There were a lot of eyebrows raised a decade ago when it was announced that Sebastian Stan had signed a seven-picture contract to recur as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Bucky Barnes.
Don’t forget, Captain America: The First Avenger was only the fifth installment in the franchise, and there were plenty of question marks about how the jingoistic blockbuster would play with international audiences, especially when it was revealed foreign territories were given the option to drop the prefix entirely, resulting in the movie releasing as simply The First Avenger in Russia, Ukraine and South Korea.
Not only that, but Stan had penned a deal for more appearances than leading man Chris Evans, who finally agreed to six outings as Steve Rogers after previously turning the role down twice. Fast forward ten years, and the man who went on to become the Winter Soldier fulfilled his end of the contractual bargain in Avengers: Endgame, and then starred in his own Disney Plus spinoff series alongside Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson.
To celebrate the landmark ten-year anniversary, Stan took to social media and posted a tribute to James Buchanan Barnes, which you can check out below.
Based on the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s finale, we haven’t seen the last of Bucky by any stretch of the imagination. Despite having been part of the MCU furniture for ten years already, the actor is still only 38 years old, so he’s got plenty of time on his side to continue showing up across the length and breadth of the franchise.
Bucky is arguably more popular now than ever before thanks to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and at the very least we’ll almost definitely be seeing Sebastian Stan again in Captain America 4.