According to Captain America: Brave New World star Anthony Mackie, one of the main differences between Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers’ respective takes on the mantle of the Star-Spangled Avenger is, simply put, that the winged hero is more ‘level headed’ in his approach to conflict than his predecessor.
The Falcon-Cap actor offered this insight into his character’s new role while making a speaking appearance at Disney’s Singapore-based APAC [Asia-Pacifc] Content Showcase event on November 20th.
Per a recap provided by Deadline’s Sara Merican, at one point during the session Mackie was pressed by an attendee as to just how Sam would be approaching his new promotion in Brave New World, to which the actor explained, “Sam’s evolution is simple. He’s still a counsellor. He’s still serving soldiers, but at the same time, now he’s a leader of his community in the country.”
“It’s very different with the serum — you can fight anybody,” he added. “When you don’t have the serum, you have to be smart and engineer different ways of defeating [enemies]. With Sam, him being a counselor, he uses more of his brains than brawn. He uses more of his wit than his fist. He’s more of a friend to everyone.”
However, despite the differences in each shield-wielder’s approach to superheroics, Mackie noted that Brave New World would still present audiences with a “grounded” Captain America story à la The First Avenger, The Winter Soldier, and Civil War.
“If you look at these Marvel movies, they go with different genres,” the actor told the crowd. “You have the fantasy world, you have the space world, you have the raccoon world. With the Captain America stories, it has always been the realistic, grounding world. This movie stays in the line with the original Captain America [The First Avenger], of that thrill, of that espionage, of that grounded nature with storytelling and really investing the actual audience into the story.”
And in a further differentiator, Mackie revealed that in making up for his lack of a super soldier serum, Sam’s new suit not only provides him with a new look, but also upgraded capabilities courtesy of Wakanda technology.
“It’s a high-tech suit,” the actor detailed. “I went to Wakanda, met with everybody in Wakanda, we had dinner. It was a great time. They threw me a welcome party. It was dope. But when I was leaving, they gave me a suit, right? I put it on. I can kick harder, I can fly faster, and it gives me the ability to be more agile in my skills, so it’s taking all my skills to a completely different level.”
[At current, it’s unclear if Mackie’s recollection of his new suit’s ‘origins’ are actually what Marvel Studios intends for the MCU’s canon or if he was being playful with this specific bit of information.]
Notably, this is not the first time Mackie has spoken on the differences between the two Captain Americas.
Pressed on the topic in February 2023 by Yahoo! Entertainment’s Kevin Polowy during the press tour for his then-upcoming supernatural-comedy film We Have A Ghost, the actor asserted, “My Cap, he’s not a superhero.”
“I just see him as more of a humane Cap, as opposed to a Cap of judgment, where this is right, or this is wrong,” said Mackie. “There are decisions that make you choose right or wrong.”
I talked to Anthony Mackie about Captain America: New World Order status (a month from shooting), how his Cap will differ from Chris Evans' (more humanity, more spandex) and if he’s gonna be the one explaining the MCU to Harrison Ford (“I’m gonna give him a full breakdown”). pic.twitter.com/eFLFsbOr6i
— Kevin Polowy (@djkevlar) February 13, 2023
Barring yet another delay, Captain America: Brave New World will Red-Hulk-out on the big screen starting on February 14th, 2025.