Chris Evans Goes Shirtless as Captain America

Forget Jon Stewart.

Taylor Lautner is the most influential man of the year. Just look at the shirtless Chris Evans photo above that was published in Entertainment Weekly.

Evans, of Fantastic Four fame, plays Steve Rogers aka Captain America in Joe Johnston's film adaptation of the Marvel Comics hero, Captain America: The First Avenger.

According to the synopsis above, Captain America will take place in the somewhat distant past. That's probably a good thing, for if he were to represent "American ideals" in our time, things could get mighty complicated.

I mean, nuke Iran? Pull out of Afghanistan? Build a ten-mile-high face at the Mexican border? Help Darfur refugees? And, most problematic of all, what would be Captain America's views on gays in the military?

Also in the Captain America cast: Richard Armitage (who will also be seen in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit), Tommy Lee Jones, Dominic Cooper, Samuel L. Jackson, and Stanley Tucci.

Screenplay by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Joss Whedon.

Captain America: The First Avenger will hit theaters on July 22, 2011.