Even though I knew in my gut that Steve Rogers’ tenure as Captain America would end with Avengers: Endgame, I wasn’t quite sure of how Marvel Studios would handle it. As luck would have it, they didn’t kill him off, but an aged Sentinel of Liberty ended up passing his mantle on to Sam Wilson AKA Falcon – and that’s something else I wasn’t sure I’d see.
As readers of comic books are aware, there have been multiple people to have wielded the shield in recent years, so that’s why I was waiting to find out who the next onscreen Captain America would be. Both Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson have taken that gig, and it really could’ve gone either way for their live action counterparts.
But as we now know, Sam will be proudly flying the flag in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the foreseeable future. To say that some great responsibility has now fallen on the shoulders of him and Anthony Mackie is an understatement, as the actor must now logically carry a franchise.
Still, some questions remain as to whether this seismic shift will prove permanent, to which Endgame co-screenwriter Stephen McFeely said, “As far as we know, yeah,” in a recent interview. Let it also be known that his colleague, Christopher Markus, followed that up with, “Certainly seems like it to me.”
In all honesty, I don’t think Kevin Feige would’ve allowed for such a thing to occur if the intention of making Sam Wilson the new Captain America weren’t 100% certain. My only wish is that he headline at least one solo film in the near future because it’d be a disservice to the character to keep him as a supporting act.
Avengers: Endgame is now playing in theaters.
