When the first teaser trailer for Avengers: Doomsday confirmed to the world that Captain America would return, fans rejoiced. But now that Steve Rogers is back, the MCU can finally confirm one fan theory once and for all, even if the filmmakers of Avengers: Endgame still don’t agree on the answer.
Steve Never Returned After Endgame, Because He Never Did
The Time Loop Spent With Peggy Carter Was Fated To Happen
The final moments of Avengers: Endgame laid out the dilemma perfectly: with their reality saved, Steve had to travel across time and put all the stolen Infinity Stones back precisely when and where they found them. Then to ensure the main MCU was not rewritten, return to the very moment he left. Instead, audiences learned, Steve decided to end his journey back in the 1950s and live out the full life with Peggy Carter he never got to.
With all evidence suggesting the timeline was not changed, and nobody wanting to assume Captain America would damn the universe for nostalgia’s sake, fans needed a solution. For instance, what if this outcome was the destined one all along? What if Peggy Carter’s husband, mentioned but never seen, had been the time-looping Steve Rogers all along?
While the Russo Brothers would issue a dismissal of this theory, Endgame‘s screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely had a far more hopeful answer to the question. Speaking about the time travel logic and loops of Infinity War and Endgame during SDCC 2019, Markus confirmed the writing duo’s stance as firm believers in an unseen “Old Steve” keeping out of sight:
“We’ll get to Captain America at the end of the movie, and whether that breaks our own rules… I mean we actually have a public disagreement with our directors. Again, it’s a playful one, but Stephen and I are just so taken with the idea that Steve went back and got to live his life… I would like to believe that through some sort of bullshit time loop paradox… there are indeed two Captain Americas in the MCU timeline. That Steve Rogers who looped back into time has therefore always been there, and that he is living somewhere else in the movies you’re watching.
“And what I really like to believe is that there’s an old man sitting in back at Peggy’s funeral in Civil War, and that’s old Steve Rogers, watching young Steve Rogers, carry old Steve Rogers’ wife up to the front of the church.”
The question had seemed unanswerable at the time, leaving attendees (and those hoping for a happy ending for Steve and Peggy) with smiles on their faces, at the possibility of a life well-lived for the beloved couple. But considering Steve is now set to return to the MCU, and the intricacies of time travel are crucial to Doomsday, Secret Wars, and beyond, the days for this mystery may well be numbered.
Captain America’s Return Can Finally Confirm (or Disprove) The Theory
Steve & Peggy Fans Need To Prepare For A Sad, Sad Answer
As noted above, most audiences, superfans, and conpiracy theorists alike had to agree that the fate or time loop of Steve Rogers was never-to-be-answered. After all, you would need to either pull Captain America out of his dream life (ruining the ending of Endgame), or potentially diminish the beloved hero’s legacy. Considering that the same directors are potentially including an evil variant of Captain America, it would appear the idea of an ‘untouchable’ ending is now off the table.
That isn’t to say that the happier ending will be demolished entirely, even if it was one dream or vision the Russo Brothers did not share with their writers. But with word that Captain America is central to Doomsday, and of personal importance to the directors, it’s clear that they’re thinking all of this through. So for better or worse, the existence of this ‘Old Steve theory’ may soon be ended, either by Avengers: Doomsday or its sequel confirming it was true all along… or something much, much more complicated.
- Release Date
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December 18, 2026
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Vanessa Kirby
Sue Storm / Invisible Woman
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Johnny Storm / Human Torch
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Ebon Moss-Bachrach
Ben Grimm / The Thing