Sebastian Stan made a huge impression on everyone with a pulse when he first appeared as James Buchanan Barnes in Captain America: The First Avenger. MCU fans instantly became enamored with the character, who tragically died and then came back as the tortured HYDRA assassin, the Winter Soldier. The actor, who is set to return to the superhero franchise in 2025’s Thunderbolts*, recently revealed which storyline he would have liked to have explored more in his previous tenure.
During an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast, Stan said that he would have loved to have gone deeper into the Winter Solider aspect of Bucky’s story. “I almost wish we’d have explored more of that,” the actor shared while discussing 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. “There’s that whole situation where he’s having memory lapses, and some of his old memories are coming back, and he’s short-circuiting. He wasn’t as brainwashed to a machine if you look in the comic books.”
“There’s a Winter Soldier alter-ego who’s never known he was someone else but was functional, and every time they’d zap him, they’d desensitize him more and more. It’s actually quite fascinating,” Stan explained. “What would it have been like for him to wake up after that fall, missing the one arm, doesn’t know where he is, and the whole process of him losing his emotions and becoming this thing. It would have been interesting to see.”
The interview is lengthy, with Stan touching on his latest role in the Donald Trump biopic, The Apprentice, and sharing which DC role he missed out on in 2011. It was Hal Jordan in 2011’s Green Lantern. “I remember getting there, and it was, like, me, Justin Timberlake, Jared Leto, Ryan Reynolds, and maybe one other person,” he said. “I’m looking at these guys going, ‘I’m f****d. There’s no way this is happening for me.’ Looking back, I’m almost glad it didn’t.”
In all honesty, it’s probably better that Stan didn’t get the part since the movie failed to make any real sort of impression on the superhero genre. And it would have robbed MCU fans of getting to drool over Bucky, which, if social media is to be believed, is a popular pastime. Interestingly, Stan has only had an approximate screen time of between 50 to 60 minutes as the Winter Soldier. Although, that figure does exclude his time on the 2021 Disney Plus series The Falcon and the Winter Solider.
Since Marvel and Disney seem to be big on origin stories and filling in time gaps, Kevin Feige and the other executives should definitely consider a Winter Solider-led series that begins after Bucky falls to his supposed death. It would likely be a guaranteed hit, given Stan’s popularity. Interestingly, the actor’s mom is not a fan of that broody demeanor fans have come to love and told him to be “a little less intense” with his face to reduce frown lines.
Away from Marvel and the Donald Trump movie, Stan can be seen in the black comedy psychological thriller A Different Man. The story follows Edward, an aspiring actor who decides to change his appearance with major surgery. He is forced to rethink his life when the role he wanted goes to someone else.
