Comic Con is now a distant ship moving toward the horizon and all the hype is starting to die down. Over the past weekend we had many new and enticing announcements from Marvel, who warmed audiences up for “Phase 2” of their current franchise of heroes. One of the titles confirmed was the Captain America sequel, which got a title: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and a release date, but Marvel left out one enticing piece of casting news from their panel.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, star of The Hurt Locker and the upcoming Gangster Squad, Anthony Mackie will be joining the franchise and is believed to be playing Falcon. Fans of Captain America will know that Falcon/Sam Wilson is a character who was raised in Harlem and who turned to a life of crime by jetting around the world and working for the mob. From there he was taken under the wing of Red Skull, who gave him birdlike powers, before Wilson’s allegiance changed and he started to fight crime with Captain America.
It’s unclear how this character will fit into the story as details are very sparse due to Marvel being tight lipped, but Mackie will probably expected to sign a multi-film deal. Whether we’ll see his character develop like it does in the comic remains to be seen. Personally, I think it’s really great that an actor like Anthony Mackie will finally get mainstream attention.
He was great in The Hurt Locker. His performance deserved Oscar recognition, which would have catapulted him right into bigger Hollywood projects, but that never happened. This should make him a bigger name and this kind of role will be effortless for him to pull off.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is due for release on April 4th, 2014.