Captain America: The Winter Soldier Writers Hint At Crazy 1950s Captain America for Sequel

Speaking to Den of Geek, the writers of Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeeley, talked about early plans for the third Captain America film. When asked if they would be delving back into comic books for inspiration in the next film, the writers said they would be selective. "Oh yeah," said McFeeley, "you can probably predict some of the threads we would like to pick up again that we've laid out there. And we always go back to the comics and dive back in and look at anything we've missed in the last few years that might be relevant." "We've definitely set out on a more realistic road in the Cap movies, you know," continued Markus. "Even more grounded than in the other MCU movies. And so it kind of rules out Cap fighting the Dinosaur Man or something like that. There are some that aren't gonna start and other ones that -- I mean there's a couple we're playing with right now that we really want to take elements from. Which we'll not reveal…All I'm saying is psychotic 1950s Cap." For those unfamiliar, Captain America was seen fighting communists in a handful of comic books during the 1950s. This became problematic, continuity wise, when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby brought Captain America into the 1960s by saying that he was frozen in ice during World War II. The issue was largely ignored until Steve Englehart decided to resolve it in 1972, by revealing that a different man underwent treatment to replicate the effects of Dr. Erskine's super soldier serum on Steve Rogers.  The man gains Captain America's abilities, then assumes both the private and public personas of Captain America, even legally changing his name to Steve Rogers (his name is later revealed to be William Burnside). The treatment he receives has side effects, however, and makes him and his Bucky (Jack Munroe) insane, attacking innocent people because of their race (in a reflection of the dark side of 1950s American culture). The two are placed in suspended animation, but revived in Englehart's story to try to kill the Falcon. Later, Burnside is again revived and brainwashed by Doctor Faustus into becoming The Grand Director, the leader of a Neo-Nazi army, and is again used by Faustus during Brubaker's run on Captain Ameirca. It's entirely possible that the writers were just joking about using the character, since the writing process for Captain America 3 has barely begun, but it wouldn't be a bad fit given the tone and themes of the Captain America films so far. Captain America: The Winter Soldier comes to theaters April 4, 2014. Captain America 3 is scheduled for release on May 6, 2016.