Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) has been through the wringer over the course of his tenure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After dropping his title of Captain America at the end of Captain America: Civil War, this decision has led many to assume that he would adopt the mantle of Nomad in Avengers: Infinity War -- an assumption helped by Chris Evans' Nomad tease. However, Infinity War director Joe Russo recently addressed the Nomad question and explained that the movie's version of Rogers would be Nomad-esque, but not the actual Nomad, saying:
Our approach to [Steve Rogers] was to deconstruct him, to take him in a different direction. Obviously, you can't deal with a character called Captain America without dealing with the thematics behind that, so we wanted a relevancy to it and we wanted to put him in a position where he was questioning the chain of command. You'll see in these Avengers films, he's on a very specific journey as a character. Some people have suspected that he may be Nomad heading into Avengers 3 and I wouldn't say that he is exactly Nomad, but he is the spirit of that character.
So it seems that both versions of the story have some merit. We won't see a true 1:1 adaptation of Nomad in Avengers: Infinity War, but we will see a version of Steve Rogers that very much honors the "spirit" of who Nomad is and what he represents to Rogers' arc. He might not be called "Nomad" or change up his appearance too much, but he will still embody the ideas that Nomad represented when he first appeared in Marvel Comics back in the 1970s.
Narratively speaking, this seems like the next logical step for a guy like Captain America. Beginning with his first appearance in Captain America: The First Avenger, every canonical appearance of the live-action Cap has involved stripping away some element of his optimistic and gung-ho patriotism through the events of The Avengers, then Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and most recently Captain America: Civil War. Given his decision to give up the shield at the end of Civil War, for him to take on a role reminiscent of Nomad makes sense.
That said, the fact that he's not genuinely Nomad seems to suggest that we won't get that glorious costume with the oddly-exposed chest.
One particularly interesting aspect of these remarks made during Joe Russo's appearance on Fantasy Focus Football is the emphasis on the decision to "deconstruct" Captain America. This deconstruction is something that Marvel has shown increasing willingness to do with its Phase 1 heroes in recent years, such as the decision to take away the Iron Man suits for the bulk of Iron Man 3, and the more recent decision to destroy Mjolnir in Thor: Ragnarok. With this silver screen version of Nomad-lite, we have an iteration of Steve Rogers that has pretty much eschewed the stars and stripes, which offers Avengers: Infinity War a chance to examine what he means without the symbolism of patriotism backing him up.
Chris Evans' Steve Rogers will make his next appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe when Avengers: Infinity War premieres in theaters later this year on May 4.
