you Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host, Chris Hacker and Aaron Norris. We're going go ahead and get into our main topic. And Aaron, this is so funny that we decided to do it this week because if you remember in episode 13, very off the cuff, just randomly you had said, we were discussing Chris Evans and you had said, we should talk about Chris Evans and all his comic book roles. That's what we're going to do today.
We're going to talk about Chris Evans and his history with comic book movies. sexy specimen of a man. is. what we all want to be. Every man wants to be him. Every woman wants to be with him. You know, he is he's the greatest. So it's really like that scene in Captain America, the first Avenger, when they open up his cat like his casket, his his pod after they zapped him with with the Vita rays, you know, and he's just like sweaty and glistening.
And I'm not fangirling over here or anything, but it's just like that's what we all want to have. We were like, yeah. Even Haley Atwell like goes up and touches him. It's like, Ooh, yeah. Like she's like so blown away by it. during doing research for this episode, there's a fun little trivia thing on IMDB that said that Haley Atwell, the first, the very first cut that they show Chris Evans all greased up out of that pod.
Her response is what ends up in the movie because she is genuinely surprised and like shocked by this specimen that's in front of her. So Chris Evans, like we talked about here, has been in a plethora of comic book movies and we're just gonna quickly go through all of them and then discuss them in some capacity. So Aaron, why don't you go ahead and start us off with the very first comic book role of Chris Evans. Okay, so 2005, 2007 was his grand entrance into the comic book world, right?
With Fantastic Four, he played Johnny Storms. Now picture that. But everywhere, it was. everywhere. What? That is fundamentally all. The while Paul Walker was considered for the part of Johnny Storm, Chris Evans was ultimately cast in an interview on the Hollywood Reporter's Awards chatter podcast. Chris Evans opened up about taking on the role of Johnny Storm early in his career when discussing taking the part of the Human Torch.
Evans said that was back when superhero thing was just taking off. That's another pun because he could fly. He goes on to add, I had just been dumped and I needed it. Well, thank you, Johnny Storm, aka. Chris Evans, we all needed that. should actually be thinking Kate Boswell because that's who broke up with him. I mean, probably not the ultimate reason why he decided to do it, but it sounded like he's always been.
It's very famously known that Chris Evans has always been very apprehensive about joining huge franchises. There are many interviews of him discussing how he wishes that during, especially when he took the role as Captain America, he was very, excited about the fact that they wouldn't just be filming back to back movies. He says like Twilight is the example of a series that he would never want to be a part of because they're just filming them.
That's like your career for, you know, eight to 10 years. You're just filming these movies back to back to back. So when he decided to take Johnny Storm, this was his first stint in the comic book world. And I know those movies aren't often praised as far as like they haven't aged well, obviously not a great. adaptation, there's a lot of things wrong with those Fantastic Four movies.
But I think Chris Evans role as Johnny Storm is often praised as one of the highlights in that in that world, you know. And I think we've talked about it here on the show, even talking about Doctor Strange and the multiverse of Bandus. Wouldn't it be something if a couple of years from now we're watching Doctor Strange 2 and we see Chris Evans roll up in a Johnny Storm, you know, in his old suit, in his old Fantastic Four suit? That would be really cool. That would be great.
Another thing that this kind of reminds me of is just like what you just said about Chris Evans taking on the role, his apprehension of taking on the role of Captain America. We were talking about Robert Pattinson, his upcoming The Batman film, you know, and him actually talking to Chris Evans. And I think that that is more impactful now that I think about it, because, you know, if you really understand why he was apprehensive about taking on such a role, he finds the roles important.
You know, he wants to do them just justice, you know, again, that's another pun because of Batman. So it really makes sense that, you know, like that Robert Pattinson would go to somebody who really just wanted to do the role justice. And I think that for me, that actually, you know, connecting those two and what you just said brings Robert Pattinson a little bit higher up in my mind. I praise him a little bit more for what for why he did that.
He's asking the right people the right advice, of course. Yes. And I think, again, doing research for this, when Fantastic Four Three was announced and or not announced, but was being planned, the only two people that were on like for sure were going to do it again was Michael Checklist, who plays the thing during that movie. And surprisingly enough, Chris Evans, he was ready to come back for a third movie. I think all the actors had been scheduled and contracted to do three movies.
But of course, it was later decided to they decided to not do that. And very briefly after that, he decides to go on and play another comic book character who will get to, or another Marvel character, excuse me, who we'll get to here in a bit. Moving on here, we have in 2007, he voices the character Casey Jones in the TMNT animated movie. You think you own these rooftops? I happen to think you could use my help. And I could use a sidekick.
You may have everyone else fooled, but you haven't fooled me, Raph. So in this one, this is kind of one of the smaller ones. Aaron, I know you like TMNT. Have you ever seen this animated TMNT movie with Chris Evans playing Casey Jones? I have. Yes. Yeah. It's, know, he's one of the highlights. think it's like him and Sarah Michelle Geller and Patrick Stewart, I think is in it as well.
And it says here in our transcript that it was the number one movie in the U S opening and it's opening weekend, bringing in $25 million and widely considered to be at that time, one of the better adaptations of the TN. Teenage Mutant Turtles. But I think it's quickly it's aged terribly. They really took some late 90s and early 2000s like approaches to this reboot. And I would have to look back into it and see like the production notes and see if this was one that was potentially shelved.
Because it's like for a while before it actually became came to production, you know, finalized. Because a lot of the stuff, you know, they basically in the movie, in my opinion, they turned the Ninja Turtles team into lackluster superheroes, which they are superheroes to a degree. they gave like Raphael this motorcycle and suit of armor. They put them up against more mystical creatures. To me, it was very oddly put together and it just didn't really flow very well.
No, I did enjoy the voice acting. did enjoy. The quality of the graphics that they had, was completely all computer animation. But really, it did not really hit the mark for me. I've seen better animated shows. The first run of the Nickelodeon reboot of Ninja Turtles, to me, better, was more of an improved animation for a television show than this movie was. And even the storyline was great. They had David Tennant, they had a lot of people. jumping into the voice acting for that show.
this, you're right, exactly what you said. This one does not really stand the test of time. It's a one and done. Like you watch it and you forget it. Yeah. And that's probably one of the worst things you can say about an adaptation of a superhero movie or actually just any movie in general. If it's instantly forgettable, then what's the point, right? Yeah. But I mean, Chris Evans did do a good job. He can actually voice act, which is, He's he's he's great across the board.
He's he's great as an actor for serious shows. He's great as you know, having some some comedy value put in there like I know that reference, you know, so he's and then and then to be able to voice act is another it's a whole nother thing. It's a whole nother world in the industry and he can still do it. So it's good to know. Yes, absolutely. He's he absolutely is. He's very versatile as far as an actor goes. You'll see here coming up here soon. He plays a very comedic role.
in the losers and I thought he was the best part of the whole movie. But we'll get to that. No spoilers. We'll go ahead and move on here to a movie that I actually just recently watched last night because this is the only of all these films are we talking about with Chris Evans. This is the only film that I had not seen of his and that is 2009's Push. It's catchy, right? Enjoy your food. That's it. That's it.
Sorry, some 12 year old that knew I needed a new toothbrush isn't enough to get me involved with the vision. even if it's not a con. So Chris Evans actually he does play Nick Grant, but he is actually a telekinetic so he can but his powers are very here and there doesn't really if I remember correctly, there's like four types. There's you know, there's there's pushers There's there's sniffers.
There's one's like a shadow where they can like shield people from the the big the big one like this most powerful is the the guys who can like find people they can find other super powered people in this world. And I want to quickly just for a second talk about push and how this was an original idea. It was never it was actually not an adaptation from a comic. But before the movie came out there was a tie in prequel. published by Wildstorm, which is an imprint through DC Comics.
So technically it is a comic book first, then a movie. So this is kind of cheating here with Push. But if you watch the film, it is very comic-centric. It's very based around superheroes and it's very 2009. I'll tell you that. I will say too, while watching this, the bad guy is Jimon Honsu. I hope I'm saying that correctly. He is the, again, like I said, the bad guy in Push, but he has been in a lot of superhero movies. Almost as many as Chris Evans.
Yes, almost as much as Chris Evans because he plays Korath in Guardians of the Galaxy and in Captain Marvel. He plays he's he's King Riku and a Raikou. I'm not sure I'm not correctly an Aquaman. He is the Grand Wizard and Shazam. He's midnight and Constantine. He is there's one other one that I'm forgetting here. Oh, he also he plays he plays Black Panther in an animated movie as well.
So he's been in quite a few, if you know, we're doing Chris Evans today because he's been in so many comic book movies, but Jimon, he, guarantee we could probably do a similar episode with all of his roles as well. Okay, so listen to this. So the different types of psychics in the film are movers.
They can move objects with their minds, pushers control other people's thoughts, watchers, they can see the future, bleeders emit a high pitched scream that can burst blood vessels, sniffers track people and objects, shifters temporarily change what an object looks like to others. wipers they can wipe memories shadows cloak themselves and others around them for detection from detection and then stitchers they can heal or unheal people.
Yeah. So briefly while we're on the subject of push I thought Chris Evans he's the main character of the movie Dakota young Dakota Fanning is the his like partner in crime and what do you think about this movie Aaron because I watched it and again I wasn't really into it. It's very 2009. There's a reason why it doesn't really have much of an imprint on his career. I liked it. I wanted more.
You know, this was one that really, it actually really did stick out to me because it talks, you know, it has, it has the, has the whole government's controlling, you know, people with superpowers, people looking out for each other, people trying to hide, you know, people using their powers to go against cultural norms. You know, there's There's so much in this and it's so multifaceted when it comes to actually how they use their powers.
And I feel like this has actually been more of a blueprint to a lot of newer movies, you know? And I would hope that people, like you've seen some of the stuff that's on Netflix, you know, have you seen Code 8? Code 8 is another one where people with powers are trying to be regulated, or not trying to, but they're being regulated by the government. They're being hunted down and it's just, there's been many movies that I feel could take something from push and make it better.
If not, push could could improve itself with with another with it like a sequel. And again, like I said, when I when I watched this movie, it had it did had a lot of comedy. I'm not a huge fan of Dakota Fanning. She's a little too much of a whiny character in most of the stuff that she plays. But she did. She did a pretty good job kind of trying to be a badass in this. Like a wise beyond her years in the film. Yes. Yes. She's like 13, I think in the film.
And they and they do a pretty good job of kind of having those government organizations using the people with powers against them. Like, for instance, if you've seen Logan, Logan was was to me had this had a similar view idea of mutants, a similar idea, you know, so again, I could say that, you know, I would think that a lot of Producers and writers may have seen this movie and kind of taken a lot from it So I think it was a good, you know, it's influential. Huh?
It was influential for I'd say it was it was you know, I'd it was a good installation into the the comic book and superpowered scene Yeah, I agree I do think it has some good ideas and it's kind of surprising that it was just an original idea in the beginning until it was like I said the tie-in there one little interesting fact about push and part of the reason why I mean One of the many reasons why I love Chris Evans was because of this little, this is the first trivia fact on IMDB.
says in the hotel scene there where Nick and Kira who's played by Camilla Bell, they have a little bit of a makeout scene. And in the script, it says that Chris Evans character, Nick has to grab the butt like in a sexual way. He's going to tie to the Chris Evans actually refused to do this until he had permission from Bell. And Bell obviously eventually gave him permission. And it was filmed as scripted, but that's just, that's Chris Evans.
I mean, not that being a normal, like he, that's just the kind of character that he is. And obviously we'll get into a little bit later when he takes on his iconic role, but embodying a character that is, but that's the, right there was just a really, I thought a really interesting fun fact about Chris Evans in that movie. mean, to me that shows that he is. Yeah, he is somebody who is trying to set a standard.
He's trying to, you know, be an example for four people, whether it's in Hollywood or for his fans, you know, really, really exemplifying, you know, normal and behavior that is becoming respectable behavior is what we need to pay attention to. We don't need to focus on these actors and actresses and celebrities. that do dumb crap like jump on couches and you know, just an assault people and make that the focal point of Hollywood.
We need to take guys like that who set the example and make them, you know, and show that off. Aaron, why don't you go and take us into our next Chris Evans role? Okay. So Chris Evans also played in 2010. He played, it was based on DC Vertigo comic series, the loser, the losers, excuse me. is an action film that feels similar in tone to the classic 18 TV series. And I'll actually agree with that. So it's very much. It told the story of an elite black ops team who faked their own deaths.
18 and wound up uncovering a shadowy government conspiracy. 18 Chris Evans played Captain Jake Jensen, who was essentially the Intel comic relief of the film. So imagine, imagine Chris Evans playing Wade Wilson. Yeah, he is very quippy. He is the comedic relief in the film. Also, Jake Jensen. There's a lot of alliteration with the, mean, is, there is a comic book, comic book movies or superhero movies.
So of course they're going to have a lot of alliteration, but Jake Jensen is definitely by far in a very star-studded cast. mean, we talked about it in the previous episode, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, Zoe Zeldana. Who am I missing here? Chris Evans. Obviously Chris Evans, Chris Evans, course. But yeah, I mean that right there, the star-studded cast. So he, and he is in my opinion, the best part, my favorite scene in.
losers is whenever he, think this is a lot of people's favorite, but he's kind of infiltrating this tower to get some information. And he's acting like he's like an IT guy. And he's, being surrounded by these security guards and he puts up like two fingers and he's acting like he's going to shoot them with like, you know, teleconnect powers while in reality, one of his team members, pooch is at another building across the way.
And he basically shoots these two guys and yeah, don't stop believing by journey comes on in the background. It just, it's very, The film, we talked about this before the show. I had this like coat of nostalgia and love for the losers for a long time. I remember really enjoying it as a, you know, 19, 20 year old. And then as I rewatched it last night, had just, lot of things don't hold up very well.
So. Yeah, it's your, I mean, it's your classic, like, you know, the re-imagining of the A-Team, it's Mission Impossible. It's, there's multiple things that follow the same. formula of Action team coming back from the ashes and and you know getting their revenge on the people that betrayed them Right, you finding out there's some conspiracy going on. So it's a classic Shoot them up.
You know, we got to kill people to bring you know Our integrity bag type movie, you know, yeah prove their innocence kind of thing prove their innocence Yes, just like the 18 up next we have Chris Evans in his role as another Alliteration Lucas Lee and Scott Pilgrim Versus the World in 2010. He's famous and he talked to me. The only thing keeping me and her apart is the two minutes it's going to take to kick your ass. Can I your autograph please? What's up? How's life? He seems nice.
So this is a fun one because I just recently rewatched Scott Pilgrim and I think again, I love Scott Pilgrim. That's a great film. It's got a great huge cult following. But anytime that scene where they all kind of go up to the movie set and you see Chris Evans playing very off character. This is not he's a he's a huge a-hole in this movie. He's an ex-boyfriend of what's the girl's name? am I forgetting her name? Ramona Flowers, man. you so much. Ramona. How you doing? He seems nice.
That's actually really funny. I like how he goes. And he like, he gets, gets, yeah. He is so, I love it whenever when Chris Evans, when he plays against character or against like who he usually plays. Cause again, a lot of these films he is, he's the good guy. And in this and also in like Knives Out, he plays a pretty terrible person. And it's so funny that he, shows the versatility of Chris Evans and how he can play so many different roles.
So, and I think this is, although he's in the film for maybe 10 minutes, it shows the, it shows how incredible he is. I've got my own skate brand. A thingy. It's called grind. Call the grind, bro. Super trash. No, I think he goes big fan. He goes, why wouldn't you be? Yeah. Yeah. He did a great job. Really, really just like not taking himself too seriously in that role.
And I think that that was one thing that made that movie so good was it just had like all these different people that are great actors and actresses that come in. And they know it's a comedy. They know it's campy. They know it's fun. And they really just have a good time with it. You know, and, it even Chris Evans and he's like, so recently for charity, the entire cast got together and did like an onscreen reading, like a zoom call reading of this show.
And Chris Evans was there and he was the entire time he was reading, he's doing his eyebrows. And it was great. So I love the fact that they really really got together and had fun doing this because there's no way this would have been accomplishable without the level of hilariousness that I'm sure was going on behind the scenes. yeah, absolutely. It says here that Chris Evans is only on set for like two weeks to film his parts for Lucas Lee.
So he was kind of a smaller part of the production for Scott Pilgrim, but his impact definitely made itself known for sure. Aaron, why don't you go and take us into his next role? I don't go anywhere without my stunt team. He goes, says, sometimes I let him do the wide shots when I'm going to my win, go and get blazed in my Winnie. So the next one is actually one of my besides obviously Captain America, one of my favorite roles of Chris Evans. So it's Snowpiercer from 2013.
It's based on a French graphic novel, Le Transperceniage, I think I can't really speak French. I think that's probably accurate. Curtis Everett, I've been asked to extend a formal invitation for Mr. Wilfred to join him for dinner. after you. So Snowpiercer is a sci-fi thriller that charts a dystopian ice age future. Critical reception was tremendous and Chris Evans gained particular praise. played the starring role of Curtis Everett, an intelligent revolutionary leader.
The film was directed by Bong Joon-ho, who also directed 2019's Parasite. So this movie basically is entirely set on this train. And from the front of the train, which is obviously the engine, to the rear of the train is a basically a hierarchy. It's a class system. So the rich live in luxury in the front of the train or towards the front of the train. And then the poor are all jam packed together in the back and they're fed garbage.
They eat like crap and they constantly try and revolt to go up to the front. There's actually a television show now, I think that's going on. the people, yeah, Netflix, but the people up in the front of the train have no worries. They eat fresh food. They live again, a life of luxury with pools. And this train is just on a never ending course around the world because if it ever stops moving, then it will stop supplying power to the train. So it has like almost like this turbine engine.
the base, basically the plot of this movie is that, you know, the people in the back are tired of living this subservient trash life and they rise up and try and make their way towards the front of the train. it's funny that Chris Evans in that role, it says here, one of the you know, facts about the movie is that Chris Evans actually personally contacted Bong Ju and asked to audition for the role.
And Bong was a little bit hesitant because this character, Curtis Everett, is supposed to be this like very malnourished, very like kind of scrappy individual. And Chris Evans looks like he was sculpted from marble. So if you watch Snowpiercer now, it shows Chris Evans often in big coats and like it's trying to hide how know, physically gifted he is but it's a great like you said, it's a great film.
It's definitely one those ones that I think people often well, I don't know if people forget about it anymore. But for a long time, I mean, it came out 2013 and it's just recently gaining a cult following. It's very good. And it's definitely it's one of it's one of Bong Ju Ho's better films. And I think thankfully, because of Parasite, it's finally snow piercer is finally getting some love.
it's just like what you said earlier about you know, Chris Evans, when he was playing in, you know, push and when he was playing in, you know, a couple of his other roles, he was, and he had to be like the, the, the asshole, you know, this was a role that you would never expect him to really rise to the occasion. I mean, there's actually a line he quotes in there where he just, says, he's like, I know what babies taste like, you know, and it's, and it's like, it's such a brutal scene and.
It's insane because you can never imagine somebody actually saying that. And he says it so genuinely. he just, I don't know. It just really speaks to his ability to act when you can really genuinely get somebody to believe it when you say something like that. I recommend this movie to anybody. People always ask me all the time, have you seen Snowpiercer? And I'm like, yeah. one of the better movies I've ever seen and it's so easy to find these days. People need to check it out.
It's on Netflix right now and again with Bong Ju and Hit Love, his recent success and obviously Chris Evans and with his success as well, it's finally getting like we talked about the love that it deserves. So moving on here to our final role of Chris Evans and I think a lot of people would agree his most iconic maybe forever is of course Captain America. For as long as I I guess I'm not quite sure what that is anymore. Did you have something against running away?
You start running, they'll never let you stop. You stand up, push back. Bucky, come on. are men laying down their lives. I got no right to do any less than that. You can't say no forever, And I thought I could throw myself back in and follow orders, serve. You've been asleep, For almost 70 years. It's just not the same. And 70 years ago, you laid down your life to save how many millions of people?
If I see a situation pointed south, and if you don't know who Captain America is, I'll give you a little brief synopsis. Although I don't know anybody who doesn't know who Steve from under that rock you're living in. Right in 1942, America has entered World War Two and is sickly, but determined Steve Rogers is frustrated at being rejected at getting rejected yet again for military service. Everything changes when Dr. Ernst Schine. Is that right? Ernst Schine or Schine?
Yeah. Okay, first thing, everything changes when Dr. Ernst Gine recruits him for a secret project for a secret project rebirth proving his extraordinary courage, wits and conscious Steve, Steve Rogers undergoes the experiment and his weak body is suddenly enhanced into a maximum human into maximum human potential. So Captain America, the first Avenger came out in 2011. I still remember Aaron when we first met was back in at the end of 2010 2011 timeframe.
I remember going to the movie theater, I think maybe during AIT while I was in the military. And I remember seeing that first poster of like Captain America with his head down in the shield. And it says, you know, and the poster just said first Avenger. And we've talked about on the show that I remember downloading the trailer for Iron Man one on my school computer.
And I, you know, I've, I've, I've been following the MCU from the, from the beginning, but Captain America, the first Avenger in my opinion. And I think I can. talk to us, you know, speak for you here as well. In a certain aspect, Captain America, the first Avengers really what that's where my love of the MCU came from. I mean, that was the, the Chris Evans taking on that role as Captain America propelled me into, will see every film now. I will watch every single Marvel movie that comes out.
I probably would have either way, but that really is what, the love began. Yeah. I'm the same way because Iron Man was good, but it wasn't great. I think it's pretty great. The final fight scene. Yeah, I mean, that's every, you know, that's every that's every movie up until like phase three of the MCU. Whatever. But I will say like I was not really sold on the, you know, the MCU until until Captain America, the first Avenger.
And I can tell you, so I actually saw it when I was stationed when I first got to Fort Stewart, Georgia, where, know, you and I became friends. And there was a theater, movie theater down the street from my house. And they were just opening up their, their IMAX ish type, you know, theater. And so the first movie that they were playing in this theater was an IMAX version of Captain America.
So they actually invited a whole bunch of soldiers from Fort Stewart, Georgia, and gave them free soda, free popcorn, and they got to sit wherever they wanted. That's a good deal. You know, and so I was, you know, I got to sit amongst a whole room of soldiers from Fort Stewart and I got to watch this movie and it was just, it was fantastic on in, IMAX. And I was just like, you know, from there on it was, it was love with MCU, Chris Evans and the whole thing, you know?
Sure. Well, like we talked about earlier, Chris Evans actually declined the role of Captain America three times before eventually accepting it. And he declined it not because he disliked the role, but because he feared the effects. of the increased fame and the constant having to play Captain America and the barriers it would put up in his personal life and within his career as well. And it wasn't until Robert Downing Jr. convinced him to take the role.
They actually sat down together one night and Chris Evans and Robert Downing Jr. talked about their plans for the Marvel Universe. I think it's widely known that Robert Downing Jr. had talked about how there were plans for the Avengers and how after Iron Man 3, he was going to leave. That's why and Chris Evans was going to take the mantle as like the head of the Marvel Universe. And that's why in Iron Man 3, it seems kind of like a swan song for Robbie Downing Jr.'s character.
Yes. And obviously that doesn't work out. He comes back for Age of Ultron. He ends up blowing up all his suits, right? Right. They talked about that at this famous dinner that him it was was Robbie Downing Jr., Chris Evans and Joe Johnson, who was the director. Yeah, Joe Johnson, I think who is the director of Captain America, the first Avenger. They all met together and talked.
then eventually Joe Johnson leaves and Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. have this long conversation about what they want to do with the Marvel universe. And of course they are the two figureheads of that universe until Avengers Endgame. And of course it's later, I think it was later revealed that Chris Evans, when he eventually agreed, he didn't even have to audition. There are people famously who have auditioned for that role, John Krasinski.
So, you know, obviously Chris Evans has played Captain America a plethora of times. I want to quickly go through him. He played him in Captain America, the first Avenger, the Avengers, Thor, the Dark World, which we talked about before the show. He doesn't actually play Captain America. He plays Loki and then Loki plays Captain America. that's a that's a that's not correct. I'm going to go ahead and fix that really quick.
Just kidding. Captain America, the Winter Soldier Avengers, Age of Ultron Ant-Man. What? Where is he on Ant-Man? Is he an Ant-Man? Yeah. What is he in an Ant-Man? They're probably yelling at us. You know, listening in. I don't remember. Like I'm trying to think of it. Really? There might have been an Ant-Man. I mean, know Falcon is in it, but maybe they showed a video of him or they showed him on TV or something. Who knows? Sure. That's very possible.
Yeah. Yeah. So we have Captain America, Civil War, Spider-Man Homecoming, which of course he plays famously and hilariously in that, like, so what does he say? They do like that video that they show him during PE. And of course he's in Avengers Infinity War Captain Marvel. Is he in Captain Marvel? That's not right either. Is he in Captain Marvel? Sorry everyone, I don't think he's in Ant-Man or Captain Marvel. That's my fault. And then he's in Avengers Endgame, of course.
So I thought one of the more interesting facts about Chris Evans and his role as Captain America is that he was paid $300,000 to play Captain America in the first Avenger. Aaron, if you had to ballpark without looking at the transcript, how much do think he was paid in his final role in Avengers Endgame? Just ballpark. What do you think? Three million dollars. No, he was paid 20 million dollars for his final role in Avengers Endgame, which is just insane.
And the thing is, he was the fourth highest paid paid actor in that movie. So he got $20 million to play Captain America and he wasn't even the highest paid. I think it was something crazy like $90 million for Robert Downing Jr. for his role as Iron Man. So yeah, insane. and it was widely known that for a long time, Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth, they were all terribly underpaid for their roles.
And it wasn't until Robert Downing Jr. came in and had meetings with Kevin Feige and company. to make sure that these actors were properly paid for their contribution to the MCU. Aaron, do you have anything to add to our Chris Evans Captain America talk? I think it's widely known, not just from this episode, but from our previous episodes that I love the character, you love the character. He's one of the best parts about the MCU. Chris Evans is a walking, talking Captain America in real life.
If you follow him on Twitter, he is constantly fighting against injustice and. He stands for good. He seemed like a really cool guy. Of course, we don't know this. We don't know him personally, but I think he really he just he embodies the idea of Captain America. This America is great not because of what it is, but what it could be. And I think that is like that's Chris Evans at his core. So do you have anything to add as far as that goes with him playing the character?
I think I mean, I would just kind of mirror what you said. I mean, I really when I think of Captain America, I think of Chris Evans like he really does embody the character. to a T. He really is Steve Rogers, you know? And I think that his actions show that because he's very true to his fans. He's true to people that do the right thing that are his fans, such as he sent a real Captain America shield, you know, obviously not vibranium, but he sent one to a young kid.
I think he saved his sister or something, you know? yeah, he defended his sister from an attacking dog, you know? And the fact that he stands up and he pays attention to what his... you know, fans are doing and that they're emulating, you know, the actions of a hero or trying that he played, you know, that's, that's the best that he can do. That's really the best that any actor can do based on a character that they play. Cause there are going to be people.
It's like, you know, when I go to a convention, you know, and I cause because I, do cosplay a lot, you know, this, know, when I go to a convention or I go to an event and I'm dressed as captain America, I'm not just representing, you know, myself as a, as a cost player, I'm representing the character and If this kid were to see me like standing over on the side of the road, you're like smoking a cigarette or something in my costume, that's going to destroy his dream.
You know, I've had so many little kids come up to me like Captain America, hey, you know, and I'm like, Hey kid, you know, you want to hold my shield? You know, you want to take a picture? Show me your muscles, you know, things like that. And I really think that he is setting an example that needs to be set.
And if we can get more kids to really see that a person can act as a character without being just without just being like an act, an act for him, not just being a role, you know, really emulating who that person is. I think that that can go again, go a very long way because, Red just said, Aaron could spend an hour alone talking about how amazing Chris Evans is.
It's true, but I mean, if you really look at some of the, some of the people in Hollywood and who they portray, versus what they do on on, you know, behind the scenes. It's, does not equal up and we need more people. And again, I really am inspired by a lot of the characters in the MCU because it seems that they've actually taken these roles and taken themselves even higher.
Because to be honest, I mean, look at, look at Tony Stark, you know, Robert Downey Jr. You know, he's done a lot for kids as well. And that guy, you know, who knows where he'd be without the role of Tony Stark nowadays. You know, I'm sure that that had an impact on who he would be or who he could be. So that's just what I have to say on it. Anthony Mackie, I think he understands the baton being passed to him as Captain America.
And it's because of what not only Kevin Feige and Company did, but what Chris Evans has done with the character and how much that character means to people and what he stands for. I think we can end this by saying thank you, Chris Evans. Hopefully we haven't seen the last of you in comic book movies. We'll do an updated version once you do a couple more movies and thank you for your contribution to the comic book world, guess. Yeah.