The Falcon and The Winter Soldier marks the second live-action series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after WandaVision. And Marvel Studios didn’t waste anytime getting fans engaged by introducing a new Captain America — John Walker played by Wyatt Russell (Overlord, Lodge 49). The first episode follows up on a side plot from Avengers: Endgame. The original Captain America, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), retired and passed on the shield to his friend and partner Sam Wilson aka The Falcon. Sam says, “It feels like it belongs to someone else.” and echoes that in the first episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Sam gives up the honor, but almost immediately sees the U.S. government give the shield to John Walker and anoint him as the new Captain America.
John Walker, a well-decorated Marine, wears a similar Cap suit, uses the name Captain America, and of course uses Cap’s shield. He doesn’t possess super strength, but is willing to do whatever it takes to serve his country, which is a departure from John Walker’s story arc as the U.S. Agent in Marvel Comics. Wyatt Russell recently spoke to Polygon about becoming Captain America and how he avoided reading past comics about his character.
“The problem with reading too many of the comics is, there are too many storylines to follow,” he says. “So it doesn’t really help me find this storyline, because he’s different in all of them. That’s what makes Marvel fun and cool, that’s what’s great about comics. But it doesn’t help me with the MCU version of the character. Following the storylines just gets super-confusing.”
Wyatt Russell on finding his version of John Walker in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier
Russell admitted to looking up his character on Wikipedia. “And I read for five minutes, and it was like, ‘Okay, no more, I’m more confused than when I started.’” Instead, he looked at comics art of the character. “That told me who he was, in terms of figuring out how to how to play him. He’s got a different vibe as a person [than Steve Rogers], and he fights differently.”
He talked about his co-stars, Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, director Kari Skogland, and on-set lead producer Zoie Nagelhout being helpful sources for John Walker’s personality. “I was able to ask them questions and give them my ideas and have them talk me through what was going on. You use each other to come up with the best version of the story. Everybody at Marvel’s great, so I felt confident with the personnel.”
“Kari is an unbelievable listener. She doesn’t come with solidified ways in her head that she wants you to be. With John, there’s no prior information in the MCU, so we’re creating something new. And in doing that, she allowed me freedom to try different versions of the character as we were shooting it.”
Wyatt Russell’s John Walker isn’t quite liked by MCU fans… right now.
The first two episodes of The Falcon and The Winters Soldier shows John Walker callously stepping into the Captain America role while Sam, who was actually given the right by Steve Rogers himself, struggled to accept the mantle. That didn’t sit well with the fans and now they see Russell’s John Walker as a low-key villain. Russell was ready for that fan response. “What I liked about John in the first place was the polarizing aspect of him. I wanted to play that as a character. And as an actor, that’s kind of what you want — I always like playing characters where however you feel about him is how you feel. However they feel, I agree with them. I’m just there to do the job and disappear, and John will live on in Disney+ Land.”
Russell was asked about John Walker’s future beyond The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, which is only 6-episodes. Russell said, “I hope so! We’ll see what happens to John. But look, I’d never say no after this experience with Marvel. Whenever you get the opportunity to work with people like that, you do it.”
He believes as The Falcon and The Winter Soldier moves forward, John Walker’s role will surprise the viewers. “You definitely will learn more about him, and more about what he’s gone through, and how he reacts to certain situations. And you’ll start to understand a little bit of the inner workings of his psyche as the series continues.”
