‘Avengers: Endgame’ Almost Had Another Actor Play Old Captain America
At the end ofAvengers: Endgame, Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, AKAChris Evans, travels back in time and then shows up in the present as an old man. It’s clearly Evans playing the older Cap, but the trickery involved was so impressive that it left some viewers wondering how the film pulled it off. Make-up? Digital trickery? A stand-in? In truth, the film used all three of those methods – there was an older actor used as a stand-in, Evans wore some make-up, and digital effects blended it all together. But according to co-starAnthony Mackie, the filmmakers actually considered using a completely different actor to play Old Cap.
During an appearance onThe Jess CagleShow(viaScreenRant), Anthony Mackie, who plays the Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and will next be seen as the character on the Disney+ seriesThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier, revealed some behind-the-scenes details about one of the closing scenes ofAvengers: Endgame. The scene in question involves a much older Steve Rogers handing his shield off to Mackie’s character.
“So they brought in like three actors [to play Old Cap],” Mackie said of the scene. “They’re like, none of these. Like, this isn’t how Chris will look when he’s old. Like, he’s gonna [look] he’s like George Clooney. He’s going to be 95 and still like handsome, you know? So, they brought in a makeup team and prosthetics and makeup and made him into an old man. And how good of an actor Chris is, it actually worked. He pulled it off with his voice and everything. He did a great job.”
AfterEndgamehit theaters in 2019, Marvel Visual Effects ProducerJen Underdahltalked toWIREDabout how the Old Cap scene was created. Underdahl revealed they cast a “skin double” (which sounds like something from a David Cronenberg movie), saying: “We then started casting for a skin double, looking around for an old guy who approximates the same face and age of Cap, or what Cap would be. We shot in the same lighting conditions right after Chris performs. He gives the same lines, he tries to emulate Chris' performance as much as possible so it doesn’t take a whole lot of hammering when you put it on Chris' face.”
That double,Patrick Goldman, actually posted a pic of himself in character on Instagram around the time of release.
“In addition to the skin double, you also need to give him an older man’s body, an older man’s sort of overall profile,” Underdahl added. “To do so, we’ll do an overall warp on his body and literally squish him down so he fits in the plate as this character.”
And of course, Evans himself wore some make-up – something he confirmed on social media.
Halfway therepic.twitter.com/frBsW4x4hQ
— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans)July 19, 2025
And then all of these different elements were blended together to create the version we saw in the finished film. Movie magic! And yes, because everyone else has said it already, I will point out that Old Cap looks alotlike Joe Biden.
