With estimates placing CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER opening with close to $100 million domestically, Marvel has already begun developing a third adventure for Chris Evans' star-spangled hero. But, with Evans recently mentioning he plans to take a break after the end of his Marvel contract, what does that mean for the future of the character? Maybe this news from co-star Sebastian Stan may hold the key.
Stan, the actor who portrays the titular Winter Soldier in the sequel, recently revealed that his contract with Marvel lasts for nine films. That would place his contract on par with Samuel L. Jackson's as Nick Fury and three more movies than Chris Evans.
Here is what Stan told Newsarama:
A lot. I’m certainly not contractually obligated to say that; it’s just the truth. Look, at the end of the day, you essentially take a year of your life, and make it about this movie. It takes six months to shoot it, another two months re-shooting it and going back for ADR [additional dialogue recording], and another three months talking to press about it. So you’d better love what you’re doing, right? You’re giving a year of your life to this. And you’re lucky to do that. In my case, I get to be lucky enough to do this for multiple years. So yeah, you have to learn about the character, love the character, and for me, there was no question—I had to read up, as much as I could. And fortunately, I’m not building from scratch here. There’s plenty of stories and material that tell you that Bucky acts a certain way, and there are plenty of fans who are very opinionated and will help you find out more and appreciate it all. I wanted to make sure I was doing everything right.
But, what does this mean? Keep in mind if you are not familiar with the Winter Soldier storyline, the following will be a spoiler.
Fans of the comics are likely aware of the fact that for a period of time, Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier donned the Captain America uniform in place of Steve Rogers. With Evans mentioning his desired break from the spandex, could this mean the Marvel Cinematic Universe has found a way to extend the franchise naturally without recasting the lead? It makes perfect sense to continue the Winter Soldier storyline and use him as a villain again with the potential to change him to a hero in later films. With the positive buzz coming out of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, I think we can expect the quality to keep on coming.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER opens April 4th.