Captain America 4 is on its way, according to news that landed last Friday following the conclusion of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Anthony Mackie is attempting to play down all the talk of him getting his own movie as the Sentinel of Liberty, but the intel does seem to be accurate. What’s more, though he may be acting innocent in public, a new report claims that Mackie’s busy pushing for more diversity in the project behind the scenes.
According to Giant Freakin Robot, the star is campaigning for Cap 4 to feature a greater diversity in its cast of characters compared with previous entries in the Marvel franchise. In particular, Mackie is said to be keen to have more prominent female and PoC characters in the mix. GFR speculates that this may mean many of the supporting actors from Falcon will be brought over into the film.
The Bradleys, both elderly Isaiah (Carl Lumbly) and his grandson Eli (Elijah Richardson), would be a natural fit for the plot as Isaiah could continue to be a kind of mentor to Sam while Eli may step up and take on his comic book mantle of Patriot. What’s more, Sam’s sister Sarah (Adepero Oduye) might return, too, especially as Sebastian Stan’s Bucky possibly has a crush on her.
The same outlet has also claimed that Cap 4 will explore racism in the United States, building on what was already touched on in Falcon. This isn’t surprising given that showrunner Malcolm Spellman and writer Dalan Musson are penning the script for the new movie. It’s likely the writing duo share Mackie’s commitment to greater diversity, then, so this is hopefully less of a case of the actor having to fight for the cause and more everyone being on the same page.
No director has been announced as yet, so Captain America 4 could take some time in getting here. But the MCU continues when Loki premieres on Disney Plus on June 11th.