See Anthony Mackie In Full Costume As The New Captain America, First Look
See Anthony Mackie as the new Captain America.
This article is more than 2 years old
Leaked shots from the season finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showcases actor Anthony Mackie in the classic stars-and-stripes outfit, armed to the teeth with Captain America’s mighty shield and Wilson’s iconic wings.
Check out the leaked shots of Anthony Mackie as Captain America in the tweet below:
Before Anthony Mackie took on the mantle, German biochemist Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) selected Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) to headline Project Rebirth, a 1942 war experiment funded by the U.S. government with the sole intention of creating the definitive super-soldier. Despite what the title may have us believe, the goal of Project Rebirth was to find a good man, not a perfect soldier. “The serum amplifies everything that is inside. So, good becomes great. Bad becomes worse. A strong man, who has known power all his life, will lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows compassion.”
And Erskine was right. Skinny Steve’s purity of heart elevated the Captain America mantle to a central good, while John Walker’s (Wyatt Russell) ego and myriad insecurities only served to pervert it. Jump back to the present, Rogers entrusted the shield to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) over Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) for the same reason. A year later, Wilson is plagued with guilt having given up the shield only to pave the way for someone like Walker to muddy its legacy, and has worked tirelessly in Falcon and the Winter Soldier to right his wrongs and get it back. And now that he has it back, it’s time to suit up.
Anthony Mackie’s comics-accurate Captain America suit was already spoiled ahead of the first episode by an action figure, but seeing it in the flesh still packs a wallop in an entirely different way. The white stripes, which were missing from Walker’s U.S. Agent uniform, make a comeback in Sam Wilson’s suit, right where Rogers had his back when he was still carrying the mantle. Not counting the star to the upper right of his chest, the absence of white in Walker’s costume was symbolic of his own lack of purity, a quality Sam Wilson happens to possess in spades.
In Asgardian speak, John Walker was never worthy, and his own suit gave him away weeks before anyone in the audience (who hasn’t read a comic book, anyway) could come close to figuring it out. After wrestling the shield away from Walker by force and watching the U.S. government strip the mad Captain of his title, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes are ripe for another epic beatdown in the finale, against a deeply unhinged former soldier who still sees himself as the consummate Captain America. But with Steve’s best friends working together and the shield finally in the hands of its proper successor, suffice it to say, super-soldier serum or not, John has no chance of winning.
Falcon and the Winter Soldier chronicles the ups and downs of Sebastian Stan’s Bucky and Anthony Mackie’s Sam’s lives shortly after Steve retired, following the events of Avengers: Endgame. It depicts both men at their lowest, desperate to fill the gaping void Steve left behind and constantly grappling with a world that no longer has Captain America in it. It’s set months before Spider-Man: Far From Home, but features many of the themes present in the film, like how to move forward without the guidance of a core Avenger and tying up loose ends said core Avenger left in his wake. In Far From Home, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) struggles to persist as Spider-Man in a world without his mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). Parker would easily have sympathized with Sam and Bucky’s plight, in the same way Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) are probably still grieving Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson).
While Thor is enjoying outer space with his new friends — relatively, since Thor still lost Loki in Avengers: Infinity War, and most of his people — the rest of his surviving teammates are tragically left to pick up the pieces. In the case of Sebastian Stan’s Bucky and Anthony Mackie’s Sam’s, it took a common enemy — defiling their common friend’s good name — to finally motivate both men to boldly assume the legacy they were given. In a way, John Walker was a necessary evil to get Sam and Bucky to this point of no return and inspire them to grow as their own heroes.
Falcon and the Winter Soldier stars an ensemble cast filled with many returning characters — Anthony Mackie as Falcon, Sebastian Stan as Barnes, Don Cheadle as Rhodey, Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter, Daniel Brühl as Baron Zemo, Florence Kasumba as Dora Milaje member Ayo, Georges St. Pierre as Georges Batroc — and stars newcomers Wyatt Russell as Walker, Clé Bennett as Lemar Hoskins/Battlestar, Erin Kellyman as Karli Morgenthau, Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres, Adepero Oduye as Sarah Wilson, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentine Allegra de Fontaine. Carl Lumbly guest stars as black super-soldier Isaiah Bradley, with Elijah Richardson playing his grandson Eli, the Young Avengers’ future Patriot. As in the comics, Torres as Ramirez will be taking over as Falcon, now that Sam Wilson is about to become the new Captain America.
