While Steve Rogers appointed Sam Wilson as the next person to take on the mantle of Captain America in Avengers: Endgame, it looked like Sam may be replaced in the role by the elusive U.S. Agent. Don't worry, though, because it sounds like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s Anthony Mackie does use Captain America’s shield quite a lot in the Disney+ series. And as it turns out, throwing Cap’s shield is harder than it looks.
The first footage from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier debuted in a Super Bowl TV spot for Disney+ that also included snippets of Marvel’s other upcoming series, WandaVision and Loki. In the first seconds of the teaser trailer, Sam is shown throwing Captain America’s shield, which collides with a tree. Speaking with ComicBook.com, Anthony Mackie confirms that it was actually him throwing it in the Super Bowl spot, and that it's also quite massive. In his words:
That thing is heavy dude. That thing is like 12 pounds. So you're standing there with 12 pounds on your arm all day after a while your shoulder just gives. So, we have some pretty cool shield throwing sequences.
While I personally haven’t carried or frisbee-tossed the shield, it’s clear that Captain America’s armor is no lightweight. Even without any prior knowledge of it, just watching Sam throw it in the scene from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier trailer is evidence enough, considering how much effort he puts into launching through the air.
While it sounds like Sam will get to carry and throw the shield around enough to hopefully satisfy fans – at least for whatever scenes they were shooting – it remains unclear whether he’ll finally get to become Captain America by the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Whatever the case, Sam is getting a lot of practice in wielding Captain America’s shield for the time being.
What’s more, Anthony Mackie expressed surprise at being the one to film the shield throwing scene to begin with. With so many action sequences packed into the six-episode series, Mackie had a stunt double doing most of the heavy lifting when necessary. Here’s what he said about his reaction to seeing himself in that Super Bowl teaser footage:
I was surprised that they used me because you have a double, a dude that looks like you who's like a gymnast and he does all this stuff. That's when they're like, 'All right, Anthony, you do it.' And I'm like, 'Dude, you just saw what this dude did! How you gonna ask me to do that?' So, I was surprised when I saw the Super Bowl trailer that they actually used me throwing the shield.
Knowing now how heavy the shield actually is, I’m convinced that the actor will have even more arm strength when all is said and done. (If Anthony Mackie has only one huge arm in interviews in the next few months, we'll know.) With any luck, Sam will get to swing that shield in a fight with U.S. Agent. However, whether or not they battle remains yet another mystery on a long list of things we still don’t know about the Disney+ show.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is set to premiere on Disney+ in August. For more on what to watch in the meantime, be sure to check out our 2020 midseason schedule for updated premiere dates and times.
