**Spoilers for “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” ahead, but let’s be real, if you haven’t watched the finale, you were bound to get spoiled eventually**
Anthony Mackie has finally become Captain America. After six episodes of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” Mackie’s character, Sam Wilson, has fully accepted his new role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the latest person to pick up the shield. But even when a new “Captain America” film was announced right after the finale aired, it appears that the news about his new superhero role has yet to fully sink in.
Speaking to EW, Mackie talked about the news regarding “Captain America 4” and why becoming the new Cap isn’t as “celebratory” as he expected.
WATCH: ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’: A New Captain America Takes Flight [The Playlist Podcast]
As mentioned, right after the finale debuted on Disney+, a report surfaced that said Malcolm Spellman, the head writer from “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” is going to co-write the new “Captain America” film for Marvel Studios. Presumably, this would focus on Mackie as the new hero. But when the report ran, it appears that fans knew about it well before the actor actually did.
“I literally found out yesterday in a grocery store,” Mackie said. “The checkout guy named Dwayne, a cool cat, he’s like, ‘Yo, man. Is this real?!’ I’m like, ‘I haven’t heard anything.’ That’s what I love about working for Marvel. They call you, they’re like, ‘Come to L.A. We wanna tell you what’s going on.’ So, I’m excited to see what happens, but I haven’t heard anything.”
As he’s known to do, Mackie joked about his future as Captain America in the new film, “What would be really bad is if the movie [‘Captain America 4’] starts and I get blown out of the sky.”
As for the feeling of being the new Captain America, the actor said that it really hasn’t sunk in, and he’s not exactly sure what he expected to be the response.
“I don’t know what I expected, but it’s definitely not what I thought it would be,” Mackie admitted. “I guess I foresaw something that was much more celebratory than just being ‘Anthony with a new Twitter account.'”
Obviously, if Marvel Studios is just now working on a script for ‘Cap 4,’ the odds of seeing it before 2023 are slim. That would give Mackie plenty of time to embrace his new role and perhaps show up in another film here or there. We shall see.
If you want to watch the new Captain America’s first introduction in the MCU, Marvel released the scene below: