This is like Operation: Rebirth, but real.

Although Captain America was seemingly put out to pasture by Avengers: Endgame, and Chris Evans insisted he was done playing the character, it now appears like Evans may be ready for a superheroic comeback. A new report claims he will “reprise the role in the MCU in some form” in an upcoming project,.

According to Deadline, it’s not a done deal yet, but things are “headed in that direction.” Evans would appear “in at least one Marvel property with the door open for a second film.” Rather than an entirely new Captain America movie, they compare his role to Robert Downey Jr.’s supporting turns in Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming.

If the news is true, it could be an enormous twist for the future of Marvel Cinematic Universe, which looked to be moving on from many of its first-generation heroes like Cap and Iron Man. The upcoming Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is supposed to settle the matter of which of the title characters is the heir to the original Captain America moving forward.

Then again, Captain America has had a history of dying and returning in the pages of Marvel Comics. He was “killed” at the end of the comic book version of Civil War, at which point Bucky became the new Captain America. He returned to life a few years later. In another recent storyline, Cap’s Super Soldier Serum stopped working and he became an older man, serving as an adviser to the Avengers, rather than a field agent. Given where Avengers: Endgame left Steve Rogers, that’s actually a very plausible role Evans could fill moving forward — even in another Avengers.

UPDATE: A few hours after Deadline’s report, Chris Evans tweeted “News to me” suggesting that either a) the rumors are totally false, or b) Chris Evans is very willing to lie in order to preserve a big Marvel twist. (We’re leaning towards A, but who knows.)

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