Captain America: The Winter Soldier star Chris Evans arrived at Comic-Con ready to get something straight: Enough with the fish out of water jokes when it comes to Captain America and how he lived in the 1940s and emerged in present day to fight in The Avengers with an occasional raised eyebrow as to the modern marvels he was seeing.
“I think you’d get a little tired if every joke was, ‘What’s the internet?’ He gets it,” Evans said and laughed. The humor will have to come from elsewhere, Evans admitted.
"The problem is that he doesn’t sling jokes. He’s not sarcastic. So, it’s hard to find the humor unless the humor is self-deprecating, but you can’t keep playing that one note of, 'I don’t get it, what’s going on in this modern world?!' I think we’re past that. He’s up to speed. He has a cell phone. We’re trying to find humor in other places, thanks to [Anthony] Mackie, in large part.”
Anthony Mackie, who joined the Marvel force as Falcon, credits his brother for introducing him to not only the character he was born to play, but also the entire animated universe.
“Growing up, my brother was a huge comic book person. He always showed me the comic books with Black Panther and Falcon. So, when I heard about Falcon and was given the opportunity to meet with the Russos (Captain America filmmakers), we talked about it and what they wanted to do with the character. The reason it worked so well is that the two of them had the ability to give dignity and substance to a character without making him heavy and hokey,” Mackie said.
Mackie then demonstrated his humorous nature that Evans referred to that will certainly add to the funny factor in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
“What was so cool [is] having a three-dimensional real person that just happens to be a tactical expert that can fly! I think if the Falcon is added to The Avengers’ world, I’m looking for the opportunity to take down Iron Man, so I’ll be the only flying Avenger. Thor don’t count. The hammer flies. He don’t fly!”
Sam Jackson, who returns as Nick Fury, is asked what role his iconic character will play in the second Cap film. He answers in typical Jackson fast fury. “That’s on the talking points list of things we can’t tell you,” he said, sternly looking forward.
Scarlett Johansson will keep her Marvel Studios streak going as her Black Widow works closely with Cap in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. She thankfully sets the stage for what audiences can expect when the film lands later this year. “This film is in real time, so it’s been two years and we’re both agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. We’re fighting on the ground. It’s not like we have these superpowers that we use, and fly around. We have a short-hand between us. It’s very much a working relationship,” Johansson said.
She then teases what could be discerned as a romantic turn for Cap and Black Widow.
“Through a series of unfortunate events, they find themselves in a situation where their working relationship becomes a more intimate friendship. They have some unexpected similarities between them.”
Chris Evans is Captain America for the third time and put even more pressure on himself due to the comic book studio’s gold standard. “I [wanted] to meet the bar with which Marvel has set. Every time Marvel releases a movie, it’s better than the last one. You just want to make sure you’re not the weak link in the chain,” Evans said of the studio behind The Avengers and Iron Man 3.
Evans also admitted that with Captain American being such an all-American man, it has the potential to make movies he appears in solo quite boring.
“Most complex characters have flaws, and Cap is a Boy Scout. The first Captain America film was about giving him the opportunity to serve and be a soldier. In The Avengers, you had so many other characters and all of these establishments of relationships, so you can’t dive too deeply into any individual character. This movie is about showing Cap now,” Evans said.
During his earlier incarnation, it was easy to identify the evil… the Nazis. Today, it is not so simple. “He wonders, ‘Who am I serving?’ With modern technology and access, where is the line? What are we willing to compromise, in terms of civil liberties, to ensure security? That’s where it gets blurry for Cap. It makes an interesting conflict for him because it’s not about just doing the right thing. It’s about, ‘What is the right thing?’”
The addition of Black Widow, someone who has compromised her morals in the past, and how they are forced to come together in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Evans says, forges the struggle in the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger.
“The relationship with Black Widow is interesting because she’s someone who’s always had the ability to compromise her morals, and Cap is black and white,” Evans said. “As a result, something happens.”
Cue the thrills…