Chris Evans reluctant to play Captain America again

Chris Evans has reservations about reprising the role of Captain America again.

At the end of Avengers: Endgame, Steve Rogers returns from a time-travelling mission as an old man, revealing that he went back to the past to enjoy life with his beloved Peggy Carter before passing on his shield to Anthony Mackie's Falcon, effectively making him the new Captain America.

When asked by his Avengers co-star Scarlett Johansson if he would ever return to the role during their interview for Variety's Actors on Actors series, he vaguely replied: "Never say never."

When pressed for a more definitive answer, the 38-year-old admitted that he would be hesitant to jump back into the role and ruin the bittersweet conclusion of his character's storyline.

"It's not a hard no, but it's not an eager yes either," Evans said. "There are other things that I'm working on right now. I think Cap had such a tricky act to stick the landing, and I think they did a really nice job letting him complete his journey. If you're going to revisit it, it can't be a cash grab. It can't be just because the audience wants to be excited. What are we revealing? What are we adding to the story? A lot of things would have to come together."

Johansson, who played Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow in the Avengers films, added that Captain America deserved his "beautiful cathartic ending" and Evans replied, "It'd be a shame to sour that... I'm very protective of it. It was such a precious time and jumping onto the movie was a terrifying prospect to me. I said no a bunch of times, and there's a million and one ways it could have gone wrong. It almost feels like maybe we should let this one sit."