Chris Evans can currently be seen in his third outing as Marvel’s Man Out of Time here in the UK with the arrival of Captain America: The Winter Soldier today [read our spoiler-free review here], but it seems we’ll not be seeing much more of the actor on screen, with Evans revealing that he plans to retire from acting once his contract with Marvel Studios expires.
“I’ve known for a while I wanted to direct,” Evans tells Variety. “But (time) never really opens up. There’s another movie to do, there’s another acting job. It just got to a point where I was like, you know what — I have to do this. If I’m acting at all, it’s going to be under Marvel contract, or I’m going to be directing. I can’t see myself pursuing acting strictly outside of what I’m contractually obligated to do… We can do this out loud. [Avengers: Age of Ultron] will shoot till August. I wouldn’t be surprised if for all of 2015, we didn’t do a movie. I bet by 2017, I’ll be done.”
Of course, we already know that Evans will be back as Steve Rogers in Phase Three with Captain America 3, which will reunite him with The Winter Soldier directors Anthony and Joe Russo, while his contract takes him up to The Avengers 3, which will presumably shoot in 2017 for release the following year. So, might we see Marvel Studios taking a page out of the comics and bringing us the death of Captain America in Avengers 3?
Meanwhile, here’s a new TV spot for The Winter Soldier….
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is out now in the UK and opens April 4th in North America, with Evans joined in the cast by Marvel veterans Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier), Cobie Smulders (Agent Maria Hill), Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter), Toby Jones (Arnim Zola) and Maximiliano Hernandez (Agent Jasper Sitwell) and franchise newcomers Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) as Sam Wilson / Falcon, Emily VanCamp (Revenge) as Sharon Carter / Agent 13, Frank Grillo (Zero Dark Thirty) as Brock Rumlow / Crossbones, George St-Pierre (Death Warrior) as Georges Batroc / Batroc the Leaper and Robert Redford (All Is Lost) as Alexander Pierce.