WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Free Guy.
Ryan Reynolds' new movie Free Guy has a major Marvel Cinematic Universe cameo, so we break down Captain America actor Chris Evans' cameo appearance. In Free Guy, the story revolves around a fictional open world shooter game called Free City, which sees players robbing banks and amassing weapons to level up. The game in Free Guy is seemingly inspired by Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto and other similar games, which opened the door for Reynolds and director Shawn Levy to incorporate some fun pop culture references - including to Reynolds' comic book movie franchise, Deadpool.
There are also a ton of cameos in Free Guy. With it being a video game movie, there are appearances from gaming personalities like Jacksepticeye and Pokimane. Additionally, Reynolds roped in some of his Hollywood friends, getting Tina Fey, Hugh Jackman and Dwayne Johnson to appear in Free Guy. While Fey, Jackman and Johnson are limited to voice cameos, Evans has a quick appearance as himself, and it manages to reference not one, but two of his most well-known movie roles.
In the climactic fight between Reynolds' Guy and the big, buff version of Guy called Dude, the hero uses some weapons he's acquired while leveling up in Free City. These weapons include a lightsaber from Star Wars, a Hulk-arm that offers extra strength, and a Captain America shield. Since this fight is being live-streamed to the real world in Free Guy, the movie cuts to Evans watching the battle on his phone. In response to Guy pulling out the Captain America shield, Evans spits out, "What the sh-t!?" before the movie cuts back to the fight.
Evans' cameo in Free Guy is a reference to his time playing Steve Rogers aka Captain America in the MCU, from 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger through to 2019's Avengers: Endgame. The actor carried Steve Rogers' red, white and blue shield for nearly a decade as Captain America and it has become arguably Evans' most iconic role. Of course, as established at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Steve retired as Captain America and passed on the shield to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), who properly became the new Captain America in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Although Sam Wilson - and subsequently Mackie - is now the character in the MCU to carry the Captain America shield, it should be noted that Free Guy was originally meant to release before The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, so Evans would've still been the actor most associated with the Captain America role.
In fact, perhaps Evans' line in Free Guy could be read as how Steve Rogers would've reacted to someone other than Sam Wilson using the shield. That was, of course, the main plot of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Sam donated the Captain America shield only for the U.S. government to give it to someone else. Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) didn't react well to the move, and it's likely Steve wouldn't have been happy either. Though, since Evans didn't appear in the Disney+ show, fans had to speculate about how Steve would've reacted. Perhaps Evans' Free Guy cameo offers a hint.
More likely, Evans' line in Free Guy is a reference to his Knives Out role, particularly the "Eat sh-t" scene, which made a splash online when it appeared in the trailer for Rian Johnson's whodunnit. Captain America is established in the MCU as someone who balks at bad language, based on how he calls out Tony Stark in Avengers: Age of Ultron for "Language." Seeing the actor swear so much in Knives Out was a big departure from his Captain America role, and that's part of what made it so fun. Free Guy pulls off a similarly subversive move but having the actor yell "What the sh-t!" - though it's not totally clear whether this is meant to be a direct reference to Knives Out or if it's a case of Free Guy making the same joke. Altogether, it might be an incredibly quick shot, but Evans' cameo in Free Guy referencing both Captain America in the MCU and, seemingly, Knives Out, makes it an incredibly fun and surprisingly layered moment in the movie.
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