Since making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Captain America: The First Avenger a decade ago, Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes has been through a lot, to put it lightly. Many industry insiders balked when it was first announced that the actor had signed a seven-picture deal with Marvel Studios, especially when Chris Evans had only agreed to six, but he’s certainly become an integral part of the franchise.
He can now be seen headlining The Falcon and the Winter Soldier alongside Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, and it’s brought him into the orbit of Daniel Brühl’s Zemo again. After being brainwashed by H.Y.D.R.A. into becoming the infamous assassin in the first place, he was activated once more decades later in one of the major narrative driving forces behind Captain America: Civil War.
Despite now being free from the perils of mind control, though, Stan revealed in a new interview that when fans see him out in public, they’ll regularly utter the activation words in the hopes that he’ll stop what he’s doing and go on a murderous rampage.
“It happens quite often. It happens at coffee shops. It happens a lot. And it’s always very funny. It’s an honorable thing I guess. You’re very taken with it all the time. You do have to sometimes look at people in the face and say, ‘No, I will not become the Winter Soldier when you say that. You can keep saying it, and maybe you should say it, maybe that’s a moment we both need to have together, now, here. But nothing crazy will happen’.”
There are definitely worse things to have people say to you on the street, especially when those with no knowledge of the MCU would wonder why on Earth these strangers are going up to this guy in a coffee shop and saying a selection of random, unrelated words when he’s just trying to get himself a drink.
It’s one of the many unique foibles that comes with being part of such a globally recognized brand, but now that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier finally appears to be establishing Bucky as his own man with no tethers attached or outside interference posing a risk, maybe he’ll be hearing it less often in the future.
