Things are beginning to move at a faster pace with the Captain America sequel.  First off, we have the new title…Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  The subtitle alone gives us a very big clue as to where things are heading for the Star-Spangled Avenger.  We also know that this film will be more heavily tied to the events of The Avengers than the other sequels on the way.  Cap will be continuing his working relationship with Nick Fury and SHIELD for the time being.  With that in mind, I fully expect him to put together a new team for himself and I’ll be shocked if Black Widow and Hawkeye aren’t among the roster.  Who else is worthy of a spot though?  Marvel has an answer to that very question…

The Falcon.  Yep, good ole Sam Wilson will be suiting up to fight alongside Cap in the Marvel Movieverse, just as he did 40 years ago in the comics.  In the current incarnation, Falcon is a SHIELD agent and it seems likely that he will be here as well.  There’s no time for fancasting though, as Marvel already have their sights set on Anthony Mackie to bring the Harlem hero to the silver screen.  Nothing is official yet, but I don’t think this is a call that Mackie will refuse to answer.

Normally I’d be a little more surprised about a left-field character choice like this, but we were given a tip-off awhile back.  For those of you who don’t know, Marvel’s animated Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes just finished up its second season on Disney XD.  It’s also a great adaptation.  Or was, at least.  Given the massive popularity of the recent film, the company has decided to retool the series for its third season.  Marvel has promised that it will be more of a soft reboot with some sort of transition between the two.  What we do know is that the series will be called Avengers Assemble and will begin airing sometime in 2013.

Here’s the team roster that was released a few weeks back:  Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Falcon.  The latter will be our entry point into this continuation series, which will see Falcon as the newest member of the team.  Noticeably absent from the line-up are Black Panther, Ant-Man, and Wasp.  While I’m not completely caught up on the second season, this isn’t too much of a shocker (at least in terms of Ant-Man and Wasp) from a story standpoint given the events that have occurred on EMH.

 

At the time I thought it a bit odd that Falcon was chosen over Black Panther, but now it all makes sense.  This series will serve as an early introduction to the character for the kids (and adults like me) who watch it and prepare them for his live action introduction in 2014.  One has to wonder if the Guardians of the Galaxy will pop up again in the show before their own film blast into theaters in a little over two years time.  I’m guessing they will.

All jabbering and spitballing aside, we have learned over the past week the identities one of the villains and one of the new allies that Captain America will encounter in his next Chris Evans mansuit adventure.  Are we in for an old sidekick vs. new sidekick showdown?  It looks that way.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but I like what I’m seeing so far.

Source | THR