Chris Evans Thanks Robert Downey Jr. for Carrying the Avengers on His Birthday

Marvel fans and cast members alike are celebrating the birthday of Robert Downey Jr., whose role as Tony Stark/Iron Man laid the groundwork for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Chris Evans, who has starred alongside Downey in several Marvel films, had a particularly great tribute.

Evans took to social media to celebrate Downey’s 54th birthday, calling the actor “the man, the myth, the incomparable, [and] the indomitable”. Evans, who plays Steve Rogers/Captain America in the MCU, also thanked Downey for “carrying us these last 10 years”.

While Downey and Evans’ characters previously butted heads in the MCU in Captain America: Civil War, it sounds like the arc that they’re both on in Avengers: Endgame might further evolve their dynamic for the better.

“What’s interesting about these characters is that they’re all heroes,” co-director Joe Russo explained during Infinity War‘s commentary track. “And that, irrespective of the events of Civil War and the fact that they caused physical damage to Rhodey, when aliens show up with the intent to destroy the Earth, he does not hesitate, as a hero, to invite in other heroes who can help him defend the planet. And I think it will be a much different situation if Tony were here. If Tony and Steve had to see each other for the first time, it would be much more complicated.”

“Tony’s too intelligent and has too big of an ego to be a stooge to the government,” Russo noted. “He will take whatever by-product came out of Civil War and use it to his own advantage and to keep the Avengers alive in a way that he feels like is less the compromise, the better for him. So, I think he has not been actively pursuing bringing Steve Rogers and Natasha and Sam and Wanda to justice. He has in fact been turning the other way. “

And behind the scenes, it seems like the positive feeling Evans has towards Downey is mutual.

“[Evans’] suspension of his own disbelief, regardless of whatever doubts he had, is the reason all these other worlds are able to be built,” Downey Jr. explained in a recent interview. “Starting with Avengers, and then Guardians, and Black Panther. People love to say — and I’ll eat it up — that I’m kind of the progenitor of this whole universe. But if you want to talk about it in terms of team building, and you want to talk about it as the most successful creative relay race in the history of cinema, he was the critical leg.”

“I’ve been in hundreds of scenes with this guy,” Downey Jr. added. “Nobody laughs more than him. Sometimes he makes me self-conscious, like, ‘Should I be more fun?’ There’s a little bit of, like, just trying to shake out the anxiety. And I’ve also seen him, over the last 10 years, go from being someone who had laughably real social anxiety to someone who has grown more and more comfortable in their own skin.”

Captain Marvel is in theaters now. It will be followed by Avengers: Endgame on April 26th, and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.