Captain America: The Winter Soldier may not have a poster or trailer yet, but we now have a good idea of what Steve Rogers will be facing in his third big screen appearance. Marvel has released a plot summary for the upcoming film, giving us a bit more information on the involvement of SHIELD and how the film connects to The Avengers. Plus, actors Cobie Smulders and Anthony Mackie have contributed to the news with their own information on how Captain America: The Winter Soldier is its own unique Marvel film.
Check out the official synopsis, via Digital Spy,
After the cataclysmic events in New York with The Avengers, Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier finds Steve Rogers – aka Captain America – living quietly in Washington, DC, and trying to adjust to the modern world. But when a S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague comes under attack, Steve becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue that threatens to put the world at risk. Joining forces with the Black Widow, Captain America struggles to expose the ever-widening conspiracy while fighting off professional assassins sent to silence him at every turn. When the full scope of the villainous plot is revealed, Captain America and the Black Widow enlist the help of a new ally, the Falcon. However, they soon find themselves up against an unexpected and formidable enemy – the Winter Soldier.
The involvement of Mackie as The Falcon, Smulders as Maria Hill, and Scarlet Johansson as Black Widow opens up a number of possibilities for the SHIELD colleague who comes under attack in the film. Smulders, who played SHIELD Agent Maria Hill in The Avengers, gave us a little more to go on, emphasizing the importance of SHIELD to The Winter Soldier, and discussing how the organization is helping to bridge the gap between the many post-Avengers Marvel productions. In an interview with IGN, the actress discussed her role in the upcoming Captain America film, as mentioned how a Marvel film might lock into place with the new Agents of SHIELD television show. When asked about SHIELD’s involvement in the new captain America film, Smulders responded,
Yeah, the world is a very unstable place. You know, there’s so much I can’t say… It’s very hard. But Cap and Romanoff are basically Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and they go off and do one thing. We’re overseeing everything, and there’s a communication breakdown… I can’t say anything! But it is very much about S.H.I.E.L.D. — it’s all about S.H.I.E.L.D., basically. But there are so many different components to that agency. Maria plays a small part in the S.H.I.E.L.D. universe, but I like to think an important one. We’ll see.
Smulders also provided some insight in how SHIELD might bridge the gap between big screen and small screen, saying to IGN:
It’s going to be very interesting to see how these next three years of Marvel plays out, because they’re so smart and so good about keeping the stories connected… Iron Man 3 was happening after New York, and it was sort of his side of things; S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t have anything to do with it really. Then Cap comes in, and it’s all about S.H.I.E.L.D. — and Thor’s, like, in another world. But just seeing how all these pieces come together — I don’t know how this timeline is going to work within that. I don’t know if it’s going to be conflicting with the movies or what, but I love Joss [Whedon] and Jed [Whedon] and Maurissa [Tancharoen]. The [S.H.I.E.L.D.] cast was amazing. Clark [Gregg] is my bud. So if they want me to come in and want me to play it, I’d be happy to come and play.
Smulders also admitted that, as we see more of SHIELD, we’ll be getting more insight into the relationship between Maria Hill and Nick Fury, and that the emphasis, for her character, is on challenging Fury within SHIELD.
While Mackie didn’t give us much to go on regarding the plot of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, he did mention an aspect of the film that will certainly help ground it more than some of Marvel’s other upcoming films. Mackie shared that directors Anthony and Joe Russo kept the effects more grounded, a fitting decision considering their film features more SHIELD agents than Norse gods and billionaires. As Mackie told MTV:
The Russos, what they did that was so great was, they wanted to stay with live action, which is a dying art form. If they can build it, they built it. If we could do it, we did it. They wanted to do as little CGI as possible. That’s why the movie looks so great.
While he revealed very little about his role, Mackie did tell MTV that his character is certainly a soldier, saying that the character took after the later versions of the comic book Falcon, and that:
I think Marvel kept introducing him because they realized the value of an African America superhero, and they wanted to get it right. He’s more of tactical expert than a birdman from Harlem.
Captain America 2 may not appear in theaters for several months, but we’re starting to get a decent idea of what the team will be like. Hopefully we will hear more soon.
(via Digital Spy, io9, IGN, MTV)
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