Chris Evans bids farewell to Captain America after wrapping up Avengers 4; Twitterati express despair

Chris Evans got emotional as he hung up his shield as Captain America, a role he has played for nearly a decade. Evans made the announcement on Thursday via Twitter, reported The Hollywood Reporter.

The actor previously pointed out to retiring the character in a profile in the The New York Times which quoted him as saying, “You want to get off the train before they push you off.”

The 37-year-old Evans, who played Johnny Storm in a couple of Fantastic Four films, first played Steve Rogers aka Captain America in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger . He then played the character in The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016) and  Avengers: Infinity War (2018), as well as cameos in a number of other Marvel films. Evans is likely to make his final appearance as Captain America in the currently untitled Avengers 4.

While his Captain America had a relatively small amount of screen time in this year’s Avengers: Infinity War, the writers of that movie and Avengers 4 have said the hero will be the front and center in the next installment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

After Evans’ announcement, Twitter broke into reactions, which included those of Ryan Renolds and Dwayne Johnson. From memes to GIFs, fans expressed that they would miss the Marvel superhero after Avengers 4.

(With inputs from agencies)