Chris Evans Admits He Was Starstruck Again Filming ‘Doomsday’ — Just Like His Very First Avengers Movie

Chris Evans is back in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after a seven-year absence — and stepping onto the Avengers: Doomsday set apparently felt a lot like the very first time he did this.

Speaking exclusively with Entertainment Weekly at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Evans reflected on what the experience of filming Doomsday was actually like after so many years away from the franchise. His answer was both self-deprecating and genuinely heartfelt — describing a feeling he hadn’t expected to encounter again after everything he had already accomplished in the MCU.

Back to Being Starstruck

Evans explained that being on the Doomsday set transported him directly back to 2011, when he first filmed The Avengers and found himself surrounded by performers he had watched and admired for years. Back then, he described himself as the new kid — someone who was simply thrilled to be in the room and occasionally had to remind himself that he actually had lines to deliver while watching his co-stars work.

On Doomsday, that feeling came back. Even after 15 years as Captain America, after everything the character went through across a decade of MCU storytelling, Evans found himself doing the same thing — watching, absorbing, being genuinely awed — rather than staying locked into pure performance mode. He described the experience of watching Robert Downey Jr. in his new role as something he simply couldn’t stop himself from reacting to.

Downey’s New Role as Doctor Doom

Downey is returning to the MCU not as Tony Stark but as Victor Von Doom, the franchise’s new central villain. While Tony Stark was defined by the trauma that ultimately made him a hero, Doom represents the opposite trajectory — a man whose brilliance and power became weapons rather than gifts, and whose personal losses bent him toward destruction rather than sacrifice.

Downey described the contrast between the two characters as something that required the combined strength of every assembled hero to confront — calling the experience of playing Doom a genuine joy.

Footage screened at Hall H gave fans their first real look at Doom’s presence in the film, with Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm explaining to the assembled heroes that Doom originates from the Fantastic Four’s home universe — and that she once knew a very different version of him, before loss and grief reshaped him entirely.

The Scale of the Film

Avengers: Doomsday, directed by returning MCU veterans Joe and Anthony Russo, brings together three distinct universes — the main Avengers world, the Fantastic Four’s home, and the X-Men’s reality — for what promises to be the franchise’s most expansive crossover yet.

Evans was joined at the EW studio by co-stars Pedro Pascal, Paul Rudd, David Harbour, Letitia Wright, Lewis Pullman, Kelsey Grammer, and Rebecca Romijn, among many others who appeared across the Hall H presentation.

Avengers: Doomsday opens in theaters on December 18.