A new world order needs a new Captain America. An aged and retired Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) relinquished the star-spangled shield and mantle to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) in Avengers: Endgame, but the winged warrior formally known as Falcon wouldn’t officially become Cap until the season finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Mackie returns as the eponymous superhero in Marvel Studios’ Captain America: New World Order, set to soar into theaters May 3rd, 2024, as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 5.
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Besides his winged vibranium super-suit, there’s one big difference separating Evans and Mackie’s Captain Americas: Sam Wilson is not super-powered, having rejected the super-soldier serum that gave Steve Rogers, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), and John Walker (Wyatt Russell) enhanced strength, speed, and endurance.
“I think with my Cap, he’s not a superhero. He doesn’t have a super serum, so his superpower is his humanity,” Mackie told Yahoo in an interview for his Netflix movie We Have a Ghost. “I think with him, he has to come to the stage with a very different understanding of what it is to be a good guy, or be a bad guy, and what are the decisions that make you toe that line in the way that you do?”
“I just see him as more of a humane Cap, as opposed to a Cap of judgment, where ‘this is right, and this is wrong.’ There are decisions that make you choose right or wrong,” Mackie continued, adding Sam Wilson’s Captain America has “a flying costume.”
In a previous interview with ComicBook‘s Phase Zero podcast, executive producer Nate Moore explained how Mackie’s Captain America would differ from Evans’ Captain America:
“He’s not Steve Rogers and I think that’s a good thing. Because to me, this new Cap is Rocky,” Moore said. “He’s going to be the underdog in any situation. He’s not a super soldier. He’s not a hundred years old. He doesn’t have the Avengers. What happens when this guy announces, ‘I’m the new Captain America.’ What happens next?”
Moore continued: “I think it’s fascinating because he’s a guy. He’s a guy with wings and a shield, but he is a guy. So, we’re going to put him through the wringer and make him earn it, and see what happens when he is outweighed, outclassed, out-everything. What makes somebody Captain America? I’m going to argue it’s not being a super soldier. And I think we’re going to prove that with Mackie and Sam Wilson.”
Directed by Julius Onah and written by Falcon and Winter Soldier‘s Malcolm Spellman, the project formally known as Captain America 4 will feature faces both old and new: The Incredible Hulk‘s Tim Blake Nelson returns as the gamma-powered Leader, Danny Ramirez takes flight as the new Falcon, and Shira Haas makes her MCU debut as the Israeli superhero Sabra. Indiana Jones star Harrison Ford replaces the late William Hurt as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, a role he’ll reprise in Thunderbolts, slated to release two months later on July 26th, 2024.
