While Marvel Studios clearly had ideas about heading towardsThe Avengerswhen they set about making their own films starting withIron Man, it wasn’t until their fifth film—Captain America: The First Avenger—that they were making a movie whileThe Avengerswas rocking and rolling and getting geared up to start production. Not only that, but the 1940s-setCaptain Americawould serve as the audience’s lead-in to the experimentalThe Avengers, and thus needed to tee up major plot points whilealsointroducing a major new superhero. And while the end result works wonderfully, getting there was sometimes a tricky path.
Captain Americawas one of the first films announced when Marvel Studios forged ahead with its plan tomake its own superhero movies, and at that timeDavid Self(Road to Perdition) was hired to pen the screenplay. At the time, that screenplay didn’t spend near as much time in the 1940s, as Self said in a statement the story would focus on Captain America coming to terms with who America is today:
“He’s a Norman Rockwell character who is faced with today’s America and is forced to look at his own past, things in the ’40s that weren’t necessarily what they were cracked up to be, and also how today’s country may be different than it looks.”’
Nearly two years later, after Marvel had releasedIron Manto smashing success, veteran filmmakerJoe Johnston(The Rocketeer,October Sky) was hired to directCaptain America, although curiously at the time it was reported that a script didn’t yet exist. Another point of interest: the title of the film, initially, wasThe First Avenger: Captain Americauntil it was changed toCaptain America: The First Avengerin April 2010.
Eventually,Christopher MarkusandStephen McFeelywere hired to write the screenplay, although it appears it was still in flux as to how much of the film would take place in the 1940s and how much would take place in present day. Markus and McFeely would, of course, go on to write the next twoCaptain Americamovies as well asAvengers: Infinity WarandAvengers: Endgame, soThe First Avengerwas ground zero for two of the most important figures in MCU filmmaking.
Casting the title character, however, proved incredibly difficult. By this time—spring 2010—Marvel Studios was becoming a bona fide brand, and every young actor in town was vying for the opportunity to play Captain America.Ryan Phillippeauditioned, as didGarrett Hedlund,Jensen Ackles, andChace Crawford. Most notably,John Krasinskiwas one of the finalists for the role, but he hilariously recalled feeling body shamed by seeingChris Hemsworth’s Thor during his screen test:
In addition to Krasinski,Sebastian Stanwas also a serious finalist for the Steve Rogers role, and he so impressed Marvel execs that they cast him as Bucky Barnes instead.
But castingChris Evansin the now iconic part wasn’t so simple. This was a character every actor in town wanted to play—everyone but Evans. Having previously played a superhero in twoFantastic Fourfilms to disappointing results, Evans wasn’t sure he wanted to tie himself down like that again:
Reflecting on landing the roleeven more recently, Evans said he felt fine passing on it:
“Getting the [Captain America] 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.”
But a phone call fromRobert Downey Jr.himself set Evans straight, and he eventually relented and signed on in March 2010—with a caveat. While most of the MCU actors at that point signed contracts that had options for nine appearances (including cameos), Evans talked Marvel into bringing his total number of appearances down to six.
That didn’t completely ease Evans’ concerns—indeed he admitted years later that he was still nervous about his decision to play Captain Americauntil he sawThe First Avenger:
“Well, I wasn’t happy in the firstCapbecause — well, not that I wasn’t happy. I was just nervous, you know what I mean? I had taken a role that I was just nervous about. And it was a lifestyle change, and there were a lot of factors on the firstCap. I was just nervous, man. It was a big lifestyle, whatever… And now it’s like, ‘I got it.’ I got it. It’s OK. No one’s fucking kicking down my fucking door. I can still walk around. I can still go to a movie. I think I was just so scared that, like, ‘This is it. I just signed my death warrant; my life’s over. I can’t believe I did this. This isn’t the career I wanted.’ That didn’t happen. None of that shit happened. I’m fine, fine.”
Indeed, Evans said in the same interview he was simply worried about being tied down to making six bad movies:
“I’m fine. You know, I didn’t have a meltdown and I didn’t lose my fucking mind. And the movies were good. And the biggest thing I worried about was making shitty fucking movies. I don’t want to make shitty movies and be contractually obligated to make garbage.”
Evans wasn’t the only actor who had mixed feelings aboutCaptain America.Hugo Weavingwas cast as the villainous Red Skull, but subsequentlyrevealed in 2012that although Marvel had an option to bring him back in future movies, he wasn’t exactly itching to return:
RELATED:Hugo Weaving Explains Why He Didn’t Return to Play Red Skull in the ‘Avengers’ Sequels
This explains why Weaving was recast forAvengers: Endgame.Regardless, after Evans finally signed on toThe First Avenger, the film landed another key creative voice:Joss Whedon. In April 2010, Whedon was announced as the writer and director ofMarvel’s The Avengers, which would be released in May 2012. But as part of Whedon’s contract forThe Avengers, he was also assigned to do a rewrite of theCaptain America: The First Avengershortly before that movie started filming.
Now, Whedon isn’t officially credited for writingThe First Avenger, and he subsequently revealed that his work on the scriptwasn’t anything too heavy:
“I just got to make some character connections. The structure of the thing was really tight and I loved it, but there were a couple of opportunities to find his voice a little bit — and some of the other characters — and make the connections so that you understood exactly why he wanted to be who he wanted to be. And progressing through the script to flesh it out a little bit.”
At this time, Whedon was no stranger to being a script doctor, but he explained in this case, it was nice to know the studio would actually use his contributions:
“It’s fun in this case, because, A, they’ll actually use the things I wrote, which is rare; and, B, it’s a fun puzzle to go in and say, ‘Okay, this is what works, this is what needs to be connected, and here are some key moments.’ Then the third thing is that it takes place in the ’40s, so I got to write ’40s dialogue, and that’s never not fun!”
Production onCaptain America: The First Avengergot underway in June 2010, and the film shot with the then-brand new digital camera the Arri Alexa. Extensive visual effects were used to bring “Skinny Steve Rogers” to life, which Johnston explained was tricky to accomplish and involved using a body double in some scenes:
“Most of the shots were done by an L.A. company called LOLA that specializes in digital ‘plastic surgery.’ The technique involved shrinking Chris in all dimensions. We shot each skinny Steve scene at least four times; once like a normal scene with Chris and his fellow actors in the scene, once with Chris alone in front of a green screen so his element could be reduced digitally, again with everyone in the scene but with Chris absent so that the shrunken Steve could be re-inserted into the scene, and finally with a body double mimicking Chris’s actions in case the second technique were required. When Chris had to interact with other characters in the scene, we had to either lower Chris or raise the other actors on apple boxes or elevated walkways to make skinny Steve shorter in comparison. For close-ups, Chris' fellow actors had to look at marks on his chin that represented where his eyes would be after the shrinking process, and Chris had to look at marks on the tops of the actor’s head to represent their eyes.”
Captain America: The First Avengerhit theaters on June 23, 2025—in the midst of San Diego Comic-Con—and earned a solid $65 million on opening weekend. This was miraculously on par with the $65.7 millionThorearned in its opening weekend, and even the final domestic box office of the two films—$176.6 million forCaptain Americaand $181 million forThor—signaled that these tonally disparate movies were holding the attention of the same audience. Indeed, whileThoris a fantasy film starring a Norse god andCaptain Americais a 1940s-set World War II movie, fans of what was becoming the Marvel Cinematic Universe were turning up to both, signaling the potential for sustained success ahead.
When all was said and done,The First Avengergrossed $370 million worldwide and earned mostly positive reviews. Chris Evans scored high praise from fans and critics alike in his portrayal of Steve Rogers, and the film set the stage beautifully for Steve to serve as something of an audience surrogate when all theseverydifferent heroes came together in Marvel’s next opus—and their riskiest film by far:Marvel’s The Avengers.
Note: This article was originally published on August 09, 2025.
If you missed my previous How the MCU Was Made articles, click the links below:
KEEP READING:How the MCU Was Made: ‘Thor’ and Why Chris Hemsworth Nearly Wasn’t Cast
