The best Chris Evans movies and TV shows have almost been overshadowed by his work in comic book films. Evans' career has mostly been defined by his role as Steve Rogers, as he took on the character of Captain America for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2011 and carried that role until his final appearance in Avengers: Endgame in 2019, where he ed on the mantle to another hero in the MCU, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson. Evans has said he plans to slow down his acting, but has not done so yet.

While most people know him from the flagship MCU role, he has a much wider and more diverse filmography than some fans might believe. He has played another superhero in the past as The Human Torch in the Fox Marvel movies, as well as in adaptations of comic books, TMNT, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Snowpiercer. He has also taken roles in great comedies like Not Another Teen Movie and even more blockbuster efforts, like the 2024 holiday action movie Red One.

10 The Losers (2010)

Jensen

One of the comic book adaptations few people talk about from Chris Evans' career came in 2010 when he starred in the action film The Losers. Many people might not even know it is a comic book adaptation as there are no superheroes and it is mostly an action movie with several familiar faces in a twist on the same story told in The A-Team decades earlier. Based on the comics by Andy Diggle and Jock, The Losers tells the story of an elite black-ops team betrayed by the U.S. government and sent on the run.

Chris Evans is Jensen, the tech genius of the team and very much not the action hero he played in the MCU. ing him in the all-star cast are his teammates Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Roque (Idris Elba), Aisha (Zoe Saldaña), Pooch (Columbus Short), and Cougar (Oscar Jaenada), while Jason Patrick takes on the role as their enemy, the corrupt government official Max. The film received mixed reviews and a middling box office, but it was nice seeing Evans in a fun action movie playing against type.

9 Gifted (2017)

Frank Adler

In the middle of his time playing Captain America, Chris Evans took a small break for a very different film. In 2017, the year between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, Evans starred in the drama film Gifted with McKenna Grace. The movie follows an intellectually gifted seven-year-old who ends up in the middle of a custody battle between her maternal uncle and maternal grandmother. Evans plays her uncle and guardian, Frank, while Lindsay Duncan plays her grandmother and Frank’s mother, Evelyn.

The main plot sees Frank wanting to do what he thinks is best for young Mary by sending her to public schools to be around regular kids. Frank knows the dangers of pushing his daughter, as his sister and Mary’s mother was also a mathematical genius and died by suicide. Evelyn, however, feels gifted people are obligated to use their talents to further society and push things. Gifted received positive reviews from critics, who praised Evans’ performance, as he shined in a more subdued role than usual.

8 Sunshine (2007)

James Mace

After taking on his first superhero roles in the Fantastic Four series, Chris Evans ed the Danny Boyle sci-fi film, Sunshine. This was an intellectual sci-fi psychological thriller written by Alex Garland, who also worked with Boyle on 28 Days Later. The film takes place in 2057 with a group of astronauts trying to reignite a dying sun. Chris Evans is James Mace, the engineer on the mission, while Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis, Benedict Wong, and more help fill out the cast.

While Evans was only part of the ensemble cast, he carried his own and the film itself won the BAFTA Award for Best Technical Achievement.

The movie was a box office flop, but it ended up picking up a lot more fans when it was released on DVD and Blu-ray. While the idea of reigniting the sun was complex, the story was actually pushed along by a man on the ship who had plans to disrupt the mission and send humanity to Heaven. Critics mostly praised the film, praising the twisting story and the cast in general. While Evans was only part of the ensemble cast, he carried his own and the film itself won the BAFTA Award for Best Technical Achievement.

7 Not Another Teen Movie (2001)

Jake Wyler

At one point in the early 2000s, spoof movies began to come out on a regular basis, and almost every single one of them was bashed by critics and audiences alike. However, the one that started this run was actually quite good, and it also was Chris Evans’ first major movie role. Not Another Teen Movie was, as its name suggests, a spoof of major teen films, specifically those from the 1980s. The main plot is the same as She’s All That, the 1999 film that starred Freddie Prize Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook.

Chris Evans is Jake, a high school football star at John Hughes High School in California (named after the creator of The Breakfast Club). His girlfriend (Jaime Pressly) breaks up with him, so he bets his friends that he can turn nerdy Janey (Chyler Leigh) into the prom queen. Evans is hilarious throughout the entire movie. At one point, he spoofs the infamous whipped cream bikini scene from Varsity Blues, but with him wearing it. When Molly Ringwald shows up at the end to call out the stupidity, the film hits another level of brilliance.

6 Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

Johnny Storm/The Human Torch

Years before he played Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Chris Evans played a different Marvel superhero. In the Fox Marvel world, he played Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, in the two Fantastic Four movies. Neither of those received any sort of critical acclaim and audiences mostly dismissed both of them, although they were decent hits at the box office. However, Evans' performance as Johnny Storm received some praise from comic book fans.

While neither of those movies has stood up over time, Evans returned to the role in 2024 in the MCU movie Deadpool & Wolverine. This was a multiverse movie, so Evans returned along with other past non-MCU heroes, including Blade, Elektra, and several of the X-Men movies. Evans was a highlight, playing a foul-mouthed and reckless character, very much against the persona he had developed as Captain America. It was a huge fan-favorite moment in a film that made over $1.3 billion and received mostly positive reviews.

5 Knives Out (2019)

Hugh “Ransom” Drysdale

Chris Evans almost always plays the hero in his movies. In some of his attempts to go evil, the results are often underwhelming, such as in the critically panned Netflix action movie The Gray Man. However, he was on top form in the 2019 Rian Johnson mystery whodunnit film, Knives Out. The movie introduced Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, a world-famous private investigator clearly influenced by Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, as he takes a case to figure out who killed a wealthy novelist.

Benoit has to contend with the novelist’s family, which includes a slew of familiar faces, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Katherine Langford, and Chris Evans. All the relatives are suspects, and Evans plays Jamie Lee Curtis and Don Johnson’s son, a character whose arrogance and dismissive attitude was about as far from Steve Rogers as Evans could get. The film earned an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay and it helped start a new franchise.

4 Snowpiercer (2013)

Curtis Everett

In 2013, Chris Evans ed the ensemble cast for the science fiction apocalyptic thriller Snowpiercer. Based on the French comic book by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, and Kean-Marc Rochette, the story takes place in a future where a new ice age has made life on Earth uninhabitable. However, the wealthiest people in the world knew this was coming and paid for a place on a self-sustaining train called the Snowpiercer that would keep them alive, yet always in motion.

The problem came when many of the poor and downtrodden saw what was happening and forced their way onto the train. Since the wealthy had the military at their side, they allowed many of them to stay, but they were forced to live in the back cars of the train and treated them like cattle. This soon led to a revolution that threatened to destroy the train itself. Chris Evans is Curtis, the leader of the revolution. The movie landed on many critics’ year-end lists and even spawned a TV series spinoff.

3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Steve Rogers / Captain America

Chris Evans starred as Steve Rogers/Captain America in 11 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies (some of them in cameo roles). This also included his own trilogy of movies, although one of them was as much an Avengers movie as it was a Captain America film. In 2011, the MCU introduced Captain America in a World War II era movie where he helped the Allies fight the Nazis and Hydra to win the war and bring about an end to the threat of the Nazi rise to power.

However, the best Captain America movie came three years later when Cap learned that some people in America still held Nazi ideals, and many had taken places in the American government. Captain America: The Winter Soldier remains one of the best MCU movies ever made, a spy, espionage film that sees Cap team up with Black Widow and Falcon to battle his own country as the Nazis in Hydra attempt a hostile takeover with their new weapon, The Winger Soldier. Critics gave the film a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score.

2 Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)

Lucas Lee

In 2010, one year before he ed the MCU as Captain America, Chris Evans starred as a minor villain in the Edgar Wright comic book adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. This story was unlike almost any other comic book adaptation as it was mostly a young-adult romantic action movie that saw a slacker named Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) trying to win over the love of the mysterious Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). However, he first has to defeat her evil exes.

Chris Evans is one of her evil exes, Hollywood actor and skateboarder Lucas Lee. Out of all the evil exes, he is the one who seems the least evil, but he still puts up an amazing fight against Scott during the movie. The entire film feels more like a video game adaptation than a comic book adaptation, and it might be the best video game movie ever made, without being based on a game at all. The film has become a massive cult classic and even spawned an anime spin-off on Netflix.

1 Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Steve Rogers / Captain America

Easily, the most famous and beloved movie of Chris Evans’ career was Avengers: Endgame, the film that brought an end to the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s main characters. Iron Man died, Captain America retired, and the world moved on, all while delivering the most immersive and inspired battleground sequence of any comic book movie. In the end, it was Iron Man and Captain America who helped bring the heart to the movie and made it more than a big-budget spectacle.

Captain America had one of the greatest moments in any MCU movie when he lifted Thor’s hammer and said, “Avengers Assemble,” something that became a meme thanks to the recordings from theaters across the nation when the audience literally began applauding and cheering the scene. It was the instance that proved how much Chris Evans had helped create something that might never be replicated on the big screen again.