Captain America 4 director announced

We’re deep into Marvel’s Phase 4, but there are always more shows and movies on the horizon. One of the earliest entries in the post-Infinity War Marvel landscape was the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Starring Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson and Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, the television show explored the complicated legacy of Captain America as Sam finally accepted the mantle of becoming the next Cap.

When the dust settled, Sam Wilson was no longer the Falcon; he was a new Captain America. Unlike Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Sam’s Cap has no super powers, instead relying on a new high tech suit given to him by the Wakandans as well as his instinct to always do the right thing whenever he can. Say what you will about Marvel’s scattershot Phase 4, but Sam Wilson’s transition to Captain America was handled beautifully.

Shortly after the show concluded its first season, it was announced that Mackie would be getting his own Captain America film. Captain America 4, as it is known until an official title is revealed, has flown pretty low under the radar since then, with very few details surfacing.

But now we’re getting a big one: the movie officially has a director attached. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Nigerian American filmmaker Julius Onah will helm Captain America 4. Onah’s largest credit to date is The Cloverfield Paradox, one of the installments in J.J. Abrams’ Cloverfield series that premiered on Netflix in 2018. Falcon and the Winter Soldier creator and head writer Malcolm Spellman will be penning the script, alongside Falcon staff writer Dalan Musson.

Chris Evans gently pushes back on holdouts: “Sam Wilson is Captain America”

While The Falcon and the Winter Soldier covered Sam Wilson’s journey to becoming Captain America pretty thoroughly, there are still segments of the fandom that have trouble accepting anyone other than Chris Evans in the role. This was evident even in that Hollywood Reporter announcement, which kind of awkwardly stated that Anthony Mackie would be “reprising his longtime Marvel character of Sam Wilson, but not, however, Wilson’s longtime alter ego and Captain America sidekick, Falcon.”

THR also mused over whether Evans would appear in the movie. “It is unclear whether Chris Evans will reprise his role of Steve Rogers, aka the first Captain America (although if the question of who is entitled to carry the shield continues to be posed, all bets are off. Plus, having stacked casts in solo movie outings is a main Marvel ingredient at this point.)”

Let’s first off start by saying, the question of who is entitled to carry the shield was literally the entire point of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. At this point, it should not be up for debate, unless Captain America 4 revisits that thread in some very purposeful way. But some fans are taking those lines from the article and holding them up as a rallying cry for Evans to come back as Cap.

Evans, for his part, is having none of it. “Sam Wilson is Captain America,” he responded directly in the THR tweet thread that mused over his return.

Old Cap has spoken. Let the man enjoy his retirement, and let Sam Wilson and Mackie have their moment.

Captain America 4 does not currently have a release date, but is expected sometime in 2024 or later.

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h/t The A.V. Club