Here Is how Marvel Studios transformed Chris Evans to skinny Steve Rogers for Captain America: The First Avenger. Captain America demanded Evans to be in superhero shape and is one of the fittest personalities of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Audiences first saw Evans’ superhero transformation in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger. The origin story for Cap also reveals what Steve looked like before being recovered with super-soldier serum.
For the first action of Captain America: The First Avenger, audiences saw Steve Rogers as a brief and skinny Brooklyn native. According to the Captain America exhibit in the MCU, Steve was 5’4 and weighed 95 pounds. Despite his little frame, Steve still had morals and the heart that would make him the obvious choice to become Captain America. After Dr. Erskine’s super-soldier serum was running through his veins, Steve was suddenly 6’two and 240 pounds of pure muscle and showcased Evans’ physique. But, because of the magic of moviemaking, Evans played with Steve too.
Marvel Studios utilized an elaborate process to flip Evans to skinny Steve, with Lola Visual Effects, the company behind the transformation. The abbreviated version of the job demanded a blend of using Leander Deeny as a body double, shrinking Evans, and grafting Evans’ performance in addition to the human body double. This process required scenes in three ways with Steve. They’d first film the spectacle being done by Evans, then have Deeny mimic Evans and shoot at the stage, and finally, shoot a clean plate shot that is only without actors and of their background.
Once all the variations of each scene were completed, it was up to Lola Visual Effects to bring them together. They would start with scaling Evans down to fit Deeny’s size so that they matched the plate shots used to substitute exactly what Evans’ larger body previously coated. This version of Evans had his natural build, so another step placed Evans’ face at the top of Deeny’s framework. That might sound easy, but Lola had to do tinker with the process because of Evans’s facial arrangement and throat being lighter than Denny’s.
The final result of the procedure to create Steve speaks for itself, as the CGI work still holds up several years. Marvel Studios went back to the technique for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This time Christopher George Sarris provided the frame instead of Deeny, although Evans and Steve temporarily played at a flashback scene. This proved to be the last time skinny Steve was shown at the MCU, even though Evans went through another transformation to become old Steve at the end of Avengers: Endgame.
