Though The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is still over a year away from reaching Disney Plus, the recent Avengers: Endgame already gave us a tease of things to come in its final minutes, when Steve Rogers passed on the Captain America name to Sam Wilson.
For the most part, the moment went down a storm with the fans, and given Sam’s history in the comics, it was hardly the most surprising development, either. All the same, part of you may still have been left wondering why Bucky Barnes wasn’t chosen to inherit Steve’s title. After all, the Winter Soldier was Steve’s oldest friend, and he can more than hold his own in the field of battle. According to Sebastian Stan, however, the First Avenger made the right call in picking Sam.
Speaking to Yahoo! News at San Diego Comic-Con, Stan was asked about the possibility of his character holding the Captain America mantle, to which he replied:
“I don’t know about that. Not really though, if you think about it. It makes no sense for him to…why would you give it to the guy that’s been trying to have a whole new history outside of the thing he’s been trapped by. I remember I found out [about Falcon getting the shield] the day we were shooting. I was like ‘Oh wow, this is the deal.’ But it makes sense. He’s [Sam Wilson] has been his [Captain America’s] right-hand for a long time at this point.”
Earlier this year, Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo offered his own justification for Sam getting the shield, telling ComicBook.com that “Bucky always has the ability to have his mind corrupted, it can always be taken over by someone else.”
As you may recall, the last person to successfully brainwash Bucky was Helmut Zemo from Captain America: Civil War, who just so happens to be returning in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. We’ll find out if Daniel Brühl’s character can reawaken Bucky’s old demons again when the series comes to Disney Plus in the fall of 2020. But first, another former assassin is set to go solo with the release of Black Widow on May 1st.