Captain America is Black. Here’s why it matters

Anthony Mackie is Captain America.

Undeniably Black. Undeniably serving his lines with a trace of that familiar New Orleans twang. Undeniably a hero.

In Captain America: Brave New World, out now, Mackie plays a superhero draped in red, white and blue who is tasked with saving and representing the United States of America. A Black hero rocking the colors of this land and carrying the symbol of the promises afforded to those he serves and protects.

Word to Kendrick Lamar’s recent Super Bowl halftime performance, or whoever saw this coming.

Technically, we knew this moment was on the way. Back in 2019, by the time we got to the end of Avengers: End Game, one of the delicious treats awaiting audiences was seeing Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) hand over Captain America’s shield to Falcon (Mackie).

It was … revolutionary. But also, expected?

Steve Rogers has appeared in Marvel movies since 2011. In the aftermath of an intergalactic war against Thanos in End Game, Rodgers simply wanted to grow old like the rest of us. After all, he had been sipping from the fountain of youth, even though he fought in World War II. Rogers’ decision to step away from the Avenger was made easier because he left the country in the fine hands of his trusted friend, Falcon.

“The only thing bumming me out is the fact that we have to live in a world without Captain America,” Mackie’s character, Sam Wilson (also known as Falcon) told Rodgers in End Game, aware that the country’s symbol for honor, courage and freedom – and, dare we add democracy — has decided to live a life for himself, and not spend the time he has left saving the rest of us.

Rogers unzipped a circular case that’s been sitting at his feet. Wilson picked it up.

Anthony Mackie is on the go. He was overseas. Then visited a naval base in Nevada before landing in New York for a quick stay, and heading back to his hometown of New Orleans.

He was at the tailend of promoting his biggest role yet, Captain America. When he first got the role, Mackie was No. 6 on the call sheet. Through the years, he’s carried that as a badge of honor — at times negotiating with others for that same No. 6 placement, it’s a marker of his beginnings in this world of big budget studio filmmaking. And he doesn’t want to ever forget it.

“It means everything. I’ve worked a long time to get to this point,” Mackie said after slipping into a car at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport. “It’s bigger than anything I could’ve ever imagined. So I mean … seeing my hard work and my sacrifice pay off …” he trailed off for a beat.

“When you talk about Captain America, he’s an icon for the world. There are little kids around the world who are gonna look up to this character and wanna emulate this character just like when I was a kid I looked up to Superman,” Mackie said. “Even though he was from a planet I’ve never been to, I still put a sheet around my neck and ran around the house like it was a cape because I wanted to be Superman because of the integrity and the humanity of the character. And I think when you look at Sam Wilson it’s the same thing.”

Sam Wilson — Mackie’s Captain America — is not like Steve Rogers. The Captain America that has been on our screen in the Marvel cinematic universe (MCU) since 2011 was a World War II super soldier who fought Nazis and was eventually injected with a serum that afforded him superhuman capabilities. Mackie’s Captain America feels familiar. He’s a former social worker who didn’t ask to be a savior, but once he begrudgingly accepts the challenge, he moves through the world with the innate understanding that he has to work twice as hard, be twice as good, and never, ever make a mistake.

Sound familiar?

Wilson, like most characters we see developed in the MCU, comes straight from the original comic books. He was the first Black superhero when he appeared in a September issue of a Captain America comic book in 1969, but the original version of Falcon was a former hustler from Harlem.

“When I was talking to Stan Lee, he was telling me about the different incarnations of Sam Wilson, and how he developed the character and what he wanted Sam Wilson to stand for. When he first introduced him to the comic book, it was a Blaxploitation era so you know Black people looked up to James Brown and looked up to Shaft. Sam Wilson was a street hustler from Harlem in the first comic book and then he grew into a humanitarian and then he grew into a soldier then he grew into a counselor. Black culture evolved. Stan Lee was open minded enough and smart enough to have The Falcon evolve.”

Falcon did evolve. And as Mackie brought him to life. He transitioned from being the sidekick to now the main event — and the responsibility is massive.

“I think having a Black Captain America on the big screen is a big deal,” Marvel producer Nate Moore said. Moore is, quite frankly, the voice in the room bringing these stories to the big screen. “It’s not something, to be quite honest, we even thought about when we cast [Mackie], because [Falcon] had not made that transition in publishing. I think it’s always important for people to see someone who can be aspirational. And I think it’s important for populations who don’t always see themselves reflected in cinema to see them reflected. And I think America — in its best form — is for everyone, And I think Sam Wilson is emblematic of that.”

According to Moore, Sam Wilson’s ascension to Captain America is actually one of the most thought out journeys in the MCU. It’s not a direct reflection of today’s world, nor is it a counter to those who push back on the idea that our world can be diverse or balk at people who aren’t white holding spaces of leadership. We don’t learn about Sam Wilson in the comics until 2023, but before we even get to him, there was Isaiah Bradley, a super soldier who was experimented on and at one point served as Captain America. 

There’s a bit of Black history wedged into Captain America: Brave New World. The character of Isaiah Bradley (brilliantly brought to life by Carl Lumbly, who also starred as the same character in the Disney+ series) gives you a hint of Tuskegee airman mixed with a survivor of the Tuskegee experiment. And that comes directly from the comic book itself, Moore said. 

“From a standpoint of soul and conscience it was a real tragedy, not only for those men, but for the scientists who perpetrated that for the government that allowed it to extend just to see what would happen. And then the wonderful example of the Tuskegee airmen who literally were in the skies, in flight above heads and changing minds and perspectives. For me, being aware of both of those things made me, as I approached Isaiah, think about who you see, what they do, [and] who inspires you,” Lumbly said. “It can come from anywhere. And I’m not talking about any particular skin color. I am not talking about any particular location on the planet. We get examples of true bravery and selflessness and sacrifice from one another.”

This narrative of Sam Wilson becoming Captain America has been planned out over the course of more than a decade, and again, like most Marvel films, the source material is already there in the comic books. Its creator envisioned this world long before the world was ready for it.

“This is something that is a long time coming,” Moore said. “And having worked at marvel for over 15 years, and made films with Chris Evans as a lead and with Chadwick Boseman as a lead. Like the truth is, the questions are the same, which is what is the best character story? How is it going to resonate with audiences? And what does it mean to the larger MCU?”

In this case, it means we get to see a Black man ascend to Captain America.

But, we need to be careful in celebrating the significance that a Black man is representing the United States of America. Yes, this is a cultural victory, given that the world is so shaped to not honor or hold up images of greatness that are also Black. America in particular has struggled to define who gets to be a torchbearer of this space. After all, all-American beauty = blonde hair and blue eyes. Even now.

Especially now.

“Some of the conversations we were having was like Barack Obama … would people see him as the president or would people always see him as a Black president,”  said Ron Edwards, who co-wrote Brave New World. “It is difficult to separate the job from the culture and from what everybody wants to put on us. There’s no margin for error. Sam knows he cannot make a mistake. He’s aware of it. He’s been aware of it for a good long time. If you accomplish anything reasonable as a Black person in America, you know exactly what Sam is going through. You know if you’re the only Black person in your office you know that you cannot screw up, you know everybody else in the office gets a pass.”

So is Sam Wilson Captain America or is he Black Cap?

Can Anthony Mackie simply just be Captain America?

“What is great about Mackie is it says that any one of us can represent the best of us. We are all American so I think first and foremost him as Captain America speaks to all of our experiences and it says that no matter who you are, you can see yourself,” said the film’s director Julius Onah. “And then I think there becomes that extra layer of pride, obviously for those of us coming from the Black experience being able to say that our experience is universal as well. So there’s a duality to it right? There’s a double consciousness to it and I think that is what is so beautiful about this is that it can be universal and specific at the same time.”