After months of speculation, confusion, fan angst and studio backtracking, Chris Evans was the man chosen for the coveted role of Steve Rogers, the patriotic star-spangled Avenger known to the world as Captain America.
A sticking issue amongst the Marvel Comics faithful about the casting of the title character in Captain America: The First Avenger centers around Evans’ look and manner, and whether or not he can pull off the gentler 1940s charm and subtleties of Steve Rogers. As we know, Evans traditionally takes on the witty comic relief in most of his films, especially in his comic book movie roles as we saw in the Fantastic Four films and in The Losers.
While we came close to our first look at Evans as Captain America in some recently released set photos of a stunt man in Captain America WWII uniform, we didn’t actually get to see Evans himself riding that sweet U.S. Army Indian motorcycle against those pesky Hydra vehicles.
Thanks to some brand new photos taken from the London shoot of Captain America: The First Avenger, one of your concerns may finally be answered. Take a look at the first images of Chris Evans as Steve Rogers and of Hayley Atwell as his love interest, Peggy Carter.
Atwell unsurprisingly looks as dashing as ever, this time in uniform as an American spy with the French Resistance. As for Evans, he has always been very fit, but his arms and upper body are insane in these images. He sure put in the physical training necessary to thicken out in order to play Captain America and they even went as far as changing his hair style to better suit the Steve Rogers look from the books.
If he’s still not thick enough to sport the Cap costume in your mind, Hugo Weaving humorously pointed out in an interview with Evans during Comic-Con that he and his co-star also wear body suits under their costumes, filling in the areas not bulky enough, especially in the case of Captain America’s uniform. He should look very good in his blue, red and white duds. Look, he even has fake feet!
These may not be the most exciting images from a superhero blockbuster film ever, but they certainly do give us a good idea of the feel and setting of film and its characters and it does get me a little more excited. Now we have to look forward to seeing Evans on set in full Captain America gear, and better yet, his second (modern) Captain America costume he sports later in the film.
What do you think of Chris Evans’ Captain America now? Don’t be too harsh, these are unaltered raw set photos.
Chris Evans stars alongside Neal McDonough’s Dum Dum Dugan, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark and Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes. Captain America is of course, directed by Joe Johnston.
The First Avenger: Captain America hits July 22, 2011 (in 3D) and The Avengers is scheduled to debut May 4, 2012.
Sources: The Daily Blam, Barry John Photography
