Marvel president Kevin Feige has admitted that he was hesitant to cast Chris Evans as Captain America, a role that he is now synonymous with. Feige said in a recent interview that Evans’ having already played a superhero in the ill-fated Fantastic Four movies was a cause for concern.

He told the Hollywood Reporter, “We thought, OK, well, he’s that character. Let’s keep looking.” Evans played the Human Torch, Johnny Storm in the two Fantastic Four films. He himself has admitted to being hesitant about signing onto a multi-film contract with Marvel.

Feige said that they rationalised Evans’ casting by reminding themselves that it wasn’t unusual for stars to lead multiple franchises simultaneously. He said, “As we (continued) not finding people, we went back to the initial lists. And that brought us back to Chris. And I thought, well, Patrick Stewart played Jean-Luc Picard and Charles Xavier. Harrison Ford played Han Solo and Indiana Jones. Who cares?”

Evans was reportedly paid just $300,000 for the first Captain America movie, which released in 2011. He made $15 million for the last two Avengers films.

Evans has said that he turned down the offer not once, but twice. He told the Hollywood Reporter, “Getting the offer felt to me like the epitome of temptation. The ultimate job offer, on the biggest scale. I’m supposed to say no to this thing. It felt like the right thing to do. You see the pictures, and you see the costumes, and it’s cool. But I’d now woken up the day after saying no and felt good, twice.”

Evans was up against his friend and The Office star John Krasinski for the part. Krasinski in an interview to Variety said he vividly remembers receiving the rejection phonecall. “My agent called and said, ‘They’re going to go with Chris Evans,’” Krasinski said. “And I remember I said, ‘Yeah, look at him. He’s Captain America.’”

Avengers: Endgame is rumoured to be Evans’ final turn as Captain America. It has long been rumoured that the character will be killed off in the film. This rumour was further fuelled when Evans put out a tweet saying how much he’ll miss playing the character.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

First Published: Mar 28, 2019 19:25 IST