The Marvel Cinematic Universe will expand in new ways over Phase 4, moving on from original Avengers like Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. Their influence will still be felt on the franchise in major ways, though. For one, we recently saw Iron Man’s legacy explored in Spider-Man: Far From Home and going forward, it looks like the MCU will be very interested in exploring the legacy of Captain America and how others wish to corrupt what he stood for.
The folks over at ScreenRant have brought up the intriguing point that there are two prominent evil versions of Cap coming to the MCU next year. First off, Black Widow will introduce Alexei Shostakov AKA Red Guardian, played by David Harbour, who will be the Russian equivalent of Steve Rogers as he’s also the recipient of a super-soldier serum. However, it doesn’t look like he has Steve’s heart and courage to go along with it.
Secondly, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will feature Wyatt Russell – son of Kurt “Ego the Living Planet” Russell – as John Walker AKA U.S. Agent. In the comics, Walker has similar powers to Steve but his personality is the exact opposite. Apparently, the Disney Plus series will deal with the government being unhappy with Sam Wilson as the next Cap and as such, we wonder if they’ll appoint Walker as their replacement for Rogers and he’ll ultimately reveal himself as a poor copy.
Then, of course, we also have a third evil Cap coming in Phase 4, though less prominently. One episode of the What If…? animated series will feature the Winter Soldier battling a zombie version of Cap (as per footage shown at D23). This won’t affect the main continuity of the MCU, and seems to be drawing from the Marvel Zombies comics instead, but still, it’s interesting that the idea of an evil Captain America is a concept that Phase 4 will revisit several times over the next few years.
