Even though the project was first reported to be in development the very same day the final episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier aired on Disney plus, it wasn’t until yesterday that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s fourth solo Captain America movie was made official, with Anthony Mackie set to replace Chris Evans as the franchise’s leading man.
The longtime Sam Wilson has either been out of the loop or keeping his cards close to the chest, after claiming that he’d heard about his solo debut being in the works from a guy at his local grocery store, but he’s since closed a deal to suit up as the MCU’s latest and full-time star spangled superhero. Now the speculation will turn towards potential plot points, guest appearances, villains and more, but as you can see from the reactions below, fans are hyped that Captain America 4 has finally taken a massive step forward.
Looking at the Marvel Studios release calendar, we might not be seeing Captain America 4 until 2024 at the earliest. While the slate remains empty beyond Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in May 2023, the likes of Deadpool 3, Mahershala Ali’s Blade reboot and Jon Watts’ Fantastic Four are all further along the pre-production process, and Kevin Feige probably isn’t going to load a calendar year with more than four or five projects.
Captain America 4 doesn’t even have a director yet, which is no doubt next on the agenda with the script being tackled by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier alumni Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson, who’ve been working on the story for a while. Evans’ trilogy brought in over $2 billion at the box office, so Mackie will be looking to emulate his predecessor’s success and then some.