How old Captain America is at the end Avengers: Endgame is possibly revealed to be 106 in how they aged Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). The penultimate installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Infinity Saga storyline, Avengers: Endgame, hit theaters earlier this year after months of secrecy. Marvel Studios is already notoriously tight lipped about their films, but were extra careful about Avengers: Endgame spoilers leaking ahead of its official release. However, that secrecy allowed audiences to experience Endgame mostly spoiler-free, making many of the fan-favorite moments in the movie all the more special.
One such fan-favorite scene is the appearance of Evans as old Captain America is Avengers: Endgame. Having returned all the Infinity Stones to their respective points in the timeline, Steve Rogers chooses to live out the rest of his life with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) instead of returning to his friends. He does reappear in 2023, though, as an old man to pass on the Captain America shield to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). It’s a sweet moment between friends, but in the months since the film hit theaters, fans have wondered just how old Steve Rogers is at the end of Avengers: Endgame. Now, those fans get a big clue about how much Captain America has aged.
In an extensive interview with Wired, Avengers: Endgame visual effects producer Jen Underdahl spoke about how different aspects of the film and its predecessor Avengers: Infinity War came together. While explaining how they created the look of old Captain America, Underdahl says they posed certain questions to themselves: “What would a super soldier look like if he had aged 106 years? What would his skin look like?" Then later, while still on the topic of Steve Rogers, Underdahl says, “[The VFX artists] took some neck off of [Evans] so he wasn’t quite as beefy, and shrunk his shoulders and his overall profile to give him that 106-year-old super soldier look.”
When looking at these statements, they seem to offer conflicting theories on how old Captain America is at the end of Avengers: Endgame. Underdahl’s initial statement implies Steve Rogers aged 106 years from the point when he went back in time, but that doesn’t make sense, since he would’ve had to travel back to 1917 (a year before he was born). More likely, Underdahl’s second statement is what she actually means, that old Captain America is 106 years old. If that’s the case, from there we can deduce Steve traveled back to 1956 to be with Peggy Carter and live out the rest of his life. (Bear with us for a minute: If he’s born in 1918 and goes into the ice in 1945, he gets frozen and wakes up in 2011 at the age of 27. Then he ages normally until 2023, making him 39 at the start of Endgame. If he goes back to 1956 at age 39, he’ll age 67 years in real time, making him 106 when he reappears in 2023.)
However, all that being said, it’s unclear whether Underdahl and her team were working from old Captain America’s exact age within canon, or if they were given a ballpark and 106 was what they landed on for reference. After all, older Steve’s age isn’t confirmed in Avengers: Endgame itself and we don’t know exactly what year he travels back in time to so he can be with Peggy. Since Marvel has an official MCU timeline, there’s no doubt studio head Kevin Feige and his team do know old Captain America is in 2023, it simply hasn’t been made public. As such, it’s likely Underdahl and her team were given access to that information in order to bring old Cap to life in the film. In any case, this is the biggest clue yet to how old Captain America is in Avengers: Endgame.
Next: How Steve Rogers Can Still Return In MCU Phase 4
Source: Wired
- Black Widow Release Date: 2021-07-09 The Eternals Release Date: 2021-11-05 Shang Chi Release Date: 2021-09-03 Doctor Strange 2 Release Date: 2022-05-06 Thor: Love and Thunder Release Date: 2022-07-08 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Release Date: 2022-11-11