First look: Chris Evans as Captain America — UPDATED

This week’s EW debuts Chris Evans in actual Cap clothing, which turns out to be similar to the outfits that were leaked a while ago. The online excerpt includes Evans discussing his fear of the role, and director Joe Johnston going firmly back into ROCKETEER territory:

“The interesting thing about this character is that he’s an everyman who in the course of a few minutes become a perfect human specimen. That has to create some interesting personal issues,” says Johnston. “I saw it as an opportunity to make a superhero movie that felt real, that didn’t have to rely on an overabundance of fantasy elements.

The issue goes on sale tomorrow.

UPDATE: Via PR from EW, here’s more of Evans’ take on the role:

Yet Evans says he turned down the role at least three times. He worried that audiences wouldn’t accept him as another superhero. He worried that Marvel’s request for a nine-movie commitment—a Captain America trilogy, an Avengers trilogy, and appearances in three more Marvel movies to be named later—would leave little time for other things, He worried about what would happen to his career if the movie flopped. “I’ve made some spotty films in the past, and I didn’t want another one on this scale,” says Evans, who most recently appeared in two franchise nonstarters, The Losers and Push. At the same time, he worried about the cost of fame if the film succeeded. (“I remember telling a buddy of mine, ‘If the movie bombs, I’m f—ed. If the movie hits, I’m f—ed!’ ”) Even after he succumbed to Feige’s repeated pleas to take a meeting at Marvel HQ—and even after leaving that meeting intrigued and moved by Captain America’s character arc and dazzled by Johnston’s plans and designs— Evans was wary, but he really didn’t know why. And then it hit him. “I was just scared,” he says. “I realized my whole decision-making process was fear-based, and you never want to make a decision out of fear. And so one weekend, I just said, ‘F—it. Let’s do it.’ ” (It helped that Marvel agreed to settle on a six-picture deal.) Feige says he was actually impressed by Evans’ reluctance; he believed it reflected a maturity befitting Steve Rogers. Adds Johnston, “He has really brought a whole different level to the character that I didn’t know existed—more real, more complicated, more vulnerable.”

Evans began prepping for the role by doing what anyone would do in his situation: He went online and read what the fans thought of his casting. The takeaway: He needed bigger muscles. So he worked with a personal trainer to pump his biceps and tone his abs, all of which are on full display during the Project: Rebirth sequence. (In order to show Steve Rogers as a scrawny runt, Johnston plans to use a combination of clever camera angles, costume trickery, and special effects that will digitally reduce Evans’ body or even put his face on a skinny actor.)