Did Robert Redford spill a major spoiler regarding Captain America: The Winter Soldier?

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Robert Redford has had many roles over the years: actor, director, activist, philanthropist, and now spoiler. In a recent interview with Here Be Geeks, the legendary Hollywood veteran may have let slip a big detail about his part in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, a part that until now was regarded as a mere cameo.

According to rumors online, Redford is playing a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Alexander Pierce, whom Nick Fury reports to. It was assumed we would see the chain of command at the covert agency. I mean, with Cobie Smulders, Scarlett Johansson, and Anthony Mackie all playing agents, some sort of supervisor would have to chew our Samuel L. Jackson‘s one-eyed hero, right? That may still be the case, but then take a look at this quote from Redford:

“I think a career requires a certain amount of reinvention. If you get caught in one track I think that can be dangerous. Success has a dark side to it. you want to be careful if you’ve had success at something, that you not try and follow it by just duplicating it. That’s why I’m doing this Captain America thing. I like the idea of playing a villain…I did that just because it’s a different thing for me to do.”

A villain? Before we get into rampant speculation, it was just assumed that Redford would be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, so he could be playing someone totally different. Could he be the man responsible for brainwashing Sebastian Stan‘s Bucky Barnes into the titular Winter Soldier? Possibly. Here Be Geeks theorizes that the Winter Soldier’s handler, General Aleksander Lukin, was also possessed by the consciousness of the Red Skull. This could explain the return of Toby Jones as Armin Zola.

Again, this is all speculation, but Redford may not realize what his slip of the tongue may have done for Marvel’s plan with the movie. Or, we could be reading way too much into it. Either way, we will find out for sure when CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER opens on April 4, 2014.