Did Bucky deserve to be the next Captain America? That’s a debate that’s raged on over the past year since Avengers: Endgame arrived. At the end of the movie, an elderly Steve Rogers handed his shield, and therefore the mantle of the Sentinel of Liberty, to Sam Wilson. However, many fans were frustrated that the gig didn’t go to Bucky Barnes – who’s not only Steve’s oldest friend but is also a super-durable super-soldier like him.
For the Winter Soldier himself, Sebastian Stan, though, there was no question about Bucky becoming the next Cap. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter in which the actor reflected on Endgame, Stan revealed that he believes Bucky wouldn’t even want to take over from Steve as, deep down, he’s actually ready to settle down and have a normal life, much like Steve finds with Peggy in the 1940s.
“The MCU — as I saw it from my humble perspective — is a bit different in that regard to the comics. Where we arrived with him at the end felt more like he was in a place with a desire for some sort of release: to start over, start life again in a way, find out who he is again on his own and leave all this behind. Yes, it all happened, but at some point, you gotta own your mistakes, what happened and try to start over. That’s where I felt like the character was at the end of Avengers: Endgame.”
As we’ve already reported, Stan went on to say that Steve knows this and that’s why he gave the shield to Sam, as he was actually gifting Bucky the opportunity to leave the battlefield behind and find some happiness.
This is some interesting insight Stan gives us into the two characters’ headspaces, as it’s somewhat hard to gauge what the pair are thinking during this scene in the movie. Having said that, it’s hard to see how Stan’s belief that Bucky wants to settle down meshes with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which will see Sam and Bucky as partners in crime-fighting as they take on the returned Zemo. Is the actor hinting that Bucky will pull a Steve and get out of the superhero game at the end of the limited series? Perhaps.
In the same interview, Stan teased that Falcon will hark back to the tone of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and feature some “massive, massive action scenes.” It looks like we’ve got an explosive follow-up to Avengers: Endgame to come, then, whether it will be Bucky’s last outing or not.
