The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Wyatt Russell Pretended Like He Knew About Marvel When Initially Auditioning

The nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe means it's so sprawling, that it's hard for some [...]

By Patrick Cavanaugh

The nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe means it's so sprawling, that it's hard for some viewers to keep up with all of the events that have unfolded over the past decade, with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier star Wyatt Russell recently detailing how he initially pretended to know about the franchise when meeting for his role of John Walker, only to ultimately have his bluff called, admitting that he was oblivious to the history of the series. Given that his character is taking over the mantle of Captain America and doesn't receive a warm welcome from the series' main characters, Russell admitted that it might have been beneficial for him to be so oblivious to the MCU.

"I didn't grow up knowing much about comic books," Russell revealed to Jimmy Kimmel Live. "My heroes were athletes so when I came on set, I was asking like, 'Well what does that mean? Who is that person? How do they fit in?' Finally, Sebastian [Stan] was like, 'Dude, stop asking questions, you're gonna get more confused than you are. When you get answers, it's gonna be worse.'"

Russell went on to admit that he feigned knowledge of the franchise, until he got in over his head about the 10+ years of storytelling in the series.

"I did a little," the actor confirmed when asked if he faked interest in the series. "They showed me a picture of the guy and I was like, 'Oh, alright! Yeah!' And then they start running me through the stuff, like, 'So you know when Thanos snaps his fingers...' and I'm like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' And then, finally, 15 minutes into the explanation of why I am who I am, I had to look at her and go, 'I'm really sorry, [producer] Zoie [Nagelhout], I don't know any of this. You'll have to start from the beginning.' And she ran me through everything and they were super nice about it."

He added, "It's possible for the character, it kind of works for the character, because he's new and he's not part of the old universe but it was semi embarrassing to be in the Marvel office, going, 'I don't know.'"

Watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+.

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