Chris Evans Plans to Retire After ‘Captain America’

After telling Glamour Magazine he would like “a little break from acting” when his Marvel contract is up, Captain America star Chris Evans took it a step further during an interview with Variety by saying he’d like to retire.

“If I’m acting at all, it’s going to be under Marvel Contract, or I’m going to be directing,” said Evans. “I can’t see myself pursuing acting strictly outside of what I’m contractually obligated to do.”

“I’ve known for a while I wanted to direct,” said Evans to Variety. “But time never really opens up. There’s another movie to do, there’s another acting job. It just got to a point where I was like, you know what—I have to dot this.”

During his winter hiatus from the Marvel universe, Evans spent his time directing his debut feature entitled 1:30 Train. The short film focuses on a young woman who misses her ride home at Grand Central Terminal and is forced to spend the night talking with a street musician.

“Without these [Marvel] movies, I wouldn’t be directing,” he said to Variety. “They gave me enough overseas recognition to greenlight a movie. And if I’m speaking extremely candidly, it’s going to continue to do that for as long ad the Marvel contract runs.”

Evans is contractually bound to a six-picture deal with Marvel. Thus far, he’s had featured roles in Captain America: The First Avenger, Marvels The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, due out April 4, and will soon star in Marvel’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015 and Captain America 3 in 2016. 

Leaving one movie on the contract, it could possibly be Marvel’s The Avengers 3, presumably released in 2017 or later, or Evans’ brief cameo in Thor: The Dark World. If that’s the case, Evans will have fulfilled his Marvel contract after the third Captain America film in 2016.