The upcoming Lord of the Rings movies would be great with Chris Evans, and Sean Astin gives him his blessing

Popverse's top stories of the day

• James Tynion IV teases what's next for Something is Killing the Children at C2E2
• Watch: Funko invites fans to fly the friendly skies at C2E2's "completely immersive" Funko Airways
• Watch: Artist's Alley Asks: Gene Ha, Cully Hamner, Jarrett Melendez, Rachael Stott, Soo Lee, and Tim Seeley share their Chicago tips while at C2E2

Just imagine - you're a fantasy fan, you become an actor, and then the cast of Lord of the Rings say that they could see you in the franchise. Such was the case for Marvel's own Chris Evans at this year's Emerald City Comic Con, as Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, and John Rhys Davies gave him their blessing to be in future movies.

This incredible event in nerd history took place at the Walking to Mordor with the Cast of Lord of the Rings panel, hosted by Popverse's own Tolkien expert Ashley Victoria Robinson. At the end of the panel, Ashley referrenced the panel that had taken place just before theirs, a spotlight on Chris Evans in which the Steve Rogers actor revealed that he'd like to do a fantasy film like Lord of the Rings.

"Would you welcome Captain America into the Lord of the Rings family?" she asks.

"I am the gatekeeper by the way," jokes Sean Astin, "so I bless the concept."

"I love Chris Evans," says Elijah Wood, "I love all the choices that he makes as an actor and beyond all the Marvel stuff, but yeah. And listen, apparently there's going to be more stories told in Middle Earth, so Warner Bros. has deemed. What those will be, we have no idea, but there are plans to make more movies."

This isn't new news to fans - Deadline reported on the plan to make more films based on Toklien's legendarium a year ago - but Wood bringing up the films does make us wonder if he (or anyone from the prvious films) will be returning to that legendarium.

Wood was less than forthcoming.

"I don't know if there's an opportunity for that," he said, at which point Astin took the opportunity to go back to the subject of Captain America.

"You look at his success," said the Samwise Gamgee actor of Evans, "and how the industry sees him, and yet he's got the wonder - he's protected the kind of childlike imagination and wonder that he experienced when he watched these movies. When he was probably pretty young, right? He has that aspiration to do something that has [Lord of the Rings's] kind of literary heft and stuff. So you know, good for him."

Good for him indeed, but maybe even better for the fans.

Chris Evans is one of cinema's leading actors, and if you've made it this far you're a fan as well. So with that in mind, here's his thoughts on returning to the MCU, a ranking of his top roles (and how you can vote!), why Winter Soldier is his favorite Marvel movie, his ambitions to be in a fantasy movie, and how to watch all of his Captain America run.