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For many Marvel fans, watching Chris Evans’ time as Captain America marked one of the most touching send offs that the franchise has ever had. After a lifetime of service and surviving more certain-death situations than anyone should ever encounter, Steve Rogers got his happy ending. However, it didn’t take long before Marvel Studios started coming up with ideas to bring Evans back into the MCU. In fact, they pitched him ideas over and over until, eventually, Avengers: Doomsday brought him back.

Speaking to the press at San Diego Comic Con 2026, Chris Evans explained that Marvel Studios started pitching him new stories with Steve Rogers before Avengers: Endgame even came out. “When we finished Endgame in 2018, Lou [D’Esposito] and Kevin [Feige] took me to dinner and they were like, ‘We’d love to keep doing movies with Steve Rogers as Nomad,’” Chris Evans said. “And I said, ‘Okay, well, what do you got?’”

Many comic book fans will remember Nomad as the identity that Steve Rogers took after discarding the Captain America persona in the 1970s in the aftermath of the Nixon administration and the Watergate scandal. While it was a relatively short-lived departure from this Captain America identity, the “man without a country” persona has remained one of Steve Rogers most notable moments. 

“They showed me a pitch, and it was a great pitch,” Chris Evans said of that 2018 dinner. “But for whatever reason, it just didn’t feel right at the time. I kind of wanted to… I was a little precious. I wanted to preserve it. But I just said, ‘Please keep pitching.’”

And keep pitching they did. As the current Captain America in the MCU, Anthony Mackie, explained, Marvel Studios seemed keen to bring Chris Evans back as Steve Rogers. “They were pitchin’ him ideas,” he said. “They were tellin’ him stuff. Maybe this. Maybe that. Maybe this. And when he heard the idea of Doomsday was gonna be, he was like, ‘I think I finally found the story that would bring me back.’ You know, it’s exciting to have him back because he’s my boy.”

How many pitches? “Over the course of eight years, I probably heard at least half a dozen pitches,” Evans admits. “And they were all wonderful. It just never quite felt right. And you do start thinking maybe that’s the expiration – whatever it is – maybe it’s not right because it’s just not right.”

Eventually, it was the combination of the Doomsday pitch and the return of one of his key co-stars that brought Chris Evans back to the MCU. “All of a sudden, it felt right. [Joe Russo] gave me the pitch, and [Robert Downey Jr] was [back]. It just all of a sudden… it was like, ‘This is it.’”

Avengers: Doomsday is in cinemas on December 18, 2026

Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:

• All the upcoming MCU movies, TV series, and specials on the horizon
• How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
• The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
• All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst