Friday's scoop is indeed confirmed today by The Hollywood Reporter, and a contract is being drawn up right now. Chris Evans is Captain America, and we are mostly happy, I'd say. Things sure look a lot healthier than they did a few weeks back when John Krasinski and the rest of the no-names were circling the project. Next task is to find a female co-star (I believe Emily Blunt will get it) and for Joe Johnston to fill out the rest of the the supporting cast. Captain America shoots in June.
The Hollywood Reporter say
Chris Evans has been offered the coveted role of
Captain America, though reps for Marvel & Evans aren't talking. If it is a solid scoop (which I think it is) and he takes it (which he will), Evans will be the first actor to have won the role of two separate major Marvel superheroes having already turned in screen time as The Human Torch for the
Fantastic Four movies at Fox. I don't think many of us have any qualms about this. Firstly, that franchise is done and he will never reprise that role. Two, the
FF aren't involved in this new Marvel universe so there will never be a cross-over and thirdly; no-one cares about those crappy movies and therefore we have no real affinity towards them. They were embarrassing and we have all put them behind us. By the time Marvel win back the rights to the
FF characters on film (which they will eventually with Disney's lawyers pulling the strings) and with
Fox looking at rebooting the series over the next three years, nobody is going to care that he twice played Human Torch. I would speculate the offer that's been put out to Evans to be slightly higher than the $300,000 originally on the cards for the pool of less experienced actors who were originally in the running but still a small sum to what Evans earned during his time at Fox, which is why he probably has the weekend to mull over it. There's also concerns and complications over
What's Your Number, a rom-com with
Anna Faris he has already committed to and which similarly shoots this summer; though a note from Evans' mum should see him get out of that one easily enough. The Steve Rogers role is of course a big undertaking for any actor because it's not just a one time only gig. There's the stand-alone
Captain America movie that shoots in June, with strings attached for future sequels, spin-offs (
The Avengers for one) and regular cameo's and appearances in other Marvel movies focused on other costumed heroes. So he needs some time to think it over, though of course he would be crazy not to take it. My two cents on the casting: Good. I've liked Evans in most of what I've seen him in, and he was the only saving grace of the
FF movies.
The more I look at his stills, the more I can see him in the suit. My slight concerns are his lack of leadership on screen (he has only lead ONE movie to date and to me he suits the whiny, opportunistic character in a group - think
Sunshine - rather than the man who would lead me into battle either in No Man's Land or against costumed villains) and I kinda worry he's a little small. Least he always seem a little small. Still, I'm ok with the choice. Previously in the day,
IESB reported that Chris Evans,
Channing Tatum and
Gossip Girl'sSebastian Stan (a new name to us) were the last three in contention for the part. We can presume Tatum was second choice, and looking closely at Stan's size and non-American identity (he's from Romania); it seems likely he is in contention for the role of Bucky Barnes... Bucky is Captain America's sidekick in the comics canon. He befriends Steve Rogers in a World War II camp and soon finds out his alter-ego identity and fights side-by-side with him against the Nazi's and Red Skull...
Joe Johnston films
The First Avenger: Captain America in June with Chris Evans almost surely locked in for Cap;
Hugo Weaving cast as Red Skull and probably
Emily Blunt to play the love interest, Peggy Carter. The latter two would carry over from Johnston's last film,
The Wolfman.