I have a friend who works for one of the biggest comic book sites. They quite often get info from the movie sets. A few months ago he told me that RDJ didn't want to sign a new contract (recently he was signing from movie to movie), Evans wasn't very keen on it either (maybe rare cameos) and Hemsworth didn't know yet. He wants steady income but his other movies aren't really successful. Also, Hiddleston apparently didn't want to come back and Marvel wasn't sure about Thor without Loki. 1/2
My friend doesn’t know if anything changed after Ragnarok’s success but he says that the rumor is that Tom didn’t change his mind. He also said that Sebastian has it in his contract that he will be Captain America. He signed such a long contract because he will be playing two characters (kind of). These are obviously all rumors but their info proved to be correct many times. 2/2
Okay, wow, there’s a lot to unpack here. I feel like I need a drink or at least more coffee.
First things first - and this isn’t personal, so please don’t take it as such - but your friend is 10000000000000000000000000000% full of shit. On pretty much all fronts. (I actually ran your ask by a few good friends of mine who work at Marvel, just in case things are drastically different there than when I used to freelance for them, and they all started laughing so hard I’m pretty sure they ruptured something.)
But, even if I didn’t know anyone at Marvel, I would still call your friend out, because everything they’re telling you ignored basic knowledge of how contracts work, and basic knowledge of how serious NDAs are.
I’ll get the most egregious bit of BS out of the way first - there is no way on God’s green earth at all in ANY universe under the sun that Sebastian Stan’s Marvel contract stipulates him stepping into the Captain America role. None. Zero. Zip. I mean, even forgetting the fact that, when Seb first signed his contract, no one knew who the hell he was (in 2009/2010, he’d been on Kings and Gossip Girl and, like, 3 other things) and was in zero position to negotiate any caveat of that scale, no one at MARVEL had any idea that they were even going to be making movies past the first Avengers film.
I know everyone likes to imagine that there was some grand vision for the first ten years - and sure, Feige and Nate Moore had an idea about how a phase two might look - but you have to remember that SO SO SO much was riding on that first Avengers movie. If it had bombed, we wouldn’t have the MCU the way it exists today. So no, no one knew that there would be a 2nd Captain America movie or that Bucky would even come back, let alone become a fan favorite, let alone possibly taking over as Cap in any form.
Also, the 9 picture deal was pretty standard - they tried to get Evans to sign one, and that’s when he had his massive panic attack and Feige had to send RDJ to go talk to Evans, and that’s when he negotiated the 6-film deal. So, Seb’s contract isn’t this weird, unusual thing.
As far as RDJ, Evans and Hemsworth and their contracts/futures are concerned, here’s the thing - RDJ can pretty much do whatever the fuck he wants at Marvel, and he’s never going to have that freedom or amount of financial control with any other studio, so you bet your ass he’ll be back in some form or another if it makes sense to bring Tony back. Evans will almost certainly take a couple of years off so he can direct another project (something he’s been very vocal about), but if Marvel offered him a sweet enough deal, he’d come back as Steve and gladly so - as he’s stated more than once (and, in fact, he’s already done it for Avengers 4.) Hemsworth has already said he’d happily come back to Thor now that he’s got more to do with the character (shit, he’d probably work for next to nothing just to work with Taika again, lbr), and Hiddleston already knows how lucky he is to have Loki at all to fall back on. Every single one of these actors understands and respects that Marvel has set them up for life and given them opportunities they never would have gotten anywhere else.
Also, the NDAs everyone signs to work on these films and for this studio are no fucking joke. No one’s going to talk to your friend about anything that would get them fired or sued or blackballed from ever working on another Marvel movie or show - and that goes triple for anyone who had a hand in any of the contract negotiations.
I know everyone’s freaking out because everyone’s been saying that Avengers 4 is essentially the end of Phase 3 and what does that mean omg, but just treat any and all rumors like this with an entire container of salt. And try to relax. :)
