The ‘Infinity War’ Trailer Has Fans CONVINCED That Captain America Is A Goner

With the release of the new trailer, many fans are wondering if Captain America will die in Avengers: Infinity War. The situation against Thanos already looks pretty dire in the two-minute teaser, and the details of Chris Evans' contract aren't setting any minds at ease. You've probably already heard that when the actor joined up with Marvel, he signed on for three Captain America movies and three Avengers movies. So when you saw Cap come face to face with Thanos in Friday's trailer, gritting his teeth against the power and strength of the Mad Titan, it didn't bode well.

A quick jaunt over to IMDb will show you that Evans has been steadily paying down his initial contract. He filmed Steve Rodgers-centric flicks in 2011, 2014, and 2016, and joined the Avengers for features in 2012, 2015, and — oh no — 2018. A little fast math tells us that that's three in each subset and six total, and would mean that Avengers: Infinity War is the final film in Evans' contract.

The good news is, there's an update on that nervous-making information: according to Cinema Blend, Evans reportedly extended his contract by one film to finish out the story in a satisfying way that doesn't feel rushed. In a June 2017 interview with U.K. paper The Telegraph, the Captain America-portrayer stated:

"I had six films in my Marvel contract, so I could have said after the third Avengers I was done, but they wanted to make the third and fourth Avengersfilms as a two-parter. They said they had so many other characters to fit in — Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man — and couldn’t get them all into one movie … It made sense. It’s going to wrap everything up."

In short, even after Infinity War, the 36-year-old is still slated to appear in the as-yet-untitled Avengers 4, set to premiere on May 3, 2019. So you can breathe a sigh of relief, right? Well, maybe.

At the end of the day, this is nobody's first rodeo, and there are a whole lot of signs — in the trailer and otherwise — that this might be the last movie with the shield-bearing superhero as we currently know him.

For one thing, there are clues in the canon. Fans of the comic book series know that Captain America dies in the aftermath of Civil War, assassinated while in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody in an arc very aptly named "The Death of Captain America." However, in the movie version of those events, Steve Rodgers survives, although he did lay down his shield and cease being Captain America as we know him. And while the movies have deviated from the comics before and will likely do so again, it's hard not to notice that the person who's supposed to take up the mantle of Captain America seems ready and willing to do so.

That would be Bucky Barnes, played by Sebastian Stan, who just so happens to have another four films on his contract after Evans' departure, according to Nerdist. That fact has led the outlet to speculate that Steve Rodgers will die at the end of Infinity War, forcing the Winter Soldier to wield the shield. And that theory still leaves room for the continuation of Evans' contract, as the actor could appear in Avengers 4 via flashbacks, time travel, or any number of devices that a superhero movie could dream up.

Or, they could just be straight up trying to mislead audiences. Like any studio, Marvel would probably prefer that their fans didn't have access to contract information, as it makes spoilers likely. So it isn't out of the question that they would disseminate false information to help keep the plots of future movies under wraps. It would also explain the massive tone change that we've seen from Evans as of late.

In March 2014, he told Variety he was more excited about directing than acting going forward, saying, "I can’t see myself pursuing acting strictly outside of what I’m contractually obligated to do." That was four years ago and only a few films into his contract, so there's a big case to be made that Evans is ready to put the franchise behind him, and that he agreed to Avengers 4 in a limited capacity, if he's in it at all.

All of which is to say that you should be very nervous for your shield-carrying favorite when Infinity War premieres on Apr. 27. Maybe he makes it through and maybe he doesn't, but it seems very likely that there are big changes on the horizon.