Image: Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
Marvel hasn’t kept it a secret:Â Avengers 4 will be Chris Evans’ last appearance as Captain America.
With the actor tweeting his goodbye to the character and officially completing his reign as the Star Spangled Man, Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fans have been speculating about what will become of the character. As decades of comics and the upcoming Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse have certainly shown us, different people can pick up the same hero’s identity.
Many believed the natural choice for Cap’s new face would be Bucky Barnes, AKA the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). He plays an increasingly important role in the MCU, literally caused the rift that split the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War, and spent some much-needed rehab time in Wakanda to return to his “good guy” self.
Despite all that, Marvel may look elsewhere for its new Captain. Frank Grillo, who played Crossbones in The Winter Soldier and Civil War, said something in an interview with Larry King that seems to point away from Bucky:
“I don’t know, but there have been rumors that Captain America could be African American. Could be a woman. You know, so they’re looking.”
If that’s the case, Bucky is out of the running. But another of Cap’s close companions, Sam Wilson (aka Falcon), isn’t.
Falcon (Anthony Mackie) met and befriended Steve Rogers at the start of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He’s already been part of previous conversations about taking up the shield, and he isn’t a bad contender either. He has actually been part of the Avengers team longer than Barnes as one of the trio of new recruits who officially joined the team at the end of Age of Ultron. He also didn’t spend decades working as a killing machine for Hydra, which is certainly a plus.
Grillo’s comment also makes it seem as though a completely new character could be coming in to take over for Cap, leaving both Falcon and Bucky in their current identities.
h/t: We Got This Covered
