How Anthony Mackie found out he was getting Captain America’s shield

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

As we all know, Avengers: Endgame brought Steve Rogers' (Chris Evans) story to a conclusion, with a time-traveling Captain America living out his days with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) before passing his shield along to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). The aftermath of this event, and Wilson's struggle with accepting the mantle of Captain America, will be explored in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but how did Mackie first react to the news?

While speaking with Empire, Anthony Mackie explained that it was Chris Evans who spilled the beans while they were watching a football match with a bunch of other Marvel actors.

Chris Pratt was holding court, and so [Evans said], ‘Come downstairs, I want to show you something. He was like, ‘Have you seen the final scene?’ I’m like, ‘No.’ So he runs out, gets the script, and he literally sits me on the couch, and the whole time I’m reading it he’s just pacing back and forth like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God!’ It was a fun, emotional moment that we shared with nobody else.

As for Sebastian Stan, whose character of Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier was also in the mix to receive the shield, it turns out that he only discovered that Anthony Mackie would be the one getting the shield on the day they shot the scene! "I found out the day that we were shooting, when someone handed me the scene on the spot in my costume," said Stan, who went on to explain that he never expected Bucky to get the shield. "It never really made sense to me – he just was not in a place for that, mentally," Stan said. "I’m not sure where the character would have gone even if that had happened."

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will follow Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) as they team up for a global adventure that tests their abilities — and their patience. The series will debut on Disney+ on March 19th.