'Captain America 3' Directors Tease a Passing of the Shield

Change is inevitable in the world of the Avengers; it's kind of their thing, really. And over the last few years there has been a lot of change for Captain America who has died, been replaced by his formerly dead buddy the Winter Solider, only to return and get replaced again by his other friend, Falcon. With all of those guys wearing the suit in the comics, and Chris Evans' contract status kind of up in the air, many have wondered if we might see a new Captain America on screen. Returning directors Joe & Anthony Russo were asked by MTV about if a change was in the works for Captain America 3, and they certainly didn't shoot the idea down, in fact they seem to confirm that this will be the end of Cap's story...

Anthony Russo: "It is a hard question to answer because it gets to the specific of where the narratives are going. I will say this: yes, for satisfying storytelling, you want a beginning, middle and end. That’s the natural arc that we all thrive off of in narrative.” 

When one looks at what Marvel did with Iron Man, they were able to wrap up his story neatly in Iron Man 3. While there have been some minor discussions about a fourth film it doesn't seem likely, especially with Robert Downey Jr. more than happy only to return for Avengers movies. That's opened up room for new franchises to begin, like this summer's Guardians of the Galaxy. The Russos believe the cinematic universe will begin to look even more like the comics, meaning new characters will often be shuffled in to prominent roles while older ones step aside for a time...

Anthony Russo: “The great thing about the Marvel universe, just like the publishing, it’s a very vast, inter-connected universe, where characters will have their rise and fall, so to speak, and hand off to other characters. As the cinematic universe moves forward, you may start to see the cinematic universe adopt that same pattern, as the publishing has, where there’s closure with some characters and new beginnings with other characters. How those hand-offs are made is always part of the fun.”

Yes, he's talking openly about Steve Rogers handing off the Captain America mantle to another, but does that mean it will happen? And if so, who would pick it up? The Russos tell Collider....

Anthony Russo: "You know, to be honest with you, it’s just – even though there’s sort of a grand plan of things, Kevin Feige also has this awesome attitude of one movie at a time, which I think is very healthy, not to get too far ahead of yourself.  And I think even though we can see in the distant horizon some contracts coming to an end and whatnot, and sort of wondering about what happens, I think the truth is, we’re not close enough to it to really be addressing it on a narrative level yet."

Joe Russo: "When Bucky takes over the mantle at the end of Cap 3 – [turns to Anthony] did I just …[LAUGHS] Did I just say that?  I meant to say Falcon. Falcon takes over the mantle at the end of Cap 3.  It’s a process that, you know, you have to tell the best story that you can now and the contract issue’s not necessarily something that we’re worried all that much about."

Anthony Russo: "All we know is we get Chris Evans for this movie."

All jokes aside, these questions are going to keep popping up from now until Captain America: The Death of Captain America or whatever it will be titled opens on May 6th 2016.