There’s a fair few fans that think Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier was short-changed by both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Despite there being much fanfare in the former film about him receiving a shiny new Wakandan prosthetic arm, he proved to play a minor role in the climactic battle of that movie. He played even less of a role in Endgame though, turning up in the colossal final fight to shoot a gun ineffectually and then be overlooked as the successor to the Captain America mantle in favor of Sam Wilson/Falcon.
Now, Stan’s revealed his take on how things panned out. Speaking at the Italian Jus In Bello convention, he was asked what he thought about where everyone ended up, and said the following:
“I feel great about it. I feel like it was a very … well, I mean look, it was a very hard ending, and strange. To see that movie entirely was really hard and weird to sit through. I hadn’t seen it, it was my first time seeing it at the premiere, but I feel like it was a good ending. Do you guys feel it was a good ending?”
This was reportedly followed by cries of “No!” from the crowd, to which he said:
“I know what you think I think that you think, but no. You have to understand that — I think everybody at the end of that movie, mentally, is in the right place, I feel like. That was my take on it. So yeah, I don’t know. I’m excited to see what happens next. But I’m very happy that Steve could finally get sort of a life of sorts.”
I fully expect the debate as to whether Bucky or Sam is the best fit to take up the mantle of Captain America to run and run. Endgame screenwriter Christopher Markus recently explained why they chose Sam for the role though, saying the following:
“As much as we love him, he is on the dark path and is recovering from that. Sam really is a truly stand up guy. It wasn’t a wildly difficult choice, certainly. I think Bucky has a lot more story as Bucky and as someone headed on a path of atonement. And Sam has ascended into this new role.”
To be fair, it might be a little hard for the population of the MCU to swallow that the new Captain America is someone who, until recently, was a brainwashed terrorist with a history of assassinations. That said, I think it’d be an interesting development to see Bucky grappling with the responsibility and high-profile nature of being the new Captain America, especially as he knew Steve Rogers better than almost anyone.
I fully expect this tension between Sam and Bucky to be explored in their upcoming Disney Plus show, too. After all, with no Bucky film appearing on the upcoming Marvel Phase 4 slate, that might be the last word we get on the character for quite a while.
