Though Captain America: The Winter Soldier had its big announcement party at the San Diego Comic-Con this year, Disney naturally wanted to trumpet its upcoming Marvel slate at D23. So Chris Evans, Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan took the stage alongside directors Joe and Anthony Russo to pimp out the Captain.
In the press line after the main show, Mackie, who plays winged warrior Falcon, admitted he might want to see the film as 'Falcon: Also Starring Captain America And The Winter Soldier', but that he’s happy to support his pal Evans and he got to have a lot of fun amid the hard work of making the movie. “I did a lot of the action, a lot of flying around, I would say once you see how I fly, it blows your mind. For me, one of the coolest things about the movie is that whole effect and I was the one playing him! I was like a kid in a candy store.”
Stan, meanwhile, is the eponymous Winter Soldier, the creation forged by fusing the dead Bucky Barnes from the first film with some high-tech cybernetics. He was warned not to necessarily expect the storyline when he signed on to play Barnes in the first film, but remained hopeful. And while he didn’t have to suffer prosthetics to play the role, it wasn’t easy, either. “Nothing is ever easy! The costume was a lot to walk around in. I sweated in it a lot...”
This new Cap-venture finds the Star Spangled Man adapting to the modern world in the wake of fighting alongside the Avengers. Directing brothers Joe and Anthony Russo were very clear about what they wanted to do with the film. “We had a strong vision for the movie, a specific direction to move in that was different from everything they've done up to this point, and the Marvel team were very supportive,” said Anthony. “The film is shot handheld, there's aggressive camera work in it, Cap fights very differently than he did in his previous films, but we were able to re-set him in a way, because time has passed and he's embraced the modern world. Now he's working for S.H.I.E.L.D., he wants to be the best operative he can be [and] study different forms of fighting.”
To convey the tone they were looking for, the pair dug into their cinema collections and screened movies for the cast. “There are a lot of clips we pulled from '70s thrillers, some of our favourite films to show to the creative team,” explained Anthony. “We're big fans of De Palma and the way he would eke out tension in scenes. We grew up cinephiles and film fanatics, and for us this was a chance to try our hand at stuff that inspired us as kids.”
Besides the political thriller action, they were also giddy to be tackling huge, effects-heavy set pieces, such as – spoiler alert! – crashing one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s helicarriers. “It's awesome, even if we didn't get to do it practically. We should start the rumour that that was the most expensive set piece in the movie. We had to build one, and crash it and I was actually at the wheel,” laughed Anthony. “They let me run it into the ground...” Joe picked up the flow: “There's a big crater on the east side of Cleveland where it's still sitting...” You heard it here first, folks.