Anthony Mackie Reveals Difference Between His Outside The Wire Character and The Falcon

Anthony Mackie compared his Outside the Wire character to The Falcon in a recent interview. The Marvel Studios star sat down with Inverse to discuss the film and preview some of what’s coming with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Now, Mackie is no stranger to action sequences, so that’s no big. But, the cybernetic backstory of Leo in the Netflix feature clearly separates him from Sam Wilson in a fascinating way. One of the most endearing parts of him fighting alongside Captain America and Thor is that Sam is basically a guy with a cool glider and a drone. So, being this heavily augmented super soldier that can pull off John Wick-lite combat sequences is kind of another game entirely. That’s no slight to Wilson to admit that when asked.

“Leo goes out and affects change,” Mackie explained. “Sam, it comes to him, and then he reacts. The reality of it is, Sam has a gray area. You look at Sam Wilson, and there’s not exactly right and not exactly wrong, but there’s someplace in between, where everybody wins.”

Everyone is wondering about those theories about whether or not he’ll become Captain America in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. He told James Corden, don’t be so sure.

“The thing is, if you watch [Endgame], at the end of the movie Sam Wilson never accepts the shield. He actually tells Cap that the shield is for him and it doesn’t feel right on his arm,” Mackie said.

“If you look at, like, you know—Marvel is great at building characters over the course of many films. And from Winter Soldier to now, my whole goal in the Marvel Universe was to help Cap, was to be Cap’s friend,” he added quickly. “So, at no point in time in Endgame did Sam Wilson accept the shield at all. As a matter of fact, it made him happy to come back from time and stand once again at Cap’s side.”

Then Mackie added for good measure, “I’mma ask you this question, and I’mma be very sincere, okay? I might get in trouble, I’m definitely gonna get a call about this: Every Marvel movie, there’s been photos leaked of a character or an event by paparazzi before the show or movie came out, right. So if we’re shooting in Atlanta, Prague, wide open areas, and I’m Captain America—not one paparazzi was there to take a picture of me?”

Have you seen Mackie’s latest movie? Let us know in the comments!