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Captain America is much older than he looks in the MCU – we did the maths

Photo credit: Marvel Studios
Photo credit: Marvel Studios

From Digital Spy

Brace yourselves Marvel fans, because Steve Rogers is MUCH older in the finale of Endgame than you realised – by at least a decade.

Before we demonstrate our sums, we'll hit you with the stats – Steve Rogers is 109 years old when he sits down on that bench. Yeah, we know.

And no, we haven't included the years he was frozen in ice, because we're not Loki. We don't trick you like that.

If you were to count the 66 years Rogers spent as a patriotic popsicle, he’d actually be 175 years old, which is insane. We don't want to calculate the cost of all the birthday presents Bucky owes his best pal, but we're pretty sure they'll bankrupt him.

Photo credit: Marvel Studios
Photo credit: Marvel Studios

So, how did we get to this result? We'll put down our shields and pick up our calculators to show you.

Steve is born in 1918 – so far, so good. The young soldier is given the super serum in 1941, aged 23. That's when the timey-wimey trouble starts.

Captain America: The First Avenger covers several years and ends in 1945, making Steve 27. At the end of that film, he crashes into frozen water and is perfectly preserved.

Photo credit: Marvel Studios
Photo credit: Marvel Studios

He's able to survive as a side effect of the serum – he doesn't die, his metabolism just slows down. This isn't a Jon Snow situation, more a Steve Ice scenario.

Rogers is released from his icy prison 66 years later in 2011, in Avengers: Assemble. That technically makes him 93, but we'll allow him to stay 27. He's had a tough ride, the kid deserves it.

Photo credit: Marvel Studios
Photo credit: Marvel Studios

Infinity War takes place in 2018, which makes Steve either 34 or 100 years old. Let's say the opening of Endgame happens before his next birthday. That would still make him either 39 (or 105) after the film makes its five-year time jump.

At the end of Endgame, Steve travels back in time to be with his true love Peggy Carter, and have that dance he missed out on. Most people estimate he went back to 1947, as that's the earliest point he would have been able to return to.

Photo credit: Marvel Studios
Photo credit: Marvel Studios

We will play it super safe and say he went back to 1953, as that's the first canon year that we know Carter was married (from a flashback interview in The Winter Soldier). It would approximately match up with how old he would have been in that year – his body is 39 but his birth certificate says 1918.

That means there are 70 years between Cap going back to hook up with Carter and the moment he sat down on that bench to hand over his shield to Sam. By our calculations – even giving Steve a few years leeway here and there – he's still 109 in that scene, while also technically being 175.

The reason Steve is able to survive for this long is down to science – the super serum given to him by Abraham Erskine not only enhances his strength, it contains a healing factor so strong we're surprised Steve's aged at all by the time Endgame's ending rolls around.

Photo credit: Paramount
Photo credit: Paramount

The super serum enhances the body's metabolic, cellular and chemical processes, enhancing Steve's ability to recover, as well as building up greater resistance to fatigue and exhaustion. It also allows the super soldier to fully recover from any injury without drugs, medicines or other medical treatments.

The serum affects the levels of Steve's dopamine, testosterone, adrenaline and various other endorphins and hormones, enhancing the chemical's effects to amplify Steve's physical and mental performance.

For all we know, Steve's going to live for another 109 years after the events of Endgame. Now there's a Disney+ spin-off series we'd like to see.


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