Succession’s Jeremy Strong Almost Played Captain America’s Body Double

Thanks to his award-winning work on HBO’s Succession, Jeremy Strong has an incredibly unique pedigree in the acting landscape. While Strong might be best known for his more dramatic roles, a new interview with the actor reveals that he almost entered the superhero landscape in a pretty unexpected way. As Strong recently told The Times UK, he was offered the body double role of “Skinny Steve” Rogers in the first act of Captain America: The First Avenger — the smaller and lankier version of Steve Rogers / Captain America (Chris Evans) before he is physically transformed by supersoldier serum. The role, which would have involved Evans’ face and voice being superimposed onto Strong, was offered to the actor when he “was broke” and “needed money”, so he “considered” it at one point. The role was ultimately played by Leander Deeny.

“They told me there was a top-secret film about Captain America,” Strong explained. “They needed someone to play Captain America’s young body, before he turns into a superhero. They said they needed a transformational actor and would use CGI to put the actual actor’s face and voice over my own.”

To make the story even stranger, Strong is actually friends with Evans in real life, with the two of them having grown up together in Sudbury, Massachusetts. The Times UK‘s report even got Evans’ comment about the whole ordeal, and the actor was definitely surprised by it.

“Oh no!” Evans gasped. “It just goes to show the industry is so unpredictable. But I’m so happy things worked out, because I don’t think there was ever plan B for Jeremy.”

Will Chris Evans return as Captain America?

After Steve Rogers’ storyline was significantly wrapped up in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, there’s been a lot of question over whether or not Evans could ultimately reprise the role at a later date. As Evans told ComicBook.com‘s Phase Zero podcast during an interview earlier this year, he sees the idea of returning as Cap to be “a tall order.”

“I don’t want to disappoint anybody but it’s tough to… It was such a good run and I’m so happy with it,” Evans revealed at the time. “It’s so precious to me. It would have to be perfect. It just would be scary to rattle something that is, again, so, so dear to me. That role means so much to me. So, to revisit it, it would be a tall order.”