Marvel Star Chris Evans Explains Why He Named His Dog Dodger, and It Has Nothing to Do With Baseball

In the Marvel movies, Chris Evans is famous as Steve Rogers, Captain America. On social media, Evans has become quite famous for his canine companion, Dodger. Dodger appears in a lot of his selfies and videos, and Evans appreciates the love. Many people assume Evans named him after the Los Angeles baseball team, but he did not. 

Evans and fellow Avengers Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Rudd, Zoe Saldana, Anthony Mackie and Robert Downey, Jr. participated in a Marvel fan Q&A on Oct. 20 for the Biden/Harris campaign. Kamala Harris appeared with them too, but prior to her appearance, Evans explained how Dodger got his name. 

Dodger sat out the Marvel reunion with Chris Evans and other Avengers

Even Evans’ Marvel costars wanted to know where Dodger was. The 90-minute Zoom event actually gave Dodger a break from Evans.

“He’s great,” Evans said. “He’s lying over just outside the room. He might be getting a little sick of me. We spend every waking second together now so even though I enjoy the facetime I get with him, he may be looking for just little trips to the dog park that we just can’t do anymore.”

Don’t worry, Marvel Red Sox fans, Chris Evans isn’t a traitor

Evans joins Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as one of Boston’s proud celebrities. As such, they expect Evans to support the Red Sox, so naming his dog after the Los Angeles Dodgers would be a scandal.

“I get a lot of flack for this because everyone’s like, ‘I thought you were from Boston,’” Evans said. “It has nothing to do with the Dodgers.” 

Dodger comes from this Disney cartoon

Dodger and Evans are both in the Disney family. Disney owns Marvel, and Evans named Dodger after one of his favorite Disney movies. 

“When I first saw him, he was in a shelter, and I said man, he really looks like the dog Dodger,” Evans said. “I don’t know if you ever saw Oliver & Company. It’s a bit of a deep cut. It’s an animated film from the early ’90s, maybe late ’80s [It was released in 1988]. There was a character who was the artful dodger. He looked like Dodger. I said man, he really looks like that dog Dodger.”

If the name fits, go with it

Billy Joel provided the voice of Dodger in Oliver & Company. Evans wasn’t sure about the name at first perhaps anticipating angry baseball fans. Ultimately, the name just suited Dodger too much to change it. 

“I was thinking of other named but I just couldn’t get that one out of my head,” Evans said. “I just thought, you know what? I’m not going to push this one around. I’m just going to let it stick.”