Chris Evans Spoiled Avengers: Endgame Before the Film Released in Theaters

With Avengers: Endgame now in theaters all of the secrets of the epic Marvel Cinematic Universe film are secret no more with fans all around the world now in the know as to how it all plays out. It makes it interesting to look back at the various things that the film’s stars have said leading up to Endgame’s debut trying to line up statements that were spoilers in plain sight and it seems like Captain America star Chris Evans may have revealed a pretty big one just ahead of the film’s release — sort of.

Warning! Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame below. Don’t read beyond this point if you don’t want to know.

Earlier this month, several of Endgame‘s stars went to Shanghai, China for a Marvel fan event. Part of the event involved the actors appearing on stage and answering fan questions randomly. When it came time for Evans’, his question involved what he would do with the Time Stone — specifically if he could go back to any of the MCU movies, which one would he go to and what would he do differently. The answer? Steve would get back to Peggy Carter.

“If I had the time stone, I think Steve Rogers would be interested in pursuing a relationship with Peggy Carter,” Evans said. “Honestly, the Time Stone, if he can go anywhere, he’s a man out of time, he’s had to reconcile the fact that he’s not from this place and Peggy Carter really represents a love.”

And, in a sense, that’s what happens in Endgame. After everything is done — the vanished restored, Thanos defeated — Steve returns the Time Stones to the places they were plucked form the past so as to keep the timeline intact. However, he opts not to return to the “present” and instead, remains in the past where finally reunites with Peggy. He lives a long life with her and has his happily ever after. It’s an ending that is touching for fans (even if it also is pretty tangled up in questions about how exactly that would work) so, on the surface, Evans’s Shanghai comment seems like a spoiler.

However, if you step back for a moment, it’s not really much of a spoiler. It’s pretty well-established in the MCU that if Steve could, he’d get back to Peggy. He carries her photo with him always, visits her when he discovers she’s alive when he wakes up 70 years after going into the ice. Peggy is his one true love. Him suggesting that he’d go to do anything else with the Time Stone would be wildly out of character — unless it somehow involved Bucky, but even then, Peggy may still be his priority. The use of the Time Stone to get to Peggy also isn’t really a spoiler, either. Ultimately, the Avengers are able to time travel not with use of the stone, but through the Quantum Realm. Sure, Steve goes back in time, but it’s to restore the Time Stone to 2012. Getting to Peggy takes the Quantum Realm.

Still, the idea that Steve’s ultimate wish coming true is one that has charmed fans. Spoiler or not, Steve and Peggy getting to be together is a beautiful ending to their story and certainly one that Captain America deserved.

Avengers: Endgame is in theaters now.