Captain America Auditions: 11 Actors In the Running Before Chris Evans (Including a 'Twilight' Actor & Multiple A-List Costars)

Chris Evans‘ turn as Captain America is one of Marvel‘s many mega-successful casting decisions. However, we came pretty close to having someone else bring Steve Rogers to life in the MCU.

While Chris is so well-cast in the role that it’s like he’s playing himself, he faced some stiff competition to carry Cap’s iconic shield.

In fact, Chris initially turned it down. Who might have picked up the shield if he never agreed to lead the Avengers? We did some digging and rounded up 11 actors who were considered for the role.

Interestingly, some of them wound up acting alongside Chris in the MCU. Two of them even yielded Cap’s shield at various points.

Others joined the franchise after he left. Some even had the chance to play roles in other mega-successful franchises, and one of them later revealed that they had to apologize to Marvel after their audition! The final actor to join the list would have put a very different spin on the iconic hero.

Scroll through the slideshow to see who else could have played Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe…