Avengers 4 Theory: 10 Clues Bucky Will Take Over As Captain America

6. Kevin Feige's Comments On Legacy Characters

Iron Man 2 Kevin Feige Robert Downey Jr.
Marvel Studios

If you happen to be a comic book fan, it's likely that you'll be familiar with the concept of 'legacy characters' - mantles that are adopted by more than one character as a means of reinventing the wheel every now and then.

Captain America is a legacy character, with Bucky and Sam Wilson having adopted the mantle before; Iron Man is a legacy character, and so is Thor. Legacy is huge at the moment, and though this isn't to say that every MCU mantle will be passed down, it does make sense for certain characters more than it does others. Cap happens to be one of them, and it's a fact that Kevin Feige - Marvel Studios' head honcho - is acutely aware of.

When asked by Collider if a Captain America film had to star Steve Rogers, Feige gave this as his reply:

"It’s a good question and if we look back at the comic books as our inspiration and as the well from which this all springs, then the answer is 'no.' I’m not saying we’ll do it in the movie but I’ve read Captain America comics that don’t have Steve Rogers in them."

Not an explicit confirmation that the films are heading in this direction, but it does illustrate that Marvel are aware of this avenue and could possibly even take it should they deem it necessary. The door is very much open for Bucky to succeed Steve as Cap in this instance, and while all MCU series bar The Avengers have come in trilogies, technically speaking, a Bucky Cap film would represent a fresh start.

Whether or not fans would warm to the move is another matter altogether, but Feige's comments on the matter should offer encouragement to fans of Stan's character.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.