MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Captain America did not eat any shawarma in the famous post-credits sequence in "Avengers" because Chris Evans was wearing a prosthetic jaw.

In one of the funniest post-credits scenes in a Marvel film, the post-credit scene in "The Avengers" shows the Avengers celebrating their successful defense of New York City (and thereby, the world itself) from an alien invasion from the Chitauri by eating some shawarma after Iron Man suggested that they do so earlier in the film after he seemingly sacrificed himself to shut down the gateway that the Chitauri were using.

However, when Tony first reveals that he is alive, they did a number of takes where Robert Downey Jr. went through a number of different jokes. They ultimately went with the shawarma one and that reminded Joss Whedon of a moment after the filming of the death of Fred on "Angel" where he, Amy Acker (Fred) and Alexis Denisoff (Wesley, Fred's boyfriend) went out to dinner to decompress after filming such an emotional sequence. Since they didn't pick that joke, though, until filming was completed, for the post-credits scene to work, Whedon would have to re-assemble the actors to do the scene.

The problem, of course, was that they had all since gone off to do other things, with Chris Evans specifically filming a movie called "Snowpiercer" where he grew a beard for the role...

Obviously, that was an issue since Captain America did not have a beard and it did not make sense for him to suddenly grow one in the couple of hours that the battle took. Similarly, it did not make sense for Evans to shave his beard for the movie he was doing right then.

Therefore, the solution was that they would build a special prosthetic jaw that Evans would wear that would cover his beard and make it look like he was just the same ol' Captain America from earlier in the movie. Naturally, though, while an excellent prosthetic, it wasn't so good that it wouldn't be sort of visible if he ate with it on, so not only does Cap not eat, but Evans has his jaw in his hands, covering up the prosthetic for the scene.

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Entertainment Weekly was there for the filming of the scene, and they had some great bits where Downey Jr. would mock Evans for the prosthetic:

“Where is Chris Evans? Getting his face replaced?” Downey asks.

Evans hasn’t arrived yet, but that doesn’t hold back Downey. “Chris, why the long face? Chris, why the WRONG face?” Downey says as the other guys laugh.

Ruffalo shakes his head, his lips pursed. “Oh no …”

“I felt so bad for him!” Hemsworth says, wincing. He makes a swallowed sound, like someone trying to speak through glued-shut lips.

Downey twists his face into an Elephant Man snarl. “Hey guys, I am not an animal,” he mutters.

All in all, though, the scene ended up looking great. I know I certainly didn't realize that he was wearing a prosthetic and wasn't eating.

The legend is...

STATUS: True.

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