Anthony Mackie Says Sam and Bucky Still Aren’t Really Friends in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

Even after teaming up alongside the since retired Captain America (Chris Evans), Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) “still aren’t really friends” by the time of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Set after the events of Avengers: Endgame, where a now 112-year-old Steve Rogers passed his star-spangled shield to Sam, a.k.a. the high-flying Falcon, after using time travel to live out the majority of his life in the past, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier sees the titular superheroes partnering once more in a global adventure testing both their abilities and their patience when the once thwarted Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) returns following his defeat and capture in Captain America: Civil War.

“These Disney+ shows are going to be very different than the movies,” Mackie told Rotten Tomatoes TV when promoting the second season of Netflix series Altered Carbon. “You get the experience of being able to live with these characters for six and eight hours, instead of a two-hour movie where they have a small input on the overall universe.”

In the six-episode Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Mackie added, “We really get to develop that relationship between the two of us, and you get to see it unfold. Because we were never really friends, and we still aren’t really friends [laughs].”

Despite the on-screen friction between Sam and Bucky, there’s nothing but brotherly love between Mackie and Stan in their fifth Marvel Cinematic Universe outing together.

“We’re getting to do things with these characters that we just never had an opportunity to [do]. I mean, we’re taking them to such different, new waters,” Stan previously told ET Canada when promoting The Last Full Measure. “We’re having a lot of fun. We’re definitely [having fun]. There’s no way to not have fun with Anthony.”

But like their characters, Stan admitted, “Sometimes I would really love to kill him [laughs]. But other than that, if one of us doesn’t manage to kill the other by the end of the show, we’re good.”

Also returning to the Marvel Studios universe is Emily VanCamp as Agent 13, a.k.a. Sharon Carter, with franchise newcomer Wyatt Russell joining as John Walker, the costumed U.S. Agent, a government-sanctioned replacement Captain America.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premieres exclusively on Disney+ this fall.

Other upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, The Eternals on November 6, WandaVision in 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022.