In case it needed to said, John Cena is not going to be the next Captain America, but the very idea has inspired a couple of artists to offer their tongue-in-cheek suggestions for what this bizarre casting choice might look like.
The running joke all started earlier this month when the wrestler/actor posted an un-captioned image to Instagram of the Captain America shield with a few scratches on it, prompting some fans to speculate that Cena is currently gunning for the role. Now, Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld has got in on the action with an unusually beefy take on The First Avenger, posting his image with the following caption:
“So, is this really a thing? Rumors of [John Cena] as Cap huh? Those are big pecs to fill!”
So, if the star of Blockers and Bumblebee is unlikely to pick up where actor Chris Evans leaves off, what does the future hold for the Captain America title? Well, assuming that anyone actually inherits the shield of Steve Rogers, it would almost certainly be a character that we’re already familiar with. After all, Marvel likes to sow its seeds early for such major developments, and you can imagine the fan backlash if some newcomer like Cena just strolled into the franchise and took the name of one the MCU’s most popular heroes.
Out of the currently active members of the series, Steve’s friends Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson have long been among the internet’s favorite candidates for the next Cap, though the fact that the two of them are buddying up for their own TV show arguably casts doubt on these predictions.
All that being said, it’s still yet to be confirmed that Evans is about to walk away from the Captain America role, so perhaps all this speculation is jumping the gun a little. But based on all we know so far, you probably shouldn’t expect to see much more of Steve beyond the release of Avengers 4 on May 3rd, 2019.
