Chris Evans originally wasn’t supposed to play Old Man Captain America

So is Sam Wilson the new Captain America after the events of Avenges: Endgame? According to actor Anthony Mackie, it’s still an open question.

At the end of Avengers: Endgame, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) meets Steve Rogers on a bench under a tree. Rogers, aka Captain America, is old, having gone back in time to help restore the universe to balance following Thanos’ Infinity War. While most of the other Avengers returned to the present, Steve stayed back and lived a full life, and has now retired from the superhero business.

Chris Evans himself played Old Man Cap, with the aid of prosthetics and special effects. But according to Mackie, that wasn’t the original plan. “They actually wanted to cast an old dude to play Chris Evans,” Mackie said on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show. “So they brought in like three actors. They’re like…this isn’t how Chris will look when he’s old. He’s like George Clooney — he’s going to be 95 and still like handsome, you know? So they brought in a makeup team and made him into an old man. And how good of an actor Chris is, it actually worked. He pulled it off with his voice and everything. He did a great job.”

You can judge that for yourself:

In that scene, Steve hands off his shield to Sam, who has his own superhero identity as the Falcon. Many have assumed that this means that Sam is the new Captain America, something that will surely be explored in the upcoming show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. However, Mackie makes it sound like it’s still an open question:

"At the end of Avengers: Endgame, Cap decided he was going into retirement and he asked me if I would take up the shield. But at no point in time did I agree to or say that I would be Captain America. So the show walks the line of who is going to take up the shield and who’s going to be Captain America if Steve isn’t coming back."

Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, could be another candidate to take up the shield. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier debuts on Disney+ on March 19, so we’ll find out soon enough.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier isn’t the only Marvel TV show coming out this year. It should be a good year to be a Marvel fan:

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h/t SyFy Wire