Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger as well as the massive team up film The Avengers. The film follows the events of both those films and has Captain America trying to live in the modern world.

There aren’t a ton of details about Captain America: The Winter Soldier, though I’m a big nerd and can make a few educate guesses based on what’s out there.

First, it’s been confirmed that the film will be in the modern day, so the early rumors about a sequel being mostly flashbacks to some of Cap’s other exploits during WWII are false. Good. Based on where Cap was left after The Avengers, you can tell he’s been accepted by the modern world and is likely starting to find his way, but he’s still a man out of time so he will no doubt still deal with the changes in technology and such during the new film.

S.H.I.E.L.D will also play a role in the film, and likely have Samuel L. Jackson in a fairly prominent part. This makes sense, as most of the characters from the first film would be super old or dead now, but perhaps not all. The title of the next Captain America film, The Winter Soldier, is quite intriguing. In the comics, Cap’s old sidekick Bucky Barnes, who was a bit of a badass in the film, comes back from the assumed dead as an assassin with a score to settle with Captain America. I’m speculating that he’ll blame Cap for his ‘death,’ though this may be because of brainwashing or something from the real bad guy.

Anyways, in the comics, after the ‘Death’ of Captain America, his mantle is taken up by a redeemed Bucky, who is a more than capable fighter. I’m guessing he’ll have some version of a super soldier formula running through his veins just like Cap’s. Maybe he’ll be stronger or faster. Not sure. But I’m thinking he’ll be without morals until Cap’s inherit goodness brings him back from the abyss at the end of the film and Bucky sacrifices himself to save the day.

Come on, it’s just obvious.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America: The Winter Soldier will be directed by a new guy, or I suppose I should say guys, this time. Anthony and Joe Russo will be at the helm. They’re an interesting choice, as their background is more in comedy, as they directed You, Me and Dupree before and are executive producers for NBC’s Community. They wouldn’t be my first choice, but I get the impression they’re big comic nerds, so hopefully they’ll have a better feel for the character than Joe Johnston, who directed the first film. I didn’t hate it, but the action in the second half was too much of the adventure line, and not enough badass action. It was serviceable. Not creative and cool.

The writer for The Winter Soldier is Christopher Markus, who wrote the first. He did fine in my opinion, especially with the scenes between Cap and Dr. Erskine, so I’m cool with this.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Trailer

Not yet.

Movie Release Date

April 4, 2014.

Pictures

Who’s In It?

 Chris Evans … Steve Rogers/Captain America
  Samuel L. Jackson … Nick Fury
  Sebastian Stan … James Buchanan ‘Bucky’ Barnes/The Winter Soldier
  Anthony Mackie … Falcon (rumored)

What’s Good About It?

The first Captain America film did a decent job of telling his origin. I loved the first half of the film, especially the special effects of skinny Steve Rogers. And I liked the way they handled his character. He’s obviously a proud American, and you can’t undo that. You can’t just change the fundamental part of who he is, but with these films being so heavily dependent on international markets you also need to downplay that part of Cap. Making Cap anti-bully was perfect. It’s very old school American, and made him the hero he needed to be without alienating audiences.

Cap was made further cool with The Avengers, which did an outstanding job showing his leadership abilities.

What’s Bad About It?

Though he’s been decent thus far, I still don’t love Chris Evans as Cap. They really have to write around his weaknesses as an actor.

Our Clever Prediction

I have little doubt that Cap will do very well at the box office. The one negative might be that audiences get burnt out with these characters and the world created around them. Iron Man 3 comes out next, and then the Cap and Thor sequels. By the time we get to the next Avengers people will have about 700 of these films. I won’t tire, but the general public may.