Frank Grillo Is Not Surprised Chris Evans Is “Done” Playing Captain America

Marvel fans may have been taken off guard by the news that Chris Evans is stepping down from his role as Captain America, but one of his former costars doesn’t share that sentiment.

Frank Grillo, who played Brock Rumlow/Crossbones in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, was recently asked by Larry King if he was surprised by Evans’ retirement.

“No, no.” Grillo explained. “That ran its course, and those guys are all getting a bit old. I love him. He’s a great guy. He’s a Boston kid. He’s a lovely, lovely man.”

While MCU fans will still get to see Evans in next year’s Avengers 4, the actor has hinted over the past year that it will probably be his final time in the role of Steve Rogers.

“Well, you know, my contract is over, so that’s as far as I know,” Evans said in an interview earlier this year. “[I’ll miss] everything [about Captain America]. I mean, it’s not just the character, it’s the people – the experience, such good movies, such wonderful memories. I’ll miss a lot.”

“You want to get off the train before they push you off,” Evans said in a previous interview. “I used to have thoughts of wanting to climb to the top of something, or wanting to be somebody. But when you get the thing that you think you want and then you wake up and realize that you still have pockets of sadness, and that your struggle will reinvent itself, you stop chasing after those things and it is liberating, because you realize that right here, right now, is exactly all I need.”

To make matters more heartbreaking, a recent tweet from Evans has been interpreted by many to mean that Cap will die in Avengers 4, something that the actor has since had to explain.

“I should clarify that I know I did tweet something that made a lot of people think that it was in someway a spoiler,” Evans said during a recent convention appearance. “I should clarify that regardless of how Avengers 4 ends, I would have tweeted the exact same thing. That last day of filming was a very emotional day and it was the culmination of almost 10 years of filming and 22 movies, this unbelievable tapestry. You feel a lot more emotions than I think even I thought I’d feel. And I felt it was appropriate to share the gratitude. I know it had a ripple effect but I am neither confirming or denying anything.”

No matter what exactly happens to Cap in the film, it sounds like Evans has some pretty high praise for his MCU finale.

“There’s just nothing that I can say but there’s so much good stuff…there’s so many good things,” Evans revealed. “I mean, I guess all I can say is if Marvel has proven anything it’s just that they know what they’re doing. They know what they’re doing. I don’t think they’ve missed a beat. Their worse mistakes are other studios’ like biggest blessings you know what I mean? Like, they don’t miss, they don’t miss, and they have not missed with this one and it really is just an incredible culmination of this unbelievable tapestry of…I mean, how many individual series is it? Is it like, what six, seven individual parts coming together.”

What do you think of Frank Grillo‘s comments about Evans’ MCU tenure? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp are now available on digital platforms, DVD, and Blu-ray. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019; the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019; and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5, 2019.