Chris Evans opens up about Deadpool & Wolverine role and wearing that suit again (exclusive)

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine.

Never in a million years did Chris Evans think someone would ask him to play his Marvel movie role once again. No, not Captain America. The other Marvel role.

Evans made a surprise appearance alongside Jennifer Garner, Wesley Snipes, Dafne Keen, and Channing Tatum at Comic-Con's massive Thursday night panel at the San Diego Convention Center's Hall H, confirming his surprise role in this weekend's Deadpool & Wolverine as Johnny Storm, a.k.a. the Human Torch, a character he played in 2005's Fantastic Four and 2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

"I was so excited," he exclusively tells Entertainment Weekly on the car ride back to the airport following the panel. The actor confirms it was Deadpool star, producer, and co-writer Ryan Reynolds who called him up personally. "Ryan's a buddy," Evans says. "He just shot me a text saying, 'Listen, might be a long shot, but would you have any interest in reprising something from 20 years ago?' I said, 'Oh my God! Of course.'"

"Honestly, Ryan might be the only guy that I would've done it for because he's just got the Midas touch," he continues. "His self-awareness makes him almost invincible. He makes the joke before the audience gets a chance to make the joke, so if you're going to revisit a character and you have to find a way to make it work, Ryan's humor makes just about everything work, so you feel an automatic sense of safety."

In Deadpool & Wolverine, Wade Wilson (Reynolds) is informed by Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), a member of the multiverse watchdogs at the Time Variance Authority, that his world is dying over the loss of its "anchor being," someone who is so crucial to a universe that their very existence stabilizes it. The anchor being of Deadpool's world happens to be Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). So in a desperate effort to save his reality, Deadpool travels to different dimensions, looking for a replacement Wolverine.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

His multiversal odyssey leads both Wade and one such Wolverine variant to the Void, the place where discarded beings go before getting deleted completely. Deadpool fanboys when he comes across a figure in this wasteland who looks like Evans' Steve Rogers, but he (and the audience) are surprised to learn he's not Captain America; he's the fiery member of the Fantastic Four with the ability to light his whole body on fire and take flight.

"I just had to fly in real quick, do a couple days of filming, and fly out," Evans says of filming his cameo, pun likely intended. "For me, it was pretty easy."

Speaking of wearing his form-fitting blue Fantastic Four suit again, he adds, the costume experience was "slightly" improved this time around. "Primarily because where we find Johnny, he's meant to be a little more rundown, so the costume didn't have to be pristine," he explains. "Those first two movies, that's when Marvel was really still trying to find their footing. So everything had to be very precise and had a lot of meetings, a lot of opinions. This was a little more like, 'Yeah, we know it. We've seen it.'"

Evans starred opposite Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Jessica Alba as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, and Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/the Thing. The cast only made two movies, and Fox went ahead years later with another reboot attempt, this time with Miles Teller as Reed, Kate Mara as Sue, Michael B. Jordan as Johnny, and Jamie Bell as Ben. Poor box-office returns, bad reviews, and a notoriously troubled production prevented any sequels from moving forward.

And now that Disney's Marvel Studios owns the rights again to the Fantastic Four, another cinematic outing is in the works, starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Quinn previously told EW that there are "big boots" to fill in taking on the role of Johnny in this new incarnation after Evans' turns.

"It's nothing but fond memories," Evans says of his experience on the original two Fantastic Four movies from the now-defunct 20th Century Fox, which was bought by Disney in 2019. "Those were a big chapter of my life. I was 23 when I did the first one, and it was my first bigger studio film. I had done a couple movies at that point, but nothing at that level. These careers are little milestones, little corners that you round. Doing that movie, you turn a corner and it just feels like it brought me to the next level of my career. I loved working with the people that were on that film. I loved the role. It was nothing but love and affection for that time."

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, for whom Evans celebrated a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, said in recent interviews that Deadpool & Wolverine is a good example of how to bring back a long-dead Marvel character like Jackman's Logan. Does that make Evans think about bringing Cap back? "No. No, not really," he says.

He does continue to give his blessing to his buddy Anthony Mackie, the current Captain America of the MCU and getting his own standalone movie with next years Captain America: Brave New World. "I keep in touch with all those guys," he says. "We text all the time. I can't wait to see that movie."

Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing in theaters.