John Walker always felt like an off-brand Captain America, which was clearly by design on Marvel Studios’ part, and fans now hate the character more than ever following this week’s episode of The Falcon and the Winter Solider.
After getting his ass handed to him by Wakanda’s Dora Milaje, Walker remarks that they weren’t even super soldiers in what was a big hefty scoop of foreshadowing. Later on, he knocks Zemo out and discovers the dancing machine destroyed every vial of the serum except one, which he stashed for himself. Throwing bad guys around with ease, it’s pretty obvious that the new Cap has gone to even greater lengths to step into Steve Rogers’ shoes, but he lacks the inherent goodness of his predecessor.
The episode concludes with Captain America brutally murdering a man in the street with his shield in full view of the public, who have recorded everything on their phones for posterity, which is a sentence that would have seemed impossible up until very recently. Of course, we’re all expecting Sam Wilson to inherit the mantle of the MCU’s resident star-spangled Avenger by the end of the sixth episode, and co-star Emily VanCamp is firmly of the belief that the world is ready for a black Cap.
“I can’t divulge anything, but do I think the world is ready for a black Captain America? 1000%, I’m ready for that. But in terms of where we head within Falcon and Winter Soldier, I am not at liberty to discuss anything. But I will say that the overall theme and arc of this show is a really beautiful, powerful message, and one that I’m excited for people to continue to watch. And I think they’re already kind of seeing that on multiple levels with each character, so I think that Marvel’s done a great job with this show, definitely, in terms of tackling very important themes and also from individual perspectives of each character.”
Anthony Mackie also agrees, and at this stage viewers just want Walker to be stripped of his ceremonial costume and title. Wyatt Russell’s increasingly unhinged performance is even drawing comparisons to The Boys‘ Homelander, with fans demanding that Evans return to save the day. Luckily for them, there’s a perfectly good Captain America already waiting in the wings, one who should reclaim his destiny in the not too distant future.
