The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s Anthony Mackie Thought He Was Fired After Avengers: Endgame

"'What did I do?'" That was Marvel star Anthony Mackie's reaction when he was summoned to Los Angeles, where the Captain America trilogy actor learned Sam Wilson would reunite with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) in their spin-off series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Once planned as the first original series from Marvel Studios before coronavirus-caused delays made the Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany-starring WandaVision the start of Marvel's Phase 4, Falcon and Winter Soldier is set six months after a retired Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) passes the mantle and star-spangled shield of Captain America to Mackie's Falcon in Avengers: Endgame.

"You never know, man, you never know. They call you and they're like, 'Come to L.A.,'" Mackie told MTV Asia. "So you instantly go online and Google yourself and say, 'Did I do anything to get fired? I have no idea, what did I do, what did somebody videotape and say I said? What did I do?' So for about 45 minutes, I Googled myself and I was like, 'All right, I didn't do anything, so let's see exactly how this was gonna play out.'"

Instead of handing him a pink slip, Marvel Studios pitched the series to Mackie and revealed the studio's Phase 4 plans.

"It was great, man. It's always a pleasure to see those guys, and when they call you in you know something special is gonna come out of that meeting," Mackie said. "So going into it, I was very unsure of what possibly the outcome was gonna be. But when they told me the outcome of it, I was very happy."

Mackie previously disclosed it was Chris Evans who revealed Sam would inherit Captain America's shield in the final moments of Endgame, telling IMDb, "We were at his house and he goes, 'You excited?' And I go, 'What are you talking about?' and he goes, 'You don't know?' He jumps up, runs out of the room, and comes back in with the script. We cried. We drank. We laughed. I am very happy I got that moment with Chris, for him to not only pass me the shield but to tell me it was happening."

Starring Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Emily VanCamp, Wyatt Russell, Erin Kellyman, Danny Ramirez, Clé Bennett, and Daniel Brühl, new episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premiere Fridays on Disney+.

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