Biggest Unanswered Questions About Captain America's New Life

Avengers: Endgame gives us some sad moments, but it also gives us one of the happiest endings in the MCU. Tasked with bringing the Infinity Stones back to their places and times of origin, Captain America (Chris Evans) uses the opportunity to stay deep in the past and allow himself a life with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Though he does not return to the present exactly as intended, an elderly Steve Rogers wearing a wedding ring appears to the teammates he left behind just moments earlier, and the aged hero passes off his iconic shield to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie).

This has left fans with lots of questions about Steve's new life, and a revelation from the filmmakers shortly after the release of Endgame has led to more. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, directors Joe and Anthony Russo confirmed that when Cap lives the life he always wanted with Peggy, it's in a different timeline from the rest of the MCU. From the argument between Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) in 2012, we know that means when someone makes a change to the past, rather than changing the timeline that person came from, it creates a new timeline running parallel to the original where history unfolds differently — in either small or cataclysmic ways.

We already had huge questions about Cap's trip to the past, and what the Russo brothers told EW just brings up more. Here are the biggest unanswered questions we have about Captain America's new life.

In Avengers: Endgame, Cap uses his knowledge of Hydra's decades-old infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. to his advantage. When S.H.I.E.L.D. agents — who he knows are mostly Hydra agents — transport Loki's scepter in a Stark Tower elevator, Cap convinces them to trust the weapon to him by whispering the phrase "Hail Hydra."

Living in the past would mean that Captain America would know that Hydra was slowly eating away at S.H.I.E.L.D., and he'd potentially have the opportunity to do something about it decades before the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He could prevent the countless deaths that resulted as part of Project: Insight, not to mention who knows how many assassinations and other covert actions the Hydra-infected S.H.I.E.L.D. committed over the years.

It would likely not be an easy choice for Steve. Obviously, he'd want to do it. Being in an alternate timeline, he'd know his actions couldn't negatively impact his friends in the original timeline. Presuming Peggy Carter would remain an employee of S.H.I.E.L.D., to not do something would mean knowing every day his wife was working with potentially deadly traitors. But, at the same time, he would have no clue what kind of long-term result his actions would have or what the world would look like. It could be that, despite their evil, Hydra stopped a tyrant or two rising to power who would otherwise be unopposed. 

Considering what we said about Cap and Bucky, it may seem redundant to ask whether or not Cap would save the Starks, but think about it. Even if Cap succeeds in saving Bucky, as long as Hydra exists it will send someone to kill the Starks. Whoever it is might choose a different time, place, and method. But someone's coming for that super-soldier serum regardless.

Here's where Cap may have to seriously start thinking like one of those lecturing sci-fi scientists. As unhealthy as Tony's coping mechanisms may be after the deaths of his parents, would he have become Iron Man without that tragedy? If Howard were still alive in 2008, would it have been Howard who went to Afghanistan instead of Tony? In Iron Man, Tony's hours late getting on the plane for the weapons demonstration, and presumably that means the demonstration runs late too. Is he still late if he isn't the self-obsessed mess he is in the prime MCU timeline? If not, is he still kidnapped? And if not kidnapped, does he become Iron Man? And if there's no Iron Man, do any of the Avengers ever assemble? The questions never stop.

Steve does have one blessing here. If he does choose to save the Starks, it won't take much. Maybe just ask Peggy to say to S.H.I.E.L.D., "Hey maybe we should transport the game-changing super-soldier serum with something other than just an unarmed middle-aged couple?"

You have to assume Steve is not going to be able to be Steve Rogers in this new timeline — at least not in name. He won't have to disguise himself or anything, but there would probably be a lot of people commenting on how much he looks like Steve Rogers and him saying, "You know, I get that a lot."

So without the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D., or the U.S. Army paying his bills, he's going to have to do something with his time. We got a hint about one possibility in Captain America: The First Avenger. After his disastrous USO show in Europe, we see Rogers drawing himself as a monkey. This is an intentional reference to the comic book version of Cap, who has worked as a professional illustrator. This is the only time we see Steve drawing in the theatrical releases of the films, though in a deleted scene on the Avengers home release, he can be seen drawing at a restaurant's outdoor patio. 

Of course, what would be truly perfect is if he ended up drawing for comics. Then — while of course we unfortunately wouldn't get the chance to see it on the screen — we could imagine the late Stan Lee as an editor looking over his work, and maybe telling Steve he shouldn't draw superheroes so much... there's no future in them.

When he first gets out of the ice, Steve Rogers is probably just as surprised by the technology as he is lost by the pop culture references. But it doesn't take him too long for him to adjust. We see Steve using touchscreen tablets as early as Avengers, and soon he's got a smartphone just like everyone else. He may have been from the '40s, but he's spent the past decade in a time where taking out a flip phone can make you look like you churn your own butter.

When Steve goes back in time, the first few months at least will be annoying. The first couple of times he has to make a call on a rotary phone? The first time the phone rings in his house and he has no way to tell who it is? The first time he misses a call and he foolishly asks his friend, "Why didn't you leave a message?" The first time he needs cash and he was to wait until the next morning to physically go inside the bank?

Hopefully his love for Peggy outweighs the frustration he'll feel the first time he misses an episode of his favorite TV show (on his three channels) because he doesn't have a way to automatically record it.