In the memorable shawarma scene in The Avengers, many of the heroes are eating something except for Captain America – and the reason is actually quite simple. The Avengers’ mid-credits scene sees the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes gather together following their difficult battle with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and the Chituari army for a quiet meal – and they did so because Iron Man, like all the other heroes, was starving after saving the world.
After crashing back to Earth following his near-death experience hauling a nuclear bomb to the Chitauri’s ship, Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), asked his fellow Avengers if they can try shawarma as their post-mission meal. The team eventually went with Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hulk-turned-Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Iron Man, and Captain America sat down silently as they finished their meals while the joint’s employees casually cleaned up behind them. Interestingly, however, everyone had a bite of their respective shawarmas, but not Captain America.
Apparently, the decision to not have Rogers eat during The Avengers mid-credit scene wasn’t a creative choice. As fans know, the mid-credits scene was a last-minute addition to the movie. The cast shotgun-filmed it while they were already in the middle of the movie’s press tour. Fortunately, there was a shawarma place about three blocks away from the team’s hotel which allowed them to shoot the scene. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige got everything all set-up, but the main problem was Evans was sporting this bushy facial hair as he was also filming Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer. So they had to figure out a way to cover it up. Because of that, Evans couldn’t physically eat anything.
The Marvel Studios team had to be crafty to hide Evans’ beard and mustache because they simply couldn’t get rid of it given his commitment to another film. With time winding down, they used prosthetics to hide the actor’s facial hair. However, considering how thick Evans had to grow it, the prosthetic could only do so much to cover it up. He had to be artful to be able to fully hide it, hence, he was leaning in with his hand slightly covering his mouth area. The prosthetic was also the reason why he wasn’t eating in the scene like his co-stars because he couldn’t move his mouth.
In the end, everything worked well for The Avengers‘ last-minute shawarma mid-credit scene. It’s one of the best stingers that Marvel Studios has come up with thus far. It’s also among the most memorable ones because it was so mundane and human. Seeing all these heroes quietly sit down for a post-battle meal is something we don’t often see in superhero movies. As for Evans, it’s barely noticeable what he had to work with while filming the aforementioned scene, primarily because he made it look like he was simply exhausted that he had to hold his head up. And considering what they had to go through to defeat Loki and his never-ending supply of alien soldiers, it makes sense.