It’s not an eager yes: Chris Evans on Marvel return

Team Udayavani, Nov 12, 2019, 2:39 PM IST

Los Angeles: Chris Evans says he would never say never to coming back as Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the possibility would not get an “eager yes” from him.

The actor, who has essayed Steve Rogers aka Cap in 11 MCU films, concluded the character’s journey with 2019 blockbuster “Avengers: Endgame”

When his “Endgame” co-star Scarlett Johansson, who plays Black Widow, asked Evans if he would come back, he responded with a question: “To Marvel?”

He even joked that his character is “an old man now” post “Endgame”.
“Everything clicks when I get up, recovery is not the same,” Evans quipped.

But when Johansson prodded, he gave a more serious answer.

You never say never. I love the character. I don’t know. It’s not a hard no, but it’s not an eager yes either,” he said during Variety Actors on Actors segment.

Evans also elaborated on his career after Captain America’s supposed swansong in “Endgame”.

“There are other things that I’m working on right now. I think Cap had such a tricky act to stick the landing, and I think they did a really nice job letting him complete his journey.

“If you’re going to revisit it, it can’t be a cash grab. It can’t be just because the audience wants to be excited. What are we revealing? What are we adding to the story? A lot of things would have to come together,” he said.

The actor, who now stars in whodunnit mystery “Knives Out”, said he was dying to direct a film, he doesn’t have a story.

I’m dying to direct, but I don’t have the courage or focus to write, and the hardest thing is finding material. The good material isn’t just sitting there untouched. When I directed, one of the trickiest things was I found some little broken-bird script and thought, Oh, I can nurse this thing back to health’. In retrospect, I do think even the best version of the movie I directed, there may still have been a ceiling based on the material,” he said.

He made his directorial debut in 2014 with “Before We Go”, in which he also featured with Alice Eve.

When Johansson asked what kind of stories he wanted to make, Evans expressed his interest in the Buddhist philosophy.

Those are stories that I think can touch people. I think we’re all looking to find out, from an egoic standpoint, what our relevance is, who we’re supposed to be, what the definition of joy and love and purpose is. Loose concepts of Buddhism address a lot of that. I certainly don’t have the skillset to write it, so I’m just on the hunt.