As career moves go, Sebastian Stan sure made a smart one when he signed up to play Bucky Barnes way back in Captain America: The First Avenger, a character who appeared to die within one movie only to end up being one of the longest-lasting MCU heroes of them all. We’ll next see him in spring 2025’s Thunderbolts* (no, that asterisk isn’t a typo. No, I don’t know what it means either).
Outside of Marvel, he’s proven to be a good judge too, appearing in various acclaimed projects like I, Tonya, Pam & Tommy, and A Different Man. One upcoming role we’re not crazy about, though? He’s playing a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice, a biopic about the former President’s rise to power in the 1980s. In fact, he’s coming straight from The Apprentice to shoot Thunderbolts*, which has finally entered production this May.
And, going by our first glimpse at Stan on set, it looks as if he’s carrying over a little of the Trump spirit with him…
What’s going on with Bucky in Thunderbolts*?
Set pics from the Thunderbolts* production in Atlanta reveal Stan during location filming. While the leaked photos have got folks excited to see more of Bucky, for the first time since 2021’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it’s curious that Sergeant Barnes’ fashion sense seems to have changed a lot. Typically a lover of black and/or blue leather, these Thunderbolts* snaps capture Stan’s character in a grey suit. Even with his long hair, it suggests Bucky will be much more of an establishment figure in his next Marvel appearance.
That fits with what we know about the plot. In Captain America: Brave New World, we’ll learn that Harrison Ford’s recast Thaddeus Ross is now the President of the United States. Given Ross’ clashes with the Avengers in the past, he’s fully anticipated to be an antagonist figure. Likewise, he’s expected to return in Thunderbolts* to help assemble the titular anti-hero team. With Bucky being on that team, he’ll very much be Ross’ man in the film.
Don’t worry, we’re unlikely to see Bucky don a “Make the Avengers Great Again” cap or anything in the Jake Schreier-directed movie, but it’s possible it will explore Bucky through a different lens as he takes on a new role as a tool of a potentially corrupt government. The parallels to either recent or potentially future events is obvious, so it’s possible Stan could be jumping from playing Trump to starring a Marvel movie offering a thinly veiled allegory for his administration.
Thunderbolts* smashes into cinemas in just under a year’s time on May 5, 2025.
