“When we first met Sam, he was a counselor. He was a humanitarian,” Mackie says, diving into the backstory that drives his character. “He was a member of the 58th airborne, a squadron of parachuters. When you’re stuck behind enemy lines, they jump into harm’s way and bring you out. There’s a certain level of humanity that comes with being someone who is willing to put themselves aside to help their fellow man at all costs. And that’s Sam Wilson.”
Yet, as heroic as Sam is, Mackie doesn’t see him as a superhero like Steve Rogers, who gained his strength and endurance via the experimental super-soldier serum in World War II. “A serum’s not his superpower. His superpower is his humanity, and the beauty of the fact that him being the best version of all of us.”
That humane aspect allows Mackie and director Julius Onah—working off a story by Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, and Dalan Musson—to create a grounded, classical adventure for Brave New World.
“Captain America movies are always steeped in tradition and reality,” Mackie observes. “They always had more of an espionage feel, which made them more realistic. And this is a true Captain America movie because has the same vocabulary those movies established.”
We can see that classic Captain America vocabulary in the plot of Brave New World, which finds Cap teaming with the new Falcon Joaquín Torres (Danny Ramirez) and former Black Widow Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas) to protect President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford, stepping in for the late William Hurt) against a secret plot by the Serpent Society’s Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito) and The Incredible Hulk villain Samuel Sterns aka the Leader (Tim Blake Nelson).
We’ll also see it in the way that Sam performs the most famous Captain America action: throwing his mighty shield. Yet, even that aspect Mackie approaches from a character-first perspective.