Anthony Mackie’s Next Captain America Villain Pick Could Lead to an X-Men Team-Up

February 4, 2025, 2:55pm

Anthony Mackie is winging his next outing as the star-spangled Avenger. Captain America: Brave New World pits Sam Wilson (Mackie) against an onslaught of supervillains, including the classic Cap villain Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito) and Hulk-related villains Samuel Sterns/the Leader (Tim Blake Nelson) from 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and U.S. President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross/Red Hulk (Harrison Ford) — the former U.S. Army general who has had it out for “enhanced individuals” in everything from 2016’s Captain America: Civil War to 2021’s Black Widow (played by the late William Hurt).

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Having faced the likes of Hydra (in Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Helmut Zemo (in Civil War), Thanos and the Black Order (in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame), and the Flag Smashers (in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Mackie has a suggestion for who his Captain America should take on next: the unstoppable Juggernaut.

“I would really like to get some of those X-Men villains,” Mackie tells ComicBook. “I want the whole Juggernaut crew, some of those. I feel like those would be a lot of fun, simply because of the crazy nature of the combat scenes. Not because they’re the best villains, but I feel like their powers — head-to-head with my power — that would be an interesting fight.”

While Mackie ruled out Sam taking the super soldier serum that enhanced Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), his “powers” include the Black Panther’s ability to absorb and then disburse kinetic energy from his Wakandan-made vibranium suit.

“I don’t think he will [take the serum],” Mackie says. “I think if you look at Sam, Sam is [the] everyman’s Captain America. So the idea of him just being a regular guy that’s been thrust into this position of leadership is something that we all can identify with, that we all can relate to. So I think it’s important for him not to get the serum, because that takes him out of the realm of any of us being Captain America.”

In the comics, the most well-known Juggernaut is Cain Marko, stepbrother of the X-Men’s founder Charles Xavier. Introduced in 1965’s X-Men #12 as an enemy of Xavier’s team of mutants, Marko was empowered by the ruby red Gem of Cyttorak as an avatar of Cyttorak the Destroyer. As the Juggernaut, Marko is nigh unstoppable and invulnerable, and is able to trade blows with the Hulk.

He’s been a member of several super-teams, including the X-Men, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the Thunderbolts, the Red Skull’s New World Order, the Unstoppables, and the Exemplars, the eight champions of the mystic entities Cyttorak, Balthakk, Farallah, Ikonn, Krakkan, Valtorr, Watoomb, and Raggadoor.

Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World — starring Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, Xosha Roquemore, with Giancarlo Esposito, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson, and Harrison Ford — is only in theaters on Feb. 14.