Captain America’s MCU story is one of the greats, partly because the First Avenger doesn’t have what you’d call a traditional lifespan. Early in life, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) gets a dose of super soldier serum that puts muscle behind his commitment to “do this all day.” The result is decades of a life spent defending the defenseless, until at the end of “Avengers: Endgame,” he finally passes his shield to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). If you’re wondering how old he is at that point — when we see him aged, happy, and wrinkled — he’s 180 years old.
Of course, the immediate follow-up question is: how the heck did we come up with that figure? The answer, as you might suspect with this guy, is very complicated. It involved natural cryogenics, universe-saving time-travel, and superhuman longevity. Before we get too lost in the weeds, though, let’s start at the beginning.
Steve Rogers was born on July 4, 1918. We see this on his enlistment forms, which means he’s in his mid-twenties when he’s formally accepted into the U.S. military. At that point, he’s just a normal kid, with a host of medical issues, destined to live a normal life — if he can survive the war. Then he gets the serum, becomes a national treasure, and takes on Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) in a duel that appears to involve sacrificing his life.
Here’s the full Steve Rogers timeline
Steve Rogers is around 26 years old when he crash-lands in the Atlantic at the end of his first solo movie. His body effectively “goes on ice” for another 66 years, until he awakens in 2011. He joins the Avengers shortly afterward and spends the next seven years building up to the big showdown with Thanos (which happens to coincide with his 100th birthday). That drags on for another half-decade, which means Cap is 105 years old when he travels back in time and finally gets that dance with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell).
But his story isn’t done at that point. It also gets a tad confusing, since we don’t know when he landed back in time. Our only clue comes from the show “Agent Carter,” which follows Peggy’s adventures after “Captain America: The First Avenger.” It spans 1946 to 1947, with Cap missing during that entire time, so we know Steve doesn’t go straight back to 1945 for his dance. One explanation suggests 1948 as a reasonable year for Cap to show up again from the future.
Despite already being technically over a century old, he’s really only aged 12 years from his first movie (in non-frozen time). For Peggy, the timeline is even shorter: in 1948, it’s been a short three years since he went into the ice. This is where the super-soldier serum effect clearly kicks in, as Cap goes on living for another 75 years before we see him again in 2023. His age at that point? A ripe 180 years old.
Figuring out Cap’s lifespan requires some nuance
While old Cap is around 180 years old at the close of “Endgame,” that number is a bit misleading. If we can assume that he didn’t really age when he was “on ice,” we need to subtract 66 years from his official “age.” This puts him, via natural aging, at 114 years old during “Endgame,” and he still certainly looks spry for that age.
The other factor to consider is: when is Steve going to die? Is he already dead in the current timeline? He’s clearly aged despite the serum, and it does seem possible that Cap has already shuffled off this mortal coil. By the time he hangs up the shield, it’s been several years since Peggy Carter passed away in 2016 (in “Captain America: Civil War”). Perhaps Steve let go of his unnaturally long life (like Aragorn in “The Lord of the Rings”) after losing his love and passing on his superhero identity. If that’s the case, we can’t calculate a total lifespan until we get some kind of clarity on his death date.
There is no official declaration of Steve Rogers’ death as of this writing, so there’s a chance he’ll pop up at some future date — or at the least, we’ll get closure of some kind in “Avengers: Doomsday” or another upcoming movie. If he’s still kicking around somewhere, that would mean he’s a robust 186 years old by the events of “Captain America: Brave New World” — or 120 via normal aging in non-frozen years. Either way, it’s yet another impressive accomplishment on the First Avenger’s resplendent resume.
