Chris Evans Would Love To Return To The MCU ... As The Human Torch

Chris Evans is on fire to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe ... as the Human Torch, maybe? Years before he went from scrawny to brawny as Steve Rogers — the pencil-necked, 98-pound weakling-turned-super soldier — in "Captain America: The First Avenger," Evans played the wisecracking Johnny Storm in another, less well-regarded Marvel superhero duology. Directed by Tim Story, Fox's first "Fantastic Four" movie and its sequel, "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," hit theaters in 2005 and 2007, respectively. In these films, you could see Evans catch fire while snowboarding and hear him shout the Human Torch's catchphrase, "Flame on!" while flying.

He's eager to do it again, or at least more eager than he would be to reprise his beloved role as Cap in the MCU. Evans' latest film, the animated Pixar effort "Lightyear," sees him voicing the human astronaut who served as the inspiration for the Buzz Lightyear action figure in the "Toy Story" films. While promoting "Lightyear" on MTV News, Evans discussed the possibility of him giving the Human Torch another go-round, saying, "God, wouldn't that be great?" He continued:

"No one's ever come to me about that. I mean, I don't exactly look the same anymore. That was 15, almost 20 years ago. Oh my God, I'm old. But I really love that character, but I think ... aren't they doing something now with Fantastic Four?"

Marvel is indeed doing something with Fantastic Four. True to its title, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" has already opened up the mighty Marvel multiverse to FF characters, with John Krasinski playing a version of Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, the stretchy team leader embodied by Ioan Gruffudd in Story's two "Fantastic Four" films.

"Multiverse of Madness" also brought one Marvel movie character from the Fox era, Patrick Stewart's Professor X, into the MCU. It was Stewart's casting as Professor X after playing another pop culture icon — Captain Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" — that inspired Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige to cast Evans as Captain America, despite Evans having recently played the Human Torch.

The multiverse would theoretically enable Evans to return as Human Torch as a one-off or cameo. While Marvel is probably looking to cast another actor as Human Torch in its upcoming "Fantastic Four" reboot, it's always possible Evans and/or Michael B. Jordan (who played the Torch in Fox's 2015 "FF" reboot) could come back similarly to how Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield did in "Spider-Man: No Way Home." Evans said:

"I guess that's true. I mean, I guess all bets are off. Yeah. Look, I would love it. I would love it. That would actually be an easier sell to me than coming back as Cap. You know what I mean? Cap is so precious to me. And you know, I almost don't wanna disrupt what a beautiful experience that was. But Johnny Storm, I feel like he didn't really get his day. That was before Marvel really found its footing. So I loved that role and, you know, who knows?"

Although it might seem weird to have the same face pull double duty as two different characters in the same shared universe, Alfre Woodard already sorta kinda did it — in the same year, no less — when she played Miriam Sharpe in "Captain America: Civil War" and Black Mariah on Netflix's "Luke Cage." Watch the skies, then: Maybe someday you'll see Evans fly in again as Human Torch.