Anthony Mackie Says He’ll Return For Next Two ‘Avengers’ Movies & Wants To Do ‘Captain America 5’

Last summer, Marvel Studios made the grand announcement that The Russos Brothers would be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe to helm both “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars.” Leading to all sorts of theories of which characters and actors would be participating in the next two big crossover events. Well, Anthony Mackie, star of the upcoming “Captain America: Brave New World” has stated to Esquire Magazine that he expects to reprise the Captain America role in those two MCU projects and could help cement the idea that the new Avengers roster will move beyond just classic members.

Mackie playfully talked about his future in the heroic mantle by setting a ten-year limit, “I give it a solid ten years,” he told Esquire. “You have the two ‘Avengers’ movies, you have hopefully another ‘Captain America,’ and then random plug-and-plays: Oh, Spider-Man! Oh, Fantastic Four! What are you doing here? But you never know. I mean, I don’t want to be a sixty-year-old Captain America.”

READ MORE: Chris Evans Denies Reports He’ll Return To Marvel In ‘Avengers: Doomsday’: “I’m Happily Retired”

We should note that while “Captain America 5” is an easy assumption to make and Mackie is ambitious to get that going, Marvel Studios hasn’t said anything official on that front.

This comes after Chris Evans denied previous reports of his involvement in “Avengers: Doomsday” in that same Esquire piece stating he is still “happily retired.” Those trade reports had claimed that both Evans (possibly as his comic book villain counterpart Hydra Supreme or a different take on Nomad after a version was used in “Avengers: Endgame” while hiding from the U.S. government) and Captain Carter/Agent Carter’s Hayley Atwell would be in the event film that will have Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”) recast in the role of Victor von Doom, aka Doctor Doom.

That bit of stunt-casting with RDJ may leave room for potential returns for other original Phase One cast members to take on villainous Multiverse personas rather than simply reprising their heroic ones.

Recently, “Doctor Strange” actor Benedict Cumberbatch suggested to Variety he wouldn’t be appearing in “Avengers: Doomsday” only to reverse that position and clarify when speaking with Business Insider by saying “I got that wrong” and affirming he actually will show up. So, at the moment, Mackie and Cumberbatch (Brie Larson, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Letitia Wright are likely in that mix, too) will be featured alongside RDJ’s Doom and the cast of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” as well.

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Another mystery concerning “Avengers: Doomsday” is if Tom Holland is going to be able to shoot scenes as Peter Parker given he has a lead role in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” next and the in-demand British actor is still expected to shoot “Spider-Man 4” with Destin Daniel Cretton (“Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings”) in the director’s chair sometime later this year. Then again, Holland could shoot those “Avengers” sequences later on, given his busy schedule.

We’re still waiting on an official logline for “Avengers: Doomsday” outside the basic premise that RDJ’s Doctor Doom will replace Kang as the main Multiverse villain (after pivoting from “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty”) and that the threat/plot would most likely influence the events of “Avengers: Secret Wars.”

Disney has set the release dates for “Doomsday” on May 1, 2026, and “Secret Wars” for May 7, 2027.