Sam Wilson’s Last Movie? How Chris Evans Changes Everything

Chris Evans is back in the MCU. So what does this mean for Sam Wilson as Captain America? Is Steve Rogers going to fully replace Sam Wilson in the role? We're going to talk about what's next for Marvel and the villain that I think Sam Wilson should face in his final outing as Captain America, the Red Skull. Welcome back Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Airy. And let's talk about what's next for the MCU with Chris Evans back in the franchise. Is he just here for Doomsday and Secret Wars? Or are we going to have two Captains America running around? We're going to talk about the precedent for this in the comics and where I think the MCU is going to go from here. But first, I have to talk about the background of Captain America, both the comics and the MCU. And then we'll get into why Captain America Brave New World did so-so at the box office. And then especially what a new Captain America film could do to revive interest in Sam Wilson's Captain America. So as you all know, Captain America was invented by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon and was first published an entire year before the US even entered World War II. Captain America became a symbol of patriotism in the fight against the Nazis. But after the war, the character's popularity died out until Kirby and Stan Lee had a brilliant idea that would come to redefine the character. He was frozen in ice and then thawed in the 1960s. So the Avengers comics and Cap's solo book now became about him being a man out of time and grappling with what America had become. Now, at the time, Kirby and Lee meant this to be a commentary on the social upheavals of the 1960s. But it turns out that this is a concept that's universal to any time period. America continues to change greatly with every generation. So there is always some facet of modern life that Captain America would have to readjust to. In the 1970s, when public trust in the government was at an all-time low, following the Watergate scandal, he dropped the Captain America persona altogether and became the hero nomad. And this is similar to also what has happened in the MCU. We first saw Steve and his home element, the 1940s. And then we get to see all of these world altering events of the MCU through his eyes. It seems to run on some form of electricity. Not only does Steve grapple with the modern world, but he also faces alien invasions, an evil spy network taking over the planet, and government registration of superheroes. And this, of course, led to him abandoning the Captain America identity and focusing on group therapy sessions until he was called back to action. Now, I bring this up because Steve Rogers has a very simple story with a relatable premise. He comes from a time in American history that we idealize as a simpler era, which it wasn't, by the way. But seeing this guy in the modern era allows us to see America through fresh eyes. None of Steve's replacements in the comics or the MCU can offer this kind of universal mythological perspective. People like Sam and Bucky and John Walker will always be just other guys wearing the Captain America suit, which is not a bad thing. I think Sam Wilson is a great Captain America. I just don't think he's going to always be the only Captain America. Steve Rogers is irreplaceable as Captain America because the story itself is bigger than one character. He taps into a kind of universal mythology. The old soldier brought back for one more war. You know, like how the Hulk is a representation of the Jekyll and Hyde monster. I mean, the character's roots in literature go back to ancient mythology. So we could never really replace this idea for good. Kind of like how the original Avengers all fulfilled different kinds of mythological roles. We have the knight, the monster, the soldier, the god, the spy, and the Hawkeye. And they team up against a classic mythological villain, Loki, who is at the center of Marvel Rivals phase one, the Path to Doomsday event. What's that? Oh man, you've got to play Marvel Rivals. I can't, I don't got thumbs. Well, you're missing out. The Screen Crush team gets together to play Rivals all the time. So I am pumped that Marvel Rivals sponsored this video. Marvel Rivals is a live fighting game where you play as different Marvel characters and you can fight on squads with your friends. It is so much fun. And now the Avengers mode has arrived in Marvel Rivals season 7.5. You can now play as the original Avengers against Loki in the Battle of New York. I can't wait. It's like getting to actually be in the MCU. One player controls Loki and six players play as the Avengers. Now, if you play as Loki, you get godlike power with enhanced abilities and stats. You can use mind control to turn the Avengers against each other and fight for you. And you can just cause chaos around New York. But if you play against Loki, you can play with five other heroes to take him down. And you can even summon the Hulk to recreate this. Puny god. And to kick this off, Times Square is hosting a series of events where you can relive the Infinity Saga inside Marvel Rivals. There's a watch party zone where you sit with heroes in an interactive viewing area. You can trigger hero animations and you can earn rewards by playing in the event. At the photo checkpoint, you can even recreate famous MCU scenes, take your own photos and claim rewards. Now the game keeps evolving with nonstop updates. And don't forget, you can also play the new PVE mode and the latest hero Black Cat right now. So to download Marvel Rivals and join in the fun, click our link in the description and I will see you in-game. Now, even though I don't think any other character can fully replace Captain America, the attempt to replace Steve Rogers always makes for a good story in and of itself. In the 1980s, when he stepped away, the government gave the shield to the right-wing jingoistic John Walker, which is similar to what happens in the MCU. The story then becomes about how nobody could possibly take over the mantle of Captain America. And in the MCU, we saw this happen when Erskine's warning came true. This led to Sam Wilson finally picking up the shield for himself, which also happens in the comics. In the comics, Sam becomes Captain America after Steve had the super soldier serum drained from his body. Now Steve continued on as the head of SHIELD, but as a non-generian without superpowers. Again, which is similar to where we add in the MCU, where Steve is still around, he's just super old. Now in the MCU, Sam had a slow ramp up to embracing the shield of Captain America. In the show Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he decides that there can only be one Captain America and he donates the shield to a museum. And at first we think this is because he doesn't think he can live up to Steve's legacy. But later he admits to Bucky that race was always a part of the equation. Over the course of the series, the audience discovers what Steve saw in Sam. His real superpower is empathy. I mean, he's almost able to talk down a terrorist group just by being nice. And unlike Steve Rogers, he publicly demeans a politician. I actually think Falcon and the Winter Soldier is an underrated show, but I'll save that defense for another video. In the comics, Sam becoming Captain America is immediately divisive, in large part because of his race. He also decides that he can't be a politically neutral Captain America like Steve Rogers. So he begins to work on the granular level to right societal wrongs. Now that would actually be an interesting path to see Sam tackle in the MCU. Maybe he would learn that certain societal issues are systemic and can't be fixed by one man. Unfortunately, the Marvel Cinematic Universe can't really pull off a story like that because they are trying to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. At the box office, Sam Wilson's Captain America proved to be a solid moneymaker, but not exactly a box office behemoth. It made $415 million worldwide off about a $200 million budget. Now there are rumors though that the movie was plagued by behind the scenes issues and massive reshoots that eliminated most of the plot line and characters involving the Serpent Society. The film also miscalculated by carrying on a storyline that was established in The Incredible Hulk in 2008. Its plot depended so heavily on knowledge of the previous film that the newscaster got awfully heavy-handed with its descriptions. Dr. Betty Ross, Bruce Banner's ex-girlfriend. Instead of Sam Wilson getting his own villain that delves into his own personal quest, he was pulled into the story of other people dealing with an interpersonal conflict between Ross and the leader. And Ross was not only recast with Harrison Ford, but he's suddenly a completely different character than the gruff hero-hating asshole from previous films. 72 hours. Guaranteed. 36 hours. Barnes. Roger. Which is why I want you, Captain America, to help me rebuild the Avengers. However, the movie had some incredibly kick-ass action scenes. They reinvented Sam's fighting style for the film. The fighter sequence above T-Mutt is one of the best sequences I've ever seen in the MCU. Harrison Ford is also terrific and Sam gets a chance to display his actual superpower Empathy. I might be crazy, but I think you're trying to change. Now's the time to prove it to the world. And not only that, but the film actually grossed more money than the first Avenger. $415 million globally versus $370 million. Although Brave New World cost about $70 million more to make after reshoots. And Brave New World was also released at a time when Marvel interest was starting to ebb, which of course led to Marvel bringing back Steve Rogers for Avengers Doomsday and Secret Wars. And this is where I want to get into the future of Sam Wilson's Captain America and talk about why they should make a sequel to Brave New World. The box office performance of Brave New World was low, but it did show that audiences would still show up for a Captain America movie without Chris Evans. So I would like to offer up some suggestions and theories on where the MCU goes from here. As I said earlier, Steve Rogers is ultimately irreplaceable as Captain America. Other people can take the mantle for a while, but eventually Anthony Mackie will want to step away from the role. And when he does, do you think they're going to recast Sam Wilson or make a new Steve Rogers into Captain America? The mantle will always revert to the original character, just like in the comics. But before that happens, let's give Sam Wilson the great movie send-off he deserves. So at the end of Brave New World, Sam has decided to reestablish the Avengers, but then Bucky's group of ragtag losers snatches the official name first. In the Thunderbolts post-credits scene, we hear that there's some tension between these two frenemies. You know he's filed for copyright of the name. So we can presume that in Avengers Doomsday, there will be two squads of Avengers who don't like each other, but they put aside their differences to work together. And this might be because Steve Rogers shows up and helps them put those differences aside. Remember the Steve Rogers who shows up in Avengers Doomsday is the same guy who left on the time platform in Endgame. He's been off raising a family and eventually he will show up as an old man and hand the shield to Sam. Doomsday and Secret Wars will then answer the question, how did old man Steve get to that bench? So we think that Sam will really impress Steve during this time. I mean, Doomsday is going to be about the heroes fighting off incursions like Reed explains here. An incursion occurs when the boundary between two universes erodes and they collide, destroying one or both entirely. So when the heroes are placed into morally dubious territory and have to choose whether a universe lives or dies, Sam would now be the moral center of reason who echoes Steve's words. We don't trade lives Vision. Maybe Steve has become more jaded and wants to end another universe, but Sam brings him back to a moral center. And this would convince younger Steve that yes, he made the right choice and Sam deserves the shield, which is why when he's older and Sam says it feels like the shield belongs to someone else, he says it isn't. So if Steve in Secret Wars by completing the time loop and handing off the shield, this means that Steve Rogers is still in the MCU. It means that he's really old, but still around. Again, this is just like when old man Steve was in charge of shield in the comics when he asked Sam to take over as Captain America for him. So where does this leave Sam Wilson's new Captain America movie? Will they just make Steve young again by running time through him like they did to Scott Lang? Somebody peed my pants. Time travel! I would like to offer up three suggestions for the next Sam Wilson Captain America movie, and these would cap off his own Captain America trilogy, especially if we count Falcon and the Winter Soldier as the first part of this trilogy, which we should. It actually probably would have worked better as a movie anyways. So in the films, Captain America has already gone up against all of the major villains from his rogues gallery, Baron Zemo, Arnim Zola, Crossbones, Flag Smasher, Hydra, Batroc the Leaper, and Baron Von Strucker. Unless Sam goes up against Porcupine Man or the Armadillo, they're going to have to go back to the well. Now Zemo, very strong choice. In Civil War, he was mostly focused on getting vengeance for his family, but Falcon and the Winter Soldier turned him into an ideologue. The danger with people like him, America's super soldiers, is that we put them on pedestals. They become symbols, icons, and then we start to forget about their flaws. We discover that he is indeed a Baron. He's very rich, and he's essentially the MCU's Batman. In the comics, Zemo is an acolyte of the Red Skull, who is motivated by racism. But in the MCU, he has a more understandable, even sympathetic goal, to end all superheroes. Honestly, he'd make a great X-Men villain. We saw Zemo act as a loner and a free agent, and he took down the Avengers. But what if he were to use his considerable wealth and resources to bring them down again? What if he actually formed the masters of evil, like in the comics, and fought against the Avengers? It seems like a natural progression for Zemo, but more likely a setting for an Avengers film. So a Captain America sequel could involve Zemo in some capacity. But in the MCU, there is one great, unresolved storyline, the Red Skull. The Red Skull is THE Captain America villain from the comics. He is another super soldier, but ideologically opposite of Captain America. Yet, in the MCU, he was mostly a one-and-done character. He ended First Avenger by getting sent into space, but then was forced into the role of Basil Exposition in Infinity War. I too sought the stones, but it cast me out, banished me here. So the Red Skull learned not to pursue the Infinity Stones or seek the power of the gods, but does that mean he's fully reformed? I mean, he led HYDRA based on the idea that humanity needed to be controlled in order to flourish. You know, like Arnim Zola said, HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Nothing about spending a few decades guarding the Soul Stone would have changed his mind about that. So now we have the Red Skull in outer space, and presumably he has been freed from his mission to guard the Soul Stone. So what now? I think the guy gets off planet and resumes his original mission to reform HYDRA. But he's stuck on the planet. Oh, think about it. Some poor sap shows up to get the Soul Stone. Then Johan Schmidt takes his ship and starts to build up his own organization. During the blip, he conquers star systems. He forms his new intergalactic HYDRA empire. And then he sends an envoy to Earth inviting Captain America, Sam Wilson, to an audience. He brings Sam to space and tells him that the Earth will be conquered and that HYDRA was gone, but now it has risen again. And maybe just for fun, before Arnim Zola was destroyed in the Winter Soldier, he beamed his consciousness to a satellite, which the Red Skull had acquired. Then he built Zola, the robot body from the comics. And by the way, he was also designing Captain America, the first Avenger. The Red Skull would then have military forces, space magic, and Zola. It is Sam's biggest fear. Androids, aliens, and wizards. The Red Skull is Steve Rogers' greatest foe. And I think he's been criminally underused in the films. And I think the best way to fully legitimize Sam Wilson in the eyes of skeptical fans and the best way to have your movie make a billion dollars is to pit Sam against the Red Skull in space. And here's idea number three for a Sam Wilson Captain America movie. To adapt Secret Empire. Now this is a highly controversial storyline from the comics that revealed that Steve Rogers was and always has been a HYDRA operative in disguise. He helps HYDRA to fully conquer the United States. Now it turns out that HYDRA used the Cosmic Cube to rewrite reality to make Steve into a HYDRA agent. But you get the point. I think this would be a great story to adapt in the MCU because it would show Sam going up against Steve Rogers. So imagine Steve running for president, you know, to restore normalcy to the nation after such great upheavals. He would start off great, but then it would take a dark turn as Steve Rogers became an authoritarian. Sam would then have to mount a resistance to Steve's rule. And then it would turn out that Steve was actually a life model decoy being manipulated by HYDRA. Maybe they discover the real old Steve Rogers locked in a cell and maybe they even D.H. him with the time machine so he can pitch in in the fight against evil Steve. This would be a massive movie, kind of like Captain America Civil War. It would be the ender to the Sam Wilson trilogy of films. I do think that long term Steve Rogers is going to need to be recast, but we could also end up with an MCU where there are two Captains America, just like in the modern comics. In the comics right now, Steve deals with domestic threats while Sam is more international. And maybe we could have the same thing in the MCU. So what do you guys think? Should they bring back the Red Skull in space? Should we have two Captain Americas? Or should Steve stay on the moon? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below where you can find me on Twitter, Blue Sky Threads or Substack or on our free to join Discord server. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe. Smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Airy.