Just a few days after we got our first story hints for the Captain America sequel with it’s new “Winter Soldier” monniker, THR is reporting that Bucky Barnes is not the only old friend that will be joining Captain America on his next adventure.
But this new partner is a little bird-brained, and it looks like he’ll be played by an anti-gangster hip-hop soldier cop.
Anthony Mackie has been around for a while, but it was with his performance in Katherine Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker that really garnered attention. Soon he landed a string of roles such as real-life rapper Tupac Shakur in Notorious, a suspicious detective in Man on a Ledge and will soon be seen as part of a 1950’s anti-organized crime unit in Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad.
But now it’s time for him to don some spandex. Oh and talk to birds.
Sam Wilson aka The Falcon was introduced in the 1970’s as a Harlem based character who accompanied Captain America on many of his street level adventures. He was one of Marvel’s first major black heroes and one of the first official black characters from any major publisher who didn’t have the word “Black” in his hero name.
A gifted hand-to-hand combatant, he possesses a special suit (actually designed by other hero Black Panther – one guess what race he is) that grants him enhanced strength, durability and flight, and while on one of his adventures with Cap he encounters a Cosmic Cube wielding Red Skull, who uses the power of the Cube to force a mental link between Sam and his pet falcon, Redwing (I’m guessing he wanted to curse him with the overwhelming age to poop on cars). This results in him not only being able to communicate with/control Redwing, but also borrow his senses. Over time this ability strengthened to the point where he is now capable of connecting with all birds, and able to access their memories. You know, for when he wants to snoop on bird sex.
Mackie has always been a solid talent, irrespective of how poor the rest of the film he found himself in actually was, so I’m quite happy with this choice. He will probably have to bulk up quite a bit, but that shouldn’t be a problem. The question is now whether or not Mackie can display Falcon’s power set on screen without it appearing lame.
Last Updated: July 17, 2012
Flameboy
July 17, 2012 at 15:53
Don’t care. All I wanna know is if they are gonna recast Bucky Barnes because that fool from the first movie just won’t cut it.
Kervyn Cloete
July 17, 2012 at 16:15
Yeah, Stan wasn’t the greatest in the first film, but he won me over a bit with his performance as Jefferson/The Mad Hatter in Once Upon A Time.