Most people think Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans met because of Marvel. They were already old friends by the time Nick Fury started assembling the Avengers.

Long before they became Black Widow and Captain America, before the costumes, shields and billion-dollar premieres, Johansson and Evans were two young actors working together on a teenage comedy in Vancouver.

That first movie began a screen partnership that would eventually stretch across eight films — and create a friendship Hollywood has repeatedly tried to put back on camera.

It Started With The Perfect Score

Johansson and Evans first met in 2002 while filming The Perfect Score, which reached theaters in 2004. Johansson was only 17.

The comedy followed a group of high school students plotting to steal answers to the SAT. Their characters were part of the same ensemble, but Johansson and Evans were not yet being presented as a major screen pairing.

What mattered more happened away from the story.

Johansson later recalled spending months in Vancouver with the young cast, living around the same hotel, working and socializing together. She described the experience as the closest thing she had to a traditional college experience. Evans has also remembered meeting Johansson during that production, years before either of them knew how often their careers would intersect.

Three years after The Perfect Score reached theaters, they were together again.

The Nanny Diaries Turned Them Into a Romantic Pairing

In 2007’s The Nanny Diaries, Johansson played Annie Braddock, a recent college graduate who becomes a nanny for a wealthy Manhattan family.

Evans played the man the movie simply calls “Harvard Hottie.”

This time, their characters were romantic interests.

For viewers who later knew Evans as Steve Rogers and Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, seeing them in a romantic comedy-drama can feel almost like discovering an alternate universe. But by then, working together already felt familiar to the actors.

Johansson has said that she and Evans laugh easily together and developed a friendship based partly on finding the same things funny. That comfort would become much more valuable several years later, when both actors independently entered Marvel’s rapidly expanding universe.

Then Marvel Changed Everything

Johansson arrived first, debuting as Natasha Romanoff in Iron Man 2 in 2010.

Evans followed as Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011 after famously having serious reservations about accepting the massive commitment that came with the role.

By 2012, the old friends were together again in The Avengers.

But despite being members of the same superhero team, the movie did not spend much time exploring Steve and Natasha as a duo. There were simply too many characters and too much universe-building to accomplish.

That changed dramatically with Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 2014.

The Winter Soldier Finally Used Their Real-Life Chemistry

Stripped of much of the spectacle surrounding the Avengers, The Winter Soldier placed Steve and Natasha together for long stretches of a conspiracy thriller.

Their differences became the heart of the pairing.

Steve was earnest, direct and still adjusting to the moral compromises of the modern world. Natasha was a spy whose survival depended on secrets, manipulation and knowing when not to trust people.

Yet the movie deliberately resisted turning their closeness into a conventional romance.

Johansson described Steve and Natasha as developing an unexpected friendship, while Evans said that his long history with Johansson created a natural ease between them that translated onto the screen. Johansson also noted that The Avengers had never really given them the opportunity to use that history.

The result was one of the MCU’s most understated relationships.

They teased each other. Natasha tried to arrange dates for Steve. They shared personal conversations between fights. Even their kiss inside a shopping mall was not a romantic breakthrough — it was camouflage while hiding from the people hunting them.

Johansson said at the film’s premiere that knowing Evans for roughly a decade had directly benefited their work together.

From Age of Ultron to Endgame

Their partnership continued through Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015, although that film moved Natasha toward a romantic storyline with Bruce Banner.

Then came Captain America: Civil War in 2016.

Natasha initially stood opposite Steve politically over the Sokovia Accords, but when the confrontation reached its breaking point, she ultimately allowed Steve and Bucky Barnes to escape — another sign that their relationship could survive even when they disagreed.

By Avengers: Infinity War in 2018, Steve and Natasha had effectively become underground partners.

Johansson explained that she imagined the two had remained together between Civil War and Infinity War, operating outside official structures while continuing their work. She described them as having developed an almost effortless way of communicating.

Then Avengers: Endgame arrived in 2019.

Natasha sacrificed herself on Vormir so the surviving Avengers could obtain the Soul Stone. Steve survived the final battle, returned the Infinity Stones and ultimately chose a life away from the fight.

For Johansson and Evans, it appeared to close a remarkable run: six Marvel films together, added to the two movies they had made before either actor wore a superhero costume.

But Hollywood was not finished trying to reunite them.

Apple Tried Once With Ghosted

In August 2021, news broke that Johansson and Evans were set to star together in Apple’s romantic action-adventure Ghosted.

It looked like the reunion fans had been waiting for: the pair would finally share a non-Marvel movie again, with Rocketman filmmaker Dexter Fletcher directing.

It did not last.

By December, Johansson had exited because of a scheduling conflict. Her departure was reported as amicable, and Ana de Armas stepped into the role opposite Evans.

Ghosted eventually arrived in 2023 — without Johansson.

Then Apple tried again.

Project Artemis Almost Did It

In March 2022, Johansson and Evans were announced for another Apple film, then known as Project Artemis, a story set against the backdrop of America’s space race.

This one seemed especially promising. Johansson was not merely starring; she was producing through her company, These Pictures. Jason Bateman was originally attached to direct.

But the project changed.

Bateman departed, Greg Berlanti took over as director, and production schedules shifted. Evans eventually had to leave because of conflicts with other projects. Channing Tatum replaced him opposite Johansson.

The movie was eventually retitled Fly Me to the Moon and released in 2024.

Once again, a Johansson-Evans reunion had disappeared before filming.

Technically, those were not the only post-Endgame plans that might have put them together. In 2020, both were in discussions for Greg Berlanti’s planned Little Shop of Horrors remake, with Johansson eyed for Audrey and Evans for dentist Orin Scrivello. That project stalled and was ultimately shelved.

So while Apple specifically came close twice with Ghosted and Project Artemis, the larger Hollywood story contains yet another reunion that never made it to the screen.

And perhaps that is why the fascination with Johansson and Evans has lasted.

Their chemistry was never created by Marvel. Marvel inherited it.

More than two decades after they first worked together, Evans demonstrated how enduring that bond remains when he wrote Johansson’s 2025 TIME100 tribute. He described the actress — despite being younger than him — as someone he has long thought of as an older sister, saying he still learns from her and looks up to her.

Captain America and Black Widow may have reached the end of their shared story.

Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans, however, started theirs years before the Avengers existed — which leaves open the possibility that their most interesting reunion may still have nothing to do with superheroes.