It has been 13 years since the inception of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Iron Man releasing on May 2, 2008. In this time, Marvel Studios has produced and released 23 films. Several pieces of fan art were shared on social media to mark the anniversary of one of the most popular brands in pop culture, but one created by a London-based artist got noticed and received a shout-out from Captain America himself.
On his official Twitter account, Chris Evans, who played Captain America until 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, appreciated the artwork posted by Royalston Design. It consists of a series of retro VHS covers for the various MCU movies that have been released over the past decade. “As someone who grew up with a lot of VHS tapes, this is pretty cool,” Evans’ tweet reads.
The artwork was first shared by George Grey, the artist and graphic designer behind Royalston Design, in 2019. As a Marvel fan, it was his way of honoring the MCU while being inspired by the VHS covers from the '80s. He uses a lot of different colors and abstract designs to portray each of the MCU films beautifully. While the film posters have each got a minimalist design, the artist confessed that the project was a lot more challenging than it looks. Back in 2019, he tweeted his experience of having to “think outside the box” for each VHS sleeve.
To mark the anniversary of the MCU and the release of Iron Man, the artist posted the artwork again, after seeing other artists sharing their work to commemorate the occasion. However, he didn’t expect it to get such a big reaction. After Evans’ tweet, the Royalston Design account started getting a lot of attention from the actor’s fans. The artist was “blown away” by the response and grateful to Evans for sharing his work. The Marvel fan even joked about sending the Captain America star an actual VHS sleeve.
The VHS covers have since been shared multiple times on social media and have even started a nostalgic conversation on Reddit. While some fans reminisced over VHS covers, others talk about the art itself and how it represents the MCU.
The covers that seemed to get the most attention were the ones for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, with an obvious connection between the two. Fans loved the continuity between the two posters, with the Avengers: Infinity War poster representing the Blip, when half the world’s population disappeared due to the machinations of Thanos, whereas the Avengers: Endgame poster brings them all back.
Captain America is now available on Disney Plus.
Source: Chris Evans/Twitter