While several stars of the Marvel Cinematic Universe such as Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth are out of contract following Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4, one actor who still has plenty of time to run on his deal is Sebastian Stan, who plays Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. The Winter Soldier.
Stan originally signed a nine-film deal with Marvel Studios, and there’s been a lot of speculation that Bucky will succeed Evans’ Steve Rogers as Captain America – something the actor addressed at a recent panel at Wizard World St. Louis (via CBM):
“I just think … it would be a very different Captain America you know, you wouldn’t be able to have the same Captain America as you have right now because he’s a different guy,” said Stan. “Again, there’s this issue where we’ve got to get him to be trustworthy enough for them to give him that responsibility, you know, to fill those shoes, and those are hard shoes to fill. So I think it’s possible, I really do, but it just has to make sense and we might need a little more time.”
Given that Bucky is currently a fugitive, having spent the past half century serving as an assassin for Hydra following his brainwashing, Stan certainly has a point that it wouldn’t make much sense from an in-universe perspective for him to take on the Captain America mantle at present, but of course it’s possible his actions in the next two Avengers movies may change all that.
Stan went on to offer a few words about his character’s evolution, adding that: “I’ve been enjoying rediscovering him in the last few movies, including Infinity War, because he started out a certain way and then it was such a hard left with Winter Soldier, it was immediately like a whole different ballgame. So now it’s been fun going back a little bit and finding different things that we discovered in that early movie and putting them back in little by little, finding out where is he now.”
SEE ALSO: Sebastian Stan wants to play “middle-aged Luke Skywalker” in a Star Wars spinoff
An unprecedented cinematic journey ten years in the making and spanning the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” brings to the screen the ultimate, deadliest showdown of all time. The Avengers and their Super Hero allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe.
Avengers: Infinity War opens on April 27th 2018 in the UK and May 4th 2018 in the US and will feature an all-star cast including Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther), Tom Holland (Spider-Man), Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier), Anthony Mackie (Falcon), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Paul Bettany (Vision), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), Don Cheadle (War Machine), Josh Brolin (Thanos), Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange), Benedict Wong (Wong), Chris Pratt (Star-Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax), Bradley Cooper (Rocket), Sean Gunn (Rocket, Kraglin), Vin Diesel (Groot), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Benicio Del Toro (The Collector), Danai Gurira (Okoye), Winston Duke (M’Baku) and Peter Dinklage and Terry Notary in as-yet-unrevealed roles.
