You’re looking at Marvel’s new Captain America as rendered in this concept art from Marvel’s Twitter. We’ll get to him in just a sec.
As I mentioned yesterday, Marvel announced that the Thor character will now be female in the comics. The third Thor movie will proceed as planned. Chris Hemsworth should be back in his Thor wig, and who knows if a female Thor will ever make it into the movies. The reactions to the new Thor have been mixed. Some people think Marvel is lazily popping a rack onto an already popular character when they could create a new female superhero instead. Some think Marvel is working a massive marketing ploy. Still others think it’s a welcome change.
Comic book fans have known for weeks that the Captain America character would be undergoing a big change this fall. He’s already been through so much. He once got killed off and replaced by Bucky Barnes (a.k.a., Winter Soldier). Marvel dropped another huge announcement on last night’s Colbert Report. The internet theorized that Steve Rogers would be replaced as Cap by Sam Wilson (a.k.a., Falcon, played by Anthony Mackie in Cap 2). These rumors were true. The new Cap will be African American. His stint will start in October in the comic books.
Marvel’s Joe Quesada made the announcement, which disappointed Colbert because he wants to be the new Cap. Then Colbert made a bid to be the new Falcon, and Joe was like, “Yeah maybe, kid.” (Poor Stephen Colbert will have to settle for replacing Dave Letterman.) Here’s the clip (recorded from someone’s living room):
(SPOILERS for the Captain America comic book follow!)
The reasons for Cap’s replacement are very comic-ky. Cap gets hit by a bunch of flying needles, which cause all of the super-soldier serum to leave his body. Steve Rogers will age 65 years in an instant and be shipped off to retirement. Marvel issued a statement that says Rogers will “hand his shield to one who can carry it across the battlefield, above the clouds, to greater heights than ever before.” The Falcon can already fly and shares many of the same beliefs as Rogers, so it should be a smooth transition. Marvel also adds that “Sam’s not going to be Steve. Steve can be very rigid. That can be kind of joyless at times, whereas Sam is absolutely not that.” LOL.
This is thrilling news, right? NYDN spoke to Marvel editor Tom Brevoort, who says, “In 2014, this should be a thing that we shrug off, it shouldn’t be seen as revolutionary, but it still feels exciting.”
So far, this Cap changeover will only be for the comics. Who knows how this will affect future Cap movies. Chris Evans would love to retire. Evans’ contract will carry him through Avengers 2 and a third Cap film. Then the torch could be passed to Sebastian Stan’s Bucky. Or maybe they’ll bypass Stan and go straight to Mackie if the fandom supports the Falcon switch. Could you see Anthony Mackie playing Captain America on the big screen? Yum.
Avengers 2: Age of Ultron is still coming. I’m including EW’s new cover and some image previews. There will be a “lift the hammer” party scene. Hmm.
Photos courtesy of Marvel on Twitter, Marvel Entertainment & EW
I like it!
+1
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I always get confused by the superhero stuff. Does this mean Anthony Mackie will play Captain America?
This announcement is for comics but they might give Mackie a chance on big screen. But if I remember correctly they had Stan under contract for 9 or 6 (?) movies so if Evans goes, it seems to me like Stan has a bigger chance to become Cap.
I’m a die hard Marvel fan but all this crap is making my head hurt. And why did they photoshop Hemsworth to look so skinny?
Oh! Ok I think I get it now.
..I think…
Great choice and makes sense
A female Thor and a black Captain America? As a black female… this pretty much makes my day.
And Anthony Mackie ROCKS!
Co-sign.
Why did Thor stop washing his hair?
Maybe he has sad Jane feels? Ha!
PS- Miss you!!!!
Ha. That’s the first thing I thought too Anna.
And yeah, Mackie rocks!
Agreed! Hope they get a chance to act out this change on the big screen!
Yep.
@GeeMoney and let’s not forget Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four is now Black as well
I love Sebastian Stan, I genuinely do. But I can only make squeaking sounds of joy at the thought of potentially seeing Mackie as Captain America (I’m still a newbie with the Marvel comics so I fully understand that the likelihood of these character changes making it to the M.C.U is slim but still, a girl can dream…. Of an incredibly handsome wise-cracking man pulling on the red, white and blue…. *sigh*)
Im 100% with you!
What an exciting time to be a kid into comics and see yourself as a possibility! Spiderman as a black/latino kid, a female Thor, Miss Marvel a brown girl in a Hijab, a Black Captain America?! Love Love Love!
100% agreed. I know what a revelation it was for me growing up to see a character like Xena in pop culture in general so Marvel has a heck of a lot of brownie points with me at the moment. Isn’t it amazing what expanding and diversifying can and will do for popularity? 😄
I like it. And I had mixed feels on Lady Thor, as a feminist/reader who’s part of the rallying cry for better female characters. I think Marvel realized they were gonna be overtaken by Image Comics soon if they didn’t step up their diversity/women game. They also saw great results with the new Ms. Marvel books (featuring a teenage Muslim girl) and their revamped She-Hulk, so they’re really going all in on the shaking things up. Your move, DC.
IMO All the torch passings in the comics will take place in movies too. Since they assemble all of the MCU superheroes in Avengers movies, it would be hard to finish these series just because one of the actors got old. Maybe in 10 years we’ll have Thorella and African American Cap in the theatres.
I’m more okay with this than the Thor thing. Seriously, Marvel can’t take my Hemsworth away from me.
None of this going to happen in the movies, at least while the current actors are under contract. Maybe once they start phasing out they’ll shake it up, but they’re going to ride the horses they’ve got into the ground first.
Sorry to go off-topic but am so happy to see Scarlet Witch looking like a normal person too.
Annnnd in 10 months or so Steve Rogers will be magically cured and back as the Captain. Seriously folks this is the stuff they were doing during my brief comic reading stage at age 8. It’s not new or groundbreaking (or interesting!). Good marketing though.
They kill people off and bring them back all the time. And isn’t Loki a kid in the comics right now?
Yeah the big hype right now is the “Death of Wolverine” that is set to happen and will likely be permanent….until roughly the time of the release of the X Men: Apocalypse movie (give or take). 😉
Loki’s a kid, I think he was a woman at one point. Whatever. Also, those excited about a female Thor should probably know that Thor was once replaced with an alien horse. None of the announcements of the past few days are a big deal.
Thank you so much for that picture of Hemsworth with my super secret husband Chris Evans. I’m going to go sit at the mailbox and wait for my copy of Entertainment Weekly now.
Yes, but I am side-eyeing the first poster for its glaring absence of Thor. They could’ve put him there instead of all the little Ultrons. Kinda looks like another step towards Thor being un-Thored lol.
“Evans’ contract will carry him through Avengers 2 and a third Cap film.”
And a third Avengers film. the Thor 2 cameo was negotiated separately from his contract, he said as much in some interview leading up to Cap 2. I believe Kevin Feige has also said that everyone they have now is locked up till 2018, and then they’ll start having to recast the main Avengers. My money is on seeing Sebastian Stan as the next Cap in the movies. The Russo brothers have said repeatedly that they like the Captain America: Reborn comics, and that’s the arc associated with Bucky taking over while Steve is out of commission.
It would be cool, though, if they didn’t recast Steve Rogers once Chris Evans is done. Let Stan be Cap for a couple movies, then let Mackie do it, then recast Steve six or seven years down the line.
Yay! I bet Anthony Mackie screamed so loud dogs several states over started barking. I’m excited for the new Thor, though…why not give it to Sif, and the new Captain.
Anthony Mackie is fabulous. And it will be interesting to see him in a role like this…but is it me or does that first drawing look like Michael Sam?
If the new Thor makes it to cinemas, I will accept no one else but Gwendoline Christie (seriously, if a Kickstarter for potato salad can get into 5 digits, surely this would go gangbusters) 😉 Katee Sackhoff is also acceptable.
I know that Anthony Mackie had been pitching ideas to Marvel for a long time. He said that he was so grateful to get the Falcon role. I know that if they did go through the whole series of Sebastian and then Anthony Mackie, both Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie would completely commit to the roles minus the whining that Chris Evans did. I like the idea. It’s really no different than Batman and Robin where Robin starts taking on the mantle because he believe Batman is dead. Yes, they could make another super hero that is black or of any other minority, but if they want to do it this way they should be able too. I do want to also add that I’m not really invested in the comics–only the movies and would understand how those invested may not feel as enthused by it. But I like the change. I think people of all races wouldn’t mind it when writers changed the characters color if Hollywood didn’t white wash only, meaning that they switched colors of characters to those of any minority just as much they white washed.
Now I know why Mackie was so ebullient on The Tonight Show–he’s a member of the Merry Marvel Marching Society! Seriously, he knew he was going to be the lead in a Marvel franchise.
San Diego Comic Con is next week hence all the big announcenents by Marvel. Like I mentioned in the Lady Thor post, I work in this industry so it’s been interesting to see alk this news drop this week. Archie is getting killed off in a storyline which came out this week in Archie Comics, it’s been a crazy week in comics! Though if you read Bleeding Cool (go to place for comic spoilers) most people already knew this. There was some kind of Iron Man announcement today too.
Guess I’m the only one not excited about this lol but it’s because I’m not a fan of Anthony Mackie. And I wish they would just create a new female character instead of doing female versions of male characters
This is awesome! But I thought Chris Evans has a 6 movie contract with Marvel Studios? Wouldn’t that mean he can’t retire until after Cap 3 and Avengers 3?
The racists are going to have a field day with this. Lol. I love it!
I’d rather see the movies bring in Wasp and Black Panther, you know, the existing awesome characters who are being ignored?