Although it hasn’t officially been confirmed that Anthony Mackie will be taking centre stage in Marvel Studios’ as-yet-untitled Captain America 4 (what with Chris Evans reportedly being eyed for a Steve Rogers return), as we saw in the season finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson is now the MCU’s Star-Spangled Man for the foreseeable future.
How long might that be? Well, Mackie was asked that very question by Variety, with the actor responding that: “I definitely don’t want to be a 55-year-old Captain America, so I’ve got a solid six to eight [years] in me.”
The actor also went on to discuss how grateful he feels to see the impact that his emergence as the new Captain America is having on young black children, the star stating that a teacher friend of his found one of her special needs students doing push ups:
“She’s like, ‘What are you doing? You’re gonna hurt yourself,'” said Mackie. “And the kid tells her, ‘Well, Captain America looks like me now, so I need to get in shape, if he needs my help.’ And I thought that was the coolest thing. For this kid to see a six-hour series and get enough strength within himself to think that he needs to be prepared and ready, that made all of the work that we had to do to put it together worthwhile for me.”
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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showrunner Malcolm Spellman was recently brought on board to write the script for Captain America 4, although there’s no word on a potential release date as yet.