Captain America 4: Will Sam Live To Lead the Avengers?

Captain America: Brave New World dropped a new look at Sam Wilson's suit and some details about the story for our new Captain America. But, some of these comments paint a dire picture for Sam and his allies. Director Julius Onah talked to Empire about the MCU blockbuster and teased "putting [Sam] through his paces." Fair enough, but the rest of the comments about having a hero that "can bleed" raised some eyebrows online. With Captain America largely out of action since the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, people have been anxious to see Anthony Mackie's Avenger back on the big stage. 

Onah also mentioned, "The action in this movie is incredibly exciting because this is a guy who can break, this is a guy who can bleed. We get to have a lot of fun pushing him to the limit." All of this sounds rather ominous. With all the talk of the stakes needing to be raised, could we see something really bad happen to Sam Wilson? Thunderbolts is later in the year and whatever would get the government to assemble that group of vigilantes would probably warrant a call to Captain America.

What if the reason Mackie's hero hasn't come up in any of the promotion for Thunderbolts is because he's out of commission. After all, if Captain America is a normal man, how will he stand up to a much bigger threat. (Maybe one with Gamma radiation powers if you've been reading the tea leaves on this movie.) Still, it's a harrowing prospect for a longtime Avenger in the MCU. But, nothing is truly off the table in these movies right now. 

Sam Wilson As An Underdog Story

If it were just these sparse comments, there would be enough reason to be concerned. But, when placed with the other statements from Marvel, a certain picture emerges. Back when Eternals had hit theaters, ComicBook's Phase Zero spoke to Marvel Studios Producer Nate Moore. He's also a producer on Captain America: Brave New World. When he talked to us, Moore said similar things about Sam Wilson having to fly through a gauntlet to prove his mettle in his first big screen MCU project.

"I think, he's not Steve Rogers and I think that's a good thing," Moore told our hosts. "Because to me, this new Cap is Rocky. He's going to be the underdog in any situation. He's not a super soldier. He's not a hundred years old. He doesn't have the Avengers. What happens with this guy who announces publicly kind of, without the support, 'I'm new Captain America.' What happens next? I think is fascinating because he's a guy. He's a guy with wings and a shield, but he is a guy. 

"So, we're going to put him through the wringer and make him earn it, and see what happens when he is outweighed, outclassed, out-everything," the producer added. "What makes somebody Captain America? I'm going to argue it's not being a super soldier. And I think we're going to prove that with Mackie and Sam Wilson."

So, What's Really Going On With Cap 4?

Despite all these clear signals that Sam Wilson is about to get the crap kicked out of him. There are reasons for optimism. There's virtually no reason to believe that Captain America will perish here. One big reason: Avengers 5 is still on the way. With the roster for that movie firmly up in the air, Sam is about as close to a lock as you're going to get. Also, with the long-discussed "recalibration" of the MCU, putting as many memorable household names into the picture as possible makes a lot of sense. During a chat with Entertainment Weekly, Mackie laid it all out for us. 

"This movie is a clear reset. It really reestablishes the idea of what this universe is and what this universe is going to be," Mackie shared. "I think with these movies, you're getting a clear, new branding of what Marvel is headed towards the same way they did with Captain America: The Winter Soldier."

"The title implies that there's a new, bigger enemy now; there's a new frontier that we have to conquer," Mackie mused. "From Captain America: The First Avenger to Endgame, the enemy was always good versus bad. Now that we've conquered that, where do we go from here? When the bad guys reappear, in what form are they reappearing? It is a new storyline with new characters, with new beliefs, and it creates a new idea of this new world that we're going into."

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