When Wyatt Russell‘s John Walker made his big debut as the new Captain America at the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s premiere, fans were not loving him, and that hatred only grew deeper as audiences got to spend more time with the new Cap in Episode 2, “The Star-Spangled Man with the Plan.” You’d think that kind of negative reaction would not sit easy with an actor, but Russell is here for it.
“That’s the goal,” he told The Wrap before detailing how his character is struggling after being rejected (twice) by Sam and Bucky, and that the awkward existence of his new Cap is intentional:
“There’s elements to him where he wants to be able to do it without the super soldier serum. Just be that good,” Russell says. “He does have those ideas in his head of wanting people to like him, like his version of Captain America. It sort of gets rained on and causes him to have to rethink how things are going to be done.”
As for the consequences of that rethinking, Russell sticks to the requisite Marvel secrecy, but it sounds like even more tension is coming down the road. “He definitely doesn’t make life easier for anybody,” Russell says. As for taking on the daunting task of filling in Chris Evans’ shoes, Russell recently told Jimmy Kimmel that just like his character John Walker, he walked into his new role completely unprepared. Outside of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, which starred his dad, Russell was not too familiar with the MCU.
“I didn’t grow up knowing much about comics,” Wyatt confessed to Kimmel. “My heroes were athletes. So when I came on set, I was asking, ‘What does that mean?’ Or, ‘Who’s that person?’… and finally, Sebastian was like, ‘Dude, stop asking questions. You’re gonna get even more confused than you are… when you get answers, it’s gonna be worse.’”
(Via The Wrap)