back in their place and time and returns as an old man. The prosthetics used to make the actor old were so impressive that for a minute people actually forgot that it’s the same old Chris Evans under that make-up. Mackie said,

“So they brought in like three actors [to play Old Cap]. They’re like, none of these. Like, this isn’t how Chris will look when he’s old. Like, he’s going to look like George Clooney. He’s going to be 95 and still handsome, you know? So, they brought in a makeup team and prosthetics and makeup and made him into an old man. And how good of an actor Chris is, it actually worked. He pulled it off with his voice and everything. He did a great job.”

Also read: “He feels happy with his career”: Chris Evans Has Big Plans With His Wife Alba Baptista After Unparalleled Fame From His MCU Movies

Jen Underdahl explains creating the Old Cap scene with Chris Evans

After the movie was released and had received positive feedback from the audience and the critics, Marvel Visual Effects Producer Jen Underdahl spoke to Wired where she explained how they managed to create Old Cap. She said,

“We then started casting for a skin double, looking around for an old guy who approximates the same face and age as Cap, or what Cap would be. We shot in the same lighting conditions right after Chris performed. He gives the same lines, he tries to emulate Chris’ performance as much as possible so it doesn’t take a whole lot of hammering when you put it on Chris’ face.”

She continued that in addition to the skin double, they also needed to give Evans an older man’s body, an old man’s sort of profile to make him convincing for the audience, and for that, they did an overall warp on his body and squished him down so he fits in the place as the character.

Also read: “She is everything to him”: Chris Evans Made Up His Mind About Alba Bapitsta After the Very First Time They Met Each Other

Will Chris Evans return to the MCU to play Captain America?

Chris Evans bid goodbye to the character he is well regarded for in 2018 when the filming for Avengers: Endgame finished, and now Anthony Mackie is going to take the role of Cap in the full-fledged manner in his upcoming movie, but this has never stopped the audience from speculating if Evans would ever return to the MCU.

During an appearance at the C2E2 Convention via Variety back in April, the actor addressed why he didn’t think he’d return to reprise the character. He said,

“It’s tough, because, look, I love that role deeply. He means so much to me, and I really do. I think there are more Steve Rogers stories to tell, sure. But at the same time, I’m very, very precious with it…it’s like this little shiny thing that I have that I love so much, and I just don’t want to mess up in any way, and I was a part of something that was so special for the special period of time and in a way, it really landed so well.”

Evans added that as much as he is connected with Cap and loves telling those stories and working with his fellow Marvel actors, it doesn’t feel right to him to reprise the character right now.

Avengers: Endgame and other MCU movies are available to watch on Disney+.

Source: ScreenRant