The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s Anthony Mackie Says People Ask If He’s Don Cheadle “Once a Day”

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s first two episodes are now streaming on Disney+ and feature the return of Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). The first episode of the series also featured a special treat for Marvel fans: a cameo from Don Cheadle, who has been playing James Rhodes/War Machine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Iron Man 2 was released back in 2010. During a recent interview with Ali Plumb, Mackie shared that people are constantly coming up to him and asking if he’s Cheadle. While this is somewhat upsetting news, both Mackie and Cheadle seem to get a kick out of it.

“The funny thing is, most of them walk up to me and think I’m Don Cheadle,” Mackie revealed when asked what fans say to him on the street. “They literally go, ‘Hey man, I love you as Black Iron Man!’ I’m like, ‘Errrrr…!’ Or they’ll say, ‘Aren’t you the guy in Iron Man?’ I’m like, ‘Errrrr…!’ Literally, once a day, someone comes up to me and asks me if I’m Don Cheadle. Which it could be worse!” Cheadle saw the video of Mackie’s interview on Twitter and responded, “Likewise, papa…” You can check out the video in the tweet below:

“I cannot talk about Rhodey showing up, but man, we were thrilled. We knew there are just certain moments that you know the people are going to respond to, you know. Black folk in particular, it’s just going to be a shorthand with the fans there,” The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s head writer, Malcolm Spellman, told NME about Sam and Rhodey’s exchange. “That was one of the things we all asked for — the writers’ room was mostly Black — was to have that moment.”

He added, “Because we imagine Sam and Rhodey are the ones dealing with getting pulled over, Sam and Rhodey are the ones dealing with security following them when they’re going shopping, right? We assume that in-between all these movies, them dudes probably called each other all the time. And the way they played it, you could feel it, it just surpassed what we imagined.”

Watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+.

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