Avengers: Infinity War - Chris Evans Would Walk Away From Captain America With No Regrets
So maybe he is going after all?
There barely seems to be a day goes by now without an update on the Will She Get Off The Plane saga that is Chris Evans' continued presence as Captain America in the MCU. The last we heard, he might actually be open to staying on - as long as Marvel want him - beyond the end of his current contract, but now it sounds like he might be leaning towards leaving again.
In a rather poetic interview with USA Today, Evans spoke quite openly about the possibility of handing over the character to someone else, and there's something in his phrasing that suggests he might have already made his mind up:
"I’d be lying if I said it wouldn’t be hard for me. But the passing of time and the passing of torches is part of the experience. Nothing lasts forever. There’s a beauty in that departure, even if it can be sad at times. It’s also joyful. I’ve had a great run. Superheroes are reinventable entities, like Batman or even James Bond. These movies find new incarnations and new ways to tell the story. I am all for it. However they want to proceed after Avengers 4, it’s really up to them. I walk away with no regrets and endlessly thankful."
There is obviously still hope, of course, because this could be no more than Evans making a play for a new contract - and a sizeable one at that - in public. After all, this isn't the first time he's run with the "it's really up to them" line - you get the sense that isn't so much "it's up to them if they want to use me" and more "it's up to them if they want to afford me".
Robert Downy Jr has already been given a couple of bumper contract improvements, and Evans can count himself on the same level as him (hell, he's had more good films than RDJ, given the misfire of Iron Man 2). So Marvel really ought to pay him, if this is indeed him negotiating out loud.
There is of course the intriguing idea that someone else could come in and play Steve Rogers after him - hence the allusions to Batman and James Bond - rather than another character taking on the Captain America label. That's not something we've actually seen yet (aside from Don Cheadle coming in as Rhodey) and if it works once well for Marvel at the highest rung of the ladder, you'd have to suspect it would give them a stronger negotiating point to simply replace costly actors (should they so desire).
But that doesn't mean anyone would actually play Cap as well as Evans, which should be the primary concern here.