Since his MCU debut in Captain America: The First Avenger, Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes has grown into a bona fide fan-favorite, particularly after his villainous turn in the really rather excellent Winter Soldier. And while Marvel comic book readers believe it’s only a matter of time before Barnes assumes the Captain America title (perhaps in Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers 4?), we still have no confirmation on if that’ll indeed happen.
In fact, all signs have been pointing to the character heading down a different route, with his new codename in the film said to be White Wolf. As EW told us not too long ago, the “rehabilitated assassin now goes by White Wolf [and] it’s intriguing to see a man whose memories were scrambled, wiped, and rebuilt paired with Pom Klementieff’s alien mind-reader.”
But is it still possible for Buck to one day change course and become the next Captain America? Many fans think so, and only fueling the speculation is a cryptic new photo that Infinity War directors Joe and Anthony Russo shared on Twitter today. Seen in the gallery below, it has the former Winter Soldier holding Steve Rogers’ iconic shield.
While this is clearly fan art – which the Russos often post – it’s got people wondering just why they would randomly share it. Is it because Bucky truly is destined to take up the Captain America mantle once Rogers is done with it? That remains to be seen, but the speculation is only continuing to intensify as we inch closer and closer to Infinity War‘s release.
If we had to guess, Marvel is definitely setting Bucky up to be the next Captain America. It’s no secret that Chris Evans is on his way out of the MCU after Avengers 4 and given how popular a character Cap is, we imagine the studio will jump at the chance to still have him involved, even if it’s another person behind the shield.
That’s just speculation, of course, but given that this is exactly what happened in the comics, it’s not too crazy to think that we’ll see it on the big screen, too. Even if Bucky heads down a different path, though, it sure sounds like there’s a lot to look forward to from the character, as Stan recently teased that Infinity War is about re-discovering who the fan-favorite really is.
“I’ve been enjoying rediscovering him in the last few movies, including Infinity War, because he started out a certain way and then it was such a hard left with Winter Soldier, it was immediately like a whole different ballgame,” he said. “So now it’s been fun going back a little bit and finding different things that we discovered in that early movie and putting them back in little by little, finding out where is he now.”
After spending an extended period of time housed up in Wakanda’s rehabilitation center – under the watchful eye of Shuri, no less – Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes is prepped and ready for combat. That’s just as well, too, as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will need all the help they can get in the fight against Thanos when Avengers: Infinity War crashes into theaters on April 27th.
