Captain America Deepfake Adds John Krasinski To The MCU

While Captain America was played in live-action a few times before 2011, it was Chris Evans’ portrayal of Steve Rogers that propelled the character to new heights of popularity. Evans’ tenure as the Star Spangled Man with the Plan lasted nearly a decade, but before the man who previously brought The Human Torch to life scored his second superhero movie role, one of the other actors in contention to play Captain America was The Office’s John Krasinski.

So how would John Krasinski playing Captain America have looked? Well, we can’t travel to a parallel universe to see Krasinski legitimately in the role, but a new deepfake video provides an alternative by slapping the actor’s face over Chris Evans’, as you’ll see below.

Using footage from Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers and Captain America: Civil War, this deepfake video from YouTuber Shamook compares how these scenes originally unfolded with Chris Evans on one side, and gives us a John Krasinski-portrayed Captain America on the other side. Yes, it’s still Evans’ voice we’re hearing, but this is still a solid step towards envisioning a cool ‘What if?’ scenario for the MCU… not that this will be expanded upon in an episode of the upcoming same-named animated Disney+ series, to be clear.

Earlier this year, John Krasinski indicated that losing the Captain America role still stung, but back in 2016, he recalled how during a costume audition for Captain America: The First Avenger, he noticed Chris Hemsworth walking by in costume as Thor. That’s when Krasinski realized that he wasn’t cut out to play Captain America, and given how well-received Chris Evans’ take on the character, one could certainly say that things worked out for the best.

Fortunately for John Krasinski, he’s been able to establish some action-related cred from the Amazon Prime Video series Jack Ryan, which is coming back for a third season. Besides, just because Krasinski didn’t end up playing Captain America doesn’t mean he’ll never get to join the MCU in a different capacity.

In recent years, a lot of fans have gravitated to the idea of John Krasinski playing Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic, as thanks to Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, the Fantastic Four can finally included in the MCU. Going even further, Krasinski’s wife, Emily Blunt, also has some history with the MCU, as she was previously lined up to play Black Widow in Iron Man 2 and Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger, but turned down both opportunities. Just imagine her playing Sue Storm, a.k.a. Invisible Woman, opposite Krasinski’s Richards.

For what it’s worth, John Krasinski has expressed interest in playing Mr. Fantastic, but as of March, he hadn’t had any official talks with Marvel Studios about the role. Frankly, the MCU’s plans for the Fantastic Four are shrouded in secrecy, including when and where they’ll first pop up. For now, if you want to imagine Krasinski in the MCU, you’ll have to suffice with the above deepfake video of him as Captain America.

Needless to say that we here at CinemaBlend will let you know if John Krasinski does officially board the MCU, be it as Mr. Fantastic or a different character. In the meantime, look through our Marvel movies guide to learn what this superhero franchise has coming down the creative pipeline.