Chris Evans shocks Marvel fans as Captain America returns with a baby in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

Highlights:

• Marvel releases first look at Avengers: Doomsday
• Clip confirms Chris Evans back as Captain America
• Steve Rogers shown living on a farm and holding a baby
• Teaser attached to Avatar: Fire and Ash screenings
• Film rolls out worldwide on 18 December 2026

The first teaser for Avengers: Doomsday has confirmed that Chris Evans will return as Captain America. It is the first time Marvel has placed him at the front of its marketing since Avengers: Endgame in 2019. The footage, now screening before Avatar: Fire and Ash, also shows an unexpected detail: Steve Rogers has a newborn child in his arms. It signals a change in tone for a character long treated as a soldier first and a man later.

Avengers Doomsday leak hints at surprise Young Avengers appearance IMDB

Why the Avengers: Doomsday teaser matters

Marvel is marking a one-year countdown to the release of Avengers: Doomsday. The teaser opens on silence, farmland, and an open road. Steve rides up on a motorcycle. He wears a blue helmet with a familiar shape. A piano line from the old Avengers score plays.

Inside the house, Steve hangs up what looks like part of his Captain America gear. He then picks up a baby. No words. Just a title card confirming he will return in Avengers: Doomsday, followed by a digital clock counting down 12 months.

Marvel has used attachment screenings rather than a mass online roll-out. Some cinema-goers expected the clip last week when leaks appeared online. Social media posts were pulled down by copyright notices. Studios like Disney tend to test small audiences before a full launch, and that seems to be happening again.

Fan Art - Avengers Doomsday brings together 35 major stars for the ultimate Marvel showdown Instagram/zonareplay

How Avengers: Doomsday fits after Endgame

The last official appearance of Steve Rogers came at the end of Endgame. He returned the Infinity Stones, vanished into the past, and re-emerged as an elderly man. He gave his shield to Sam Wilson, who went on to lead the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and will star in Captain America: Brave New World next year.

Steve leaving to live his life with Peggy Carter was treated as a full stop. Yet Marvel’s newer films have pushed into alternate timelines and multiverse crossovers. Fans have wondered whether a younger Steve could appear without rewriting that ending. The teaser does not answer that point. It avoids showing his age and avoids placing him alongside any Avengers team.

The baby raises more questions. Steve’s serum-enhanced biology has long been part of Marvel comic stories. People will ask whether the child forms part of the plot or is simply a personal detail.

What Avengers: Doomsday means for Chris Evans and Marvel

Avengers: Doomsday will gather returning actors across the old Avengers cast. Robert Downey Jr is listed for the film, but as Doctor Doom, not Iron Man. That gives Marvel a headline clash between two of its longest-running stars.

The cast list confirmed by studios and trade reporting includes Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Simu Liu, Florence Pugh, Paul Rudd, Vanessa Kirby, Pedro Pascal and others. A section of the old X-Men ensemble, including Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Kelsey Grammer and others, are also moving across into Marvel’s shared storyline.

Evans briefly returned in Deadpool & Wolverine this year, playing the Human Torch, a nod to his 2005 Fantastic Four work. Avengers: Doomsday is different. This is Steve Rogers again, placed at the emotional centre of Marvel’s push into a final multiverse chapter before Secret Wars.

Marvel is expected to attach three more teasers to future Avatar: Fire and Ash screenings through December. If the studio stays with its present approach, one clip each week may focus on a different returning figure. For now, the biggest confirmation is simple: Steve Rogers will return in Avengers: Doomsday, and the character is no longer alone.