Super Bowl XLVIII's Captain America: The Winter Soldier Trailer: Five Questions Raised

While there was a lot of clarity being given in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (yes, it's S.H.I.E.L.D. playing Spy vs. Spy, yes Natasha knows about the Winter Soldier ahead of time, etc.), there were certainly a few scenes in there that made us scratch our heads. We figured you might have some of the same questions, so it seemed like maybe taking a look at them, talking them out a little and leaving the questions open-ended might allow for some of our fans to have an inspired thought that eluded us. So, yeah, check out the trailer below, followed by our questions.

Early in the trailer, Black Widow is explaining the story of the Winter Soldier to Captain America. Now, in the comics, the Winter Soldier is a KGB operation, so there's a good reason for Romanov to know more about him than others do. Here, he seems to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative...and while she could still know plenty about him as a result of her time with S.H.I.E.L.D., the real question is: when she's sharing this information with Captain America, does she know that she's telling him about his former best friend? And does Cap know? He looks pretty emotional in that scene to just be on the receiving end of a spy agency ghost story.

When does Cap find out? I'm guessing no on the above, though...or at least if she knows, she's not giving it to him. So we're wondering whether he'll find this out by going through files, by talking to some member of the S.H.I.E.L.D. upper echelon who have been keeping the information from him, or by coming head-to-head with his former friend in the field. Certainly it would put Captain America at a huge strategic disadvantage if he realized halfway through just who he was fighting.

Who's that under the sheet? If I had to guess, my answer would be that it's Nick Fury under that sheet...and it's a tease; that's how they save him, is by faking his death to bring him to another location. But that's just naked speculation based on nothing. Backed up ever so slightly, though, by the fact that both Captain America and Black Widow seem to be wearing the same outfits here that we've seen them wearing while they watch Fury's surgery go down, and the fact that Maria Hill is in the background in what appears to be civilian clothes. Certainly if that isn't the case, the fact that somebody's going to take a dirt nap is significant here. The only major Marvel death we've had so far was Agent Coulson in The Avengers, and of course he was back up and snarking again for the Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot less than two movies later. Is the plan really to tear S.H.I.E.L.D. down completely? So if you listen to Captain America once he's in butt-kicking, orders-giving mode, it sounds like the plan is to take a wrecking ball to S.H.I.E.L.D., and everyone is on board with that becuase of how evil Alexander Pierce is. Will that be a sustainable status quo? I mean, bringing down the organization that you operate out of? A multi-trillion-dollar operation, based on the number of Helicarriers we've seen? And the one that gives orders for The Avengers? The more likely scenario, perhaps is that in the long run, they overthrow Pierce...but if they do, who takes over? None of the senior management seems to much like Fury. Maybe Captain America? Wasn't Steve Rogers briefly the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. at one point not long ago?

How will all of this impact Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Clark Gregg and company may very well be working for the bad guys. They've been answering to Victoria Hand from time to time, and the odds are good she's not exactly sympathetic. What if we were to find out that the whole first season, Coulson's team have been manipulated by a rogue faction of S.H.I.E.L.D.? That would be a heck of a thing. Even if that isn't the case, a massive shakeup of S.H.I.E.L.D. almost certainly requires a big tie-in between S.H.I.E.L.D. and Captain America. It will necessarily change the dynamic on the TV series and give fans a lot of what they've been asking for: A closer connection to the world of the movies. Could we see some of Coulson's people show up in the movie? Probably not. Could we see Cap--at least briefly--appear on the TV show? Perhaps. In any event, it will be interesting to see what kind of long-term impact this has on the series, which will likely have a season finale after the movie debuts.