Sam Wilson finally become Captain America in the MCU during Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and while his suit got a huge upgrade, the iconic shield almost received a revamp too.
Thanks to the new Marvel concept art book The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: The Art of the Series via The Direct, concept artist Wesley Burt revealed that the shield almost had new abilities added to it thanks to a Wakandan upgrade.
“Ryan [Meinerding] asked some of the [Visual Development] department to take a little bit of time and think up some new ways that Sam could use the shield, more specific to him and his own physicality with it… when I was thinking about the tech rim piece, I was looking for a way to minimally add an element to the shield so as not to distract too much from the shield itself but still make it feel like it could have a believable tech addition and hint at the Wakandan upgrades before you see them used.”
While the shield has been used time and time again as a weapon, Burt explained how the goal was to think up ideas that would highlight its defensive nature instead, and many of these were inspired by the Wakandan shield technology.
The suit also once was planned to hold the shield for Wilson: when holstered, it would have attached to one of his Falcon wings. According to prop illustrator John Eaves, many of the ideas for the costume and wings wound up as subtle additions to the surface of the suit.
None of these proposed shield upgrades made their way into the final cut of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but perhaps in a future appearance, we could see some new tricks.
