Ever since Captain America: The First Avenger, writers Christopher Marcus & Stephen McFeely were setting up the happy retired life of Steve Rogers. Because Steve Rogers ended up in the future, we never really thought that he’d get to live the life that was taken away from him after his big sacrifice. But apparently, that was always the Endgame for Cap. Time travel gave him the opportunity to finally retire on his own terms.
When Steve Rogers went back in time, he was practically 39 years old (not counting the years he was under ice). Avengers: Endgame’s script revealed that when old man Steve Rogers met Sam Wilson, he was 112 years old. So apparently, Steve Rogers lived his retired life for 73 years. Now our question is that what exactly did he do for 73 whole years?
Avengers: Endgame writers have stated that Captain America did not create a new timeline by going back to the past, but the directors have said it time and time again that Cap’s life with Peggy happened in a separate new timeline. According to Endgame’s time travel rules, what the directors have stated seems right and logical. Captain America created a new timeline, and whatever he did in this new timeline would not have affected the MCU’s main timeline.
Maybe he had decided that his fighting days were over, so he stayed in hiding and lived a peaceful life while Peggy ran S.H.I.E.L.D.. Or since it is a new timeline, he might have changed it entirely by righting all the wrongs during the time his younger self was stuck in ice. He may have saved Bucky from Hydra, exposed Hydra’s presence in S.H.I.E.L.D., prevented President Kennedy’s assassination and the list could go on. An entire movie could be made upon what would have happened after Captain America took the Infinity Stones and went back in time. But we don’t want to discuss that. We want to discuss the events of Captain America’s retired life, and that’s why we’d jump to what the writers believe about Captain America’s time travel.
As mentioned above, the writers believe that Captain America did not create a new timeline. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 7 gave an even deeper explanation of how time travel works in the MCU. It stuck to Endgame’s rules and yet was able to find out an explanation to why Steve did not create a new timeline. Check out our explanation here to see how the writers were proven right.
In this explanation, we stated that Captain America would have had to remain in hiding while he lived his life with Peggy. That means, he couldn’t have made any changes in the events in order to prevent causing a massive butterfly effect that in turn would create a new timeline. So for 73 long years, Captain America was truly retired and did not fight. But what did he do throughout these 73 years? I mean, a man needs a purpose in life, and 73 years is a very long time for a man to just stay at home, be purposeless and do nothing.
Our theory is that during these years, Steve Rogers became a professional sketch artist for a long while. We’re not saying that he just danced with Peggy and made sketches for 73 whole years. But, sketching is what might have become his profession. In Captain America: The First Avenger, we saw Steve sketching a circus monkey. Then in a deleted scene of The Avengers, Steve also drew a sketch of the Stark Tower while sitting at a dine out near the tower. Looking at how good these two sketches, and how skillful Steve was at sketching, it seems that he would have picked this up as a profession, or at least as a long term hobby. Because he couldn’t risk making any major changes to the timeline, he would have passed 73 years doing things like sketching, which would be insignificant in causing any major changes to the universe.
What do you think of this theory? Tell us in the comments down below.
