With the long slog of Captain America casting finally at an end thanks to Chris Evans putting his scrawl on a contract for the lead, director Joe Johnston and his Marvel bosses can start filling in the rest of the cast. And one of the possible Captains – actor Sebastian Stan – has scored a supporting role as his sidekick, Bucky Barnes.
In the comic, Barnes was a teenaged orphan who loved the military but was too young to sign up. He became a mascot for one of the army camps, and discovered Steve Rogers’ identity as Captain America.
Seizing his opportunity, Bucky joins the Cap on his Nazi-battling adventures, coming to an untimely end in the character’s final World War Two adventure. But this is comic book lore and of course he was revived in 2005 to be snuck back into the narrative, initially as covert assassin Winter Soldier, before revealing himself as Bucky.
There’s no word on whether we’ll see Bucky’s “death” and rebirth in the final film, but since Stan has apparently signed a multi-film, Marvel-standard contract, don’t count on him staying dead even if he does meet a lethal fate…