Last Friday, Disney+’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier concluded its six-episode run, and among the major events in the finale was Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson suiting up as Captain America for the first time. Then mere hours after the episode aired, it was reported that Captain America 4 is in the works, with Mackie expected to carry over as the Star Spangled Man with a Plan on the big screen following Chris Evans’ departure as Steve Rogers. As it turns out though, the actor didn’t learn about this project from official sources, but while out among the people.
Rather than Marvel Studios cluing Anthony Mackie in on Captain America 4 before the rest of us learned, Anthony Mackie revealed in a recent interview with EW that he heard about the news during a trip to the grocery store. As the actor recalled:
I literally found out yesterday in a grocery store. The checkout guy named Dwayne, a cool cat, he's like, ‘Yo, man. Is this real?!’ [holds up a cellphone] I’m like, ‘I haven't heard anything.’ That's what I love about working for Marvel. They call you, they're like, ‘Come to L.A. We wanna tell you what's going on.’ So, I'm excited to see what happens, but I haven't heard anything.
Now to be clear, per the report that came out last week, there are no castings officially known yet for Captain America 4. However, given the way that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier ended, it’s obviously looking like Sam Wilson will be the starring character. With Sam finally embracing the vibranium shield the now-elderly Steve Rogers gave to him, as well as John Walker having been stripped of the Captain America title, Captain America 4 is the logical platform for the former Falcon to shine. Anthony Mackie, however, hasn’t been clued in on what the future holds in store for his character, but a grocery store certainly isn’t a bad locale to learn you’ll be taking over a popular film series.
The only other thing we know about Captain America 4 at this point is that Malcolm Spellman, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s creator and head writer, is co-writing the script with Dalan Musson, a staff writer from the series. A director hasn’t been found yet, and there’s no word on if Chris Evans will appear as Steve Rogers. Back in January, it was reported that Evans would reprise the role in some capacity, but Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige shot down that rumor last month, though that’s not to say this couldn’t change in the future.
Regardless, it’s not like Captain America 4 would be lacking in familiar characters to organically feature. The movie could easily see Sam teaming back up with Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. The Winter Soldier, now that they’re good friends. There’s also the fact that Sharon Carter was revealed to be The Power Broker in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s last episode, and now that she’s rejoined the CIA, she plans to sell government weapons and secrets to all sorts of nefarious parties. Throw in John Walker now working for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine as U.S. Agent and the potential for Zemo to break out of prison again, and there’s all sorts of ways Captain America 4 could follow up on the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Plus, let’s not forget about the brand-new villains that could be featured, like the Serpent Society or Baron Blood.
With Captain America 4 in the early stages of development, it’ll may be a while before we learn any concrete details about it. Luckily, there’s plenty of other MCU cinematic content to look forward to, which you can learn about in our upcoming Marvel movies guide.
