‘Captain America’ Star Chris Evans Picks Batman as His Favorite Superhero as a Kid

Avengers: Endgame star Chris Evans is no stranger to playing a superhero. Not only has Evans spent nearly the last decade as Captain Americain the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he also played Johnny Storm/Human Torch twice in the Fantastic Four films, experience that one would think would put Marvel heroes towards the top of his list for favorites. However, it turns out, that when Evans was a kid there was another hero — one from the DC side of things — that he most preferred.

Evans recently sat down to play “Fishing For Answers” with The Hollywood Reporter to answer fan questions and one of the questions he drew from their fishing bowl was who his favorite childhood superhero was. The answer is Batman, but Evans’ explanation as to why reveals quite a bit more than you might expect.

“I wasn’t that cool, I was more into cartoons, like Bugs Bunny and Looney Toons, things like that,” Evans revealed before deciding upon a proper superhero. “I’ll say Batman. I really liked that, I mean I probably shouldn’t say that, DC, it’s… I don’t want to get in any trouble. But those Michael Keaton movies, those were pretty big, so yeah. I’ll say Batman.”

To say that the Michael Keaton Batman movies were “pretty big” is a little bit of an understatement. The first of those films, 1989’s Batman, was the top-grossing film at the domestic box office that year, beating out Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It ultimately brought in over $411 million total over its theatrical run and was the highest grossing film based on a DC comic book until 2008’s The Dark Knight overtook it. The film’s success launched not only a full film series — Batman Returns (1992), Batman Forever (1995), and Batman & Robin (1997) — but it also prompted Warner Bros. Animation to create Batman: The Animated Series.

Batman is also among the films that helped pave the way for the superhero film genre we know and love today, which kind of makes Evans’ citing of the film even more meaningful. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is massively successful, with the upcoming Avengers: Endgame expected to dominate the box office. For Evans, the film will mark not just the end of the Infinity Saga, but the is likely the end of his time as Captain America. The gravity of that isn’t something that’s lost on the star, who also revealed in the question and answer game that he was “surprisingly emotional” on his last day of filming — something that he said was one of his big memories from the whole experience.

“Getting emotional on the last day of filming,” Evans said. “It was surprisingly emotional.”

Avengers: Endgame opens in theaters April 26th.