During the final rounds of casting for “The First Avenger: Captain America,” three names were mentioned Channing Tatum, Chris Evans (who ultimately scored the role) and then one actor who’s name had not been previously mentioned in the deluge of actors trying out for the role that included, Ryan Phillippe, Michael Cassidy, Patrick Flueger, Scott Porter, Wilson Blethel, Mike Vogel, John Krasinski and Chace Crawford.
That actor, “Gossip Girl” thesp Sebastian Stan came into the running at the last minute and everyone thought, “who?” Well, we now know why. According to HeatVision, the actor has been cast as Bucky, the comic book character who played Captain America’s faithful sidekick in the early 1940s WWII-era comics. But maybe there’s something to this kid. He was after all cast in Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” (plus he was the cockblocking ’80s asshole antagonist in “Hot Tub Time Machine,” yeah, that was him).
While director “Captain America” director Joe Johnston had been threatening to use The Invaders — the WWII-era superhero team that helped America beat the Nazis — we’re a little bit disappointed to hear they’re including the Bucky character here, because as much as its faithful to the original comics, the sidekick character has become so antiquated and redundant in the world of contemporary superheroes, especially in the post-“The Dark Knight” world (don’t expect Christopher Nolan to ever introduce Robin, we would bet you all the money in the world, seriously).
As HeatVision writes, in comic book lore, “Bucky [was] a teenaged orphan too young to join the army but became one camp’s mascot. When he discovered Captain America’s identity, he joined Captain America as a partner in his Nazi-fighting escapades. The character died in Captain America’s final World War II adventure.”
Right, so we at least have his death to look forward to, right? Not exactly, he’s apparently signed a multi-picture deal option, but Marvel also doesn’t have to exercise those rights. They’re often, “in case.” But we don’t know… extra superheroes — the Invaders membership includes the Submariner and a Human Torch character that actually precedes the one that, ironically Chris Evans played in “The Fantastic Four” — are just the sort of thing that Johnston could screw up tonally.
If we were to direct “Captain America” — which already can be tonally goofy, a guy in blue tights sent to Germany to win WWII and defeat the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), we’d personally leave out the sidekicks and all the other superheroes. Some geek sites have speculated who The Invaders might be and relished the thought of all these extra superheroes in the movie, but here’s the thing. “Captain America” is already strapped with a medium-sized budget (or at least not a super gigantic one). So for one, you’re likely not going to see another Human Torch, this will be too confusing for moviegoers — especially considering Evans already played one rendition of this character.
Secondly Fox owns rights to the Submariner, and this is a Marvel Film, so he won’t appear either (Zachary Quinto has the exact look though as he is Spock-like), so that leaves much lesser known characters like Spitfire, Union Jack, Toro and potentially several more. But with a budget that’s not gigantic, we’re probably not going to see a lot of fancy super powers (and most of these other characters were just masked characters with fighting skills and goofy costumes anyhow). The group is a motley crew of characters and where most superhero films totally fuck up is when they introduce a disparate group of freaks (see “Elektra” and the mutants in “Wolverine”) into a picture and let them run amok.
We’re torn with superhero movies despite our pretty detailed coverage in recent years. On one hand, they were easy to dismiss and ridicule (see “The Fantastic Four,” “Ghost-Rider” “X-3,” most of the mid ’90s Batman movies) and that all changed with “X2,” Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” and Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man” and we’ve suddenly become interested in invested in them all over again (by again, we mean post-childhood). But not all of them are going to be that good. So our number one worry is “The First Avenger: Captain America” because of Joe Johnston (see the dreadful “The Wolf Man” and almost every other picture he’s done) and because of the potential for the tone to drift into “Daredevil”-like territory (a risible, cartoony comic-book movie that takes itself seriously, but isn’t worth the celluloid its printed on). Either way, shooting starts soon and the film is due in theaters July 22, 2011. At least we don’t feel like we have to babysit Kenneth Branagh on “Thor.” Let’s just hope, regardless whether Stan is good or not, that Bucky doesn’t live to join The Avengers (it shouldn’t happen, but who knows, we’re just putting it out there as a, “god, no”).
Oh and anyone find it weird that there’s still no developments on who the female love interest is? The last we heard reports had Keira Knightley, Emily Blunt and Alice Eve (“She’s Out Of My League”) battling it out for the role, but it’s been extremely quiet ever since. We’re hoping Blunt and Knightley don’t join in here, this feels beneath them. Alice Eve on the other hand…
