Chris Evans said he received “at least a dozen pitches” to return as Steve Rogers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and based on a tease from Captain America star Anthony Mackie, it sounds like Nomad may have been what brought him back.
Both Avengers: Doomsday stars spoke about how Steve Rogers will be handled in the superhero team-up movie just after stepping off the Hall H stage at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) 2026. Both Evans and Mackie will share a screen once more when the project premieres this December, but it sounds like it took some time for Marvel Studios to convince the former that it was a story worth telling.
Evans’ Cap was left in the past following the events of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, leaving many – the actor included – to believe Steve Rogers was out of the MCU as Mackie’s Sam Wilson took up the Captain America mantle. Evans has now told Entertainment Weekly that conversations about reintroducing him into its expansive cinematic universe started as early as 2018.
“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,'” Evans said. “And I said, ‘Okay, well, what do you got?'”
Nomad is a name Marvel comics readers will recognize. It’s one of the many aliases Steve Rogers has adopted over the decades since he first threw his star-spangled shield onto the page, but the name has never been uttered in the MCU.
With his character’s exit still so fresh, however, Nomad wasn’t enough to bring Evans back into the fold. He explained that the two Marvel Studios executives’ pitch “was great” but still “didn’t feel right at the time.”
“I kind of wanted to… I was a little precious,” he continued. “I wanted to preserve it. But I just said, ‘Please keep pitching.'”
What followed was eight years of what Evans recalled as “at least a dozen pitches” to bring his Steve Rogers back to the big screen. He explained, “You do start thinking maybe that’s the expiration — whatever it is — maybe it’s not right because it’s just not right.”
So, what ended up making Steve Rogers’ return in Doomsday feel right? The answer: Robert Downey Jr.
“I got a phone call from my team saying there’s a rumor [Robert Downey Jr. is] talking to Marvel, and I was like, ‘Uh, oh. What does this mean?'” Evans said. “And all of a sudden it felt right. [Doomsday co-director Joe Russo] gave me the pitch, and Downey was [back]. It just all of a sudden… it was like, ‘This is it.'”
We’ve seen a few clips of Evans’ return as Steve Rogers – one short one of him holding a baby and another shot from the trailer of him with Chris Hemsworth’s Thor – but neither revealed too much about how he’s back or his role’s potential ties to the comics. Evans did say Marvel pitched him on a return as Nomad, but that was all the way back in 2018. Without seeing Doomsday, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s happening in its story, but Mackie may have helped fans zero in.
During his own interview with Variety, the Captain America: Brave New World star clarified that Steve Rogers will not take back the role of Cap when he comes back to help fight Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom. Instead, it sounds like that original Nomad idea may have traveled through to the pitch that brought Evans back.
“Steve Rogers in the comic book – there is a comic book,” Mackie said, looking into the camera, when asked about Doomsday. “You say you’re a nerd. Read the comic book. Don’t be a nerd by trade, be a nerd by fact. So, in the comic book, Steve Rogers becomes Nomad.”
When the interviewer then said, “Maybe that will happen,” Mackie shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t even watch movies.”
Marvel loves to keep its secrets. Viewers excited to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day have spent months trying to solve the identity of Sadie Sink’s mystery character, with even official MCU accounts doing their best to mess with them in the meantime. They’ll have their answer when Tom Holland returns to the big screen this Friday, July 31.
Avengers: Doomsday, meanwhile, is set to premiere December 18, 2026. While we wait to see how the story of Captain America fits into the big MCU picture, you can read about the secret message Downey Jr. hid while at SDCC. You can also see how Feige fought back against criticism of Doctor Doom’s build-up, as well as everything else Marvel had to show at its Hall H panel.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
