'Falcon and the Winter Soldier' Showrunner Malcolm Spellman In Talks To Direct ‘Captain America 4’
THR is reporting that Malcolm Spellman, the head writer and show creator behind Disney+ and Marvel's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is developing a fourth installment of the Captain America film franchise for Marvel Studios. Spellman will co-write the script with Dalan Musson, a staff writer on Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
No castings for the project are officially known but Friday’s episode offers plenty of roads for the feature to take. Up until this point, Chris Evans has played Captain America via the Steve Rogers character, appearing in a trio of solo movies, Avengers outings, and assorted Marvel movies. And the question of who is entitled to carry the shield or be Captain America was central to the show.
The feature is likely to continue the story of Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie, and the current wielder of the shield. But as the writers get to work, it will interesting to see how the story unfolds with there now being multiple people who have been Captain Americas in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
No director is attached and Evans’ involvement or return remains unconfirmed. Marvel was tight-lipped as usual.
Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which also stars Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier, has earned strong critical and fan reaction. Spellman assembled a nearly all-Black writer's room for the series, which has been praised for bringing the Black experience to the forefront not quite like any other superhero film or TV show before it. The series has tackled issues as every day as discriminatory lending practices, to the original sins of America building itself on the backs of Black people.
Evans toplined three previous Captain America films, including Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War (2016), and retired the role with Avengers: Endgame. When events pick up in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Wilson opted to forgo the title of Captain America, and sees the government give the role to John Walker (Wyatt Russell), a white member of the military.
Spellman was previously a writer/co-executive producer on Fox show Empire and also acted as a consulting producer on crime show Truth Be Told before getting the chance to take the lead on Falcon.