Super pets! While many of the Marvel Cinematic Universe stars are supported by super-powered sidekicks onscreen, it’s all about their four-legged companions when the cameras stop rolling.
Chris Evans, who’s best known for his role as Captain America across the franchise, frequently gushes about his bond with his dog, Dodger.
“It’s a far more embarrassing story that I now get to explain every time someone asks,” the Massachusetts native revealed about how he named the canine during an October 2020 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! “There’s a movie called Oliver & Company, it’s a Disney movie, an animated movie, that I grew up watching. Billy Joel is the voice of Dodger and when I first saw him in the shelter, I said, ‘He looks like Dodger from Oliver & Company. And after I decided I was taking him home with me, I went through the process of thinking of other names, and I just couldn’t get off Dodger. So, I said, ‘Well, I am not going to overthink this one.’”
Evans, who initially met his pup while filming 2017’s Gifted, didn’t waste much time before tattooing Dodger’s name on his chest — ink he’ll “never” regret. He told Jimmy Kimmel at the time, “That’s probably the purest relationship I have!”
The Knives Out actor is not the only MCU star to embrace pet parenthood. Tom Holland — who plays Spider-Man in the web-slinging films — adopted his Staffordshire bull terrier, Tessa, in 2014.
“I was shooting this film called The Current War with Benedict Cumberbatch, which was a very serious movie about the invention of the light bulb. We were shooting this sequence that was supposed to be in a field, but we shot it in a sound stage and Benedict was supposed to be giving this massive speech to about 100 extras,” Holland recalled bringing his pet to set during a February 2022 interview on BBC’s The One Show. “Tessa is so well-behaved, I can have her on set, she doesn’t bark, she doesn’t make a noise. But, she must have had some hay intolerance … and she was just sneezing and sneezing.”
He continued: “You could see Benedict trying to stay in character and then, eventually, he was like ‘Can somebody take that dog out, please?’”
The Uncharted star, who noted that Tessa was fine after sneezing, then told his costar: “I’m so sorry Benny, that’s my dog.”
Hayley Atwell, who played Peggy Carter in the Captain America movies, has several pets in her own brood.
“There are quite a few doglets in my family,” the Christopher Robin actress wrote via Instagram in August 2020. “We have Howard, Simon, Thandi, Margot, Bruno, Frank, Benny, Isla, PJ and these two clowns throwing themselves in puddles are Iris and Wolfie, rescue Frenchies. WOOF.”
Sign up for Us Weekly's free, daily newsletter and never miss breaking news or exclusive stories about your favorite celebrities, TV shows and more!
Meet the sweet pets of the MCU stars:
