Chris Evans might be known the world over as Captain America, but years before he became the Sentinel of Liberty, the actor first dipped his toes into the Marvel universe as Johnny Storm AKA the Human Torch in the first two Fantastic Four films. Evans has opened up a few times of late over how much getting the role of Steve Rogers in the MCU meant to him, but it turns out landing the Fantastic Four gig was a big deal for the star back in the day, too.
While speaking to THR’s podcast, Evans recalled that the 2005 origins movie for the foursome came in the early days of the superhero cinema boom. He then went on to say that this was a big break for him in terms of his career. What’s more, it also provided a personal boost as he’d just suffered a break-up not long before getting the good news.
“You try to remember the moments in your life when you get those phone calls to get a job and I’m ashamed to admit that I can’t always remember getting those calls but that one I remember. There was a lot of other personal things. I think I had just been dumped. I needed a win. I remember getting that phone call and just thinking, ‘Aw, yes!’ It was really a role that I enjoyed, it was the best paycheck I had ever gotten. It felt like a little bit of a corner had been turned and maybe I could parlay this into something else.”
For the longest time, the original Fantastic Four movies were widely mocked and criticized, but over the past few years – probably since 2015’s terrible Fant4stic – fans have come to look back at them in a more forgiving light. Evans’ turn as Johnny is definitely one of the highlights of both the first one and the 2007 follow-up Rise of the Silver Surfer. He clearly had a lot of fun playing the hothead, too, so it’s no surprise to hear the actor talking about how he really enjoyed his time as the character to THR.
Since Evans left the part, Michael B. Jordan portrayed him in 2015. Now that Marvel has the rights to the team though, a new actor will no doubt be sought to re-ignite the Human Torch on the big screen in the next Fantastic Four reboot.