Actor Wyatt Russell plays the new Captain America on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but his connection the MCU goes back many years. Russell auditioned for the role for the 2011 movie, a part that Chris Evans would eventually get a perform many times over the years.
Russell told Good Morning America that he doesn’t believe he was ever seriously considered for the role. “The first audition was really more just something to read to see if I was any good at acting or not. I don’t think I was ever actually in competition for the role. It was crazy,” he said.
Russell now plays the new Captain America on Falcon and the Winter Soldier. He also shared some insight on his audition for that show, and it was steeped in mystery.
He said he tried out for the part without even knowing what the role was.
“This time it came around, I had no idea what it even was. It was just, ‘Marvel wants you to read for something. Go for it.’ And I found out after I got the part what it was,” he said.
Also in the interview, Russell was asked directly if his new Captain America was a good guy or a bad guy, but he declined to share any details. He joked that Marvel has a team of snipers prepared to take him out if he had shared that information.
Finally, Russell shared some of the advice that his father–Guardians of the Galaxy’s Kurt Russell–gave him about playing a superhero. He told his son to try his best and get used to the suit.
In other news, Russell recently spoke about how clueless he was about Marvel going into Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
The producers showed him a picture of Captain America and he pretended to know who he was. “Then they start running me through the stuff, like, ‘You know when Thanos snaps his fingers.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’ And then finally, about 15 minutes into the explanation of why I am who I am [Captain America], I had to look over to her and say, ‘I’m really sorry, I don’t know any of this stuff,'” he said.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is streaming now on Disney+.
