Anthony Mackie nearly suited up as a different superhero before Falcon

Anthony Mackie wanted the cat suit. He ended up with wings and, eventually, the shield. Not a bad consolation prize, but the road there is a fun little peek behind the Marvel curtain.

The role Mackie chased from day one

When Mackie first started nosing around Marvel, he was not window-shopping. He was campaigning. He has said he wrote the studio letters and kept telling anyone who would listen that he wanted to play Black Panther. This was not a casual idea for him; the character meant something to him long before there was an MCU slot to fill.

"And I wanted to be Black Panther because growing up I [expletive] loved Black Panther."

The meeting that swerved

Marvel being Marvel, nobody was spilling secrets. Mackie sat down with producer Nate Moore and directors Joe and Anthony Russo, and he walked in thinking all signs pointed to Wakanda. Then the reveal hit: not T'Challa, but Sam Wilson. He has said he was momentarily thrown, trying to figure out which other heavy-hitter they could be hinting at, before it clicked that they were handing him the Falcon. Curveball delivered, franchise altered. And because the universe sometimes has a sense of timing, Chadwick Boseman would go on to define Black Panther while Mackie took flight as Sam.

• 2014: Mackie debuts as Sam Wilson/The Falcon in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (yes, that was 12 years ago as of April 4, 2026 )
• Next chapters: pops up across the Avengers mayhem, including Infinity War
• Where it landed: Sam Wilson is now the MCU's Captain America

Why Falcon fit him like a jetpack

From the jump, Marvel stuck him opposite Chris Evans and clearly trusted that easy, built-in charisma to hold the screen. It worked. Sam did not feel like a new character being introduced; he felt like a guy we already knew who just happened to have a very expensive backpack.

Mackie's Juilliard background shows in the physicality. The flying never looked like a dude dangling on wires; the movements had control and intention, like the wings were part of him instead of a prop he was fighting. And because Sam is one of the more grounded heroes in a universe that loves a power boost, Mackie leaned into the human stuff: the veteran backstory, the empathy, the guy-you'd-follow energy. It is why his leadership reads as earned, not injected. No super-soldier serum required.

The bigger picture

That detour at the meeting gave the MCU two wins instead of one: Boseman's definitive Black Panther and Mackie's Falcon-turned-Cap. And if you're keeping score on his film opinions, he has also been on record taking shots at Henry Cavill's Man of Steel in a resurfaced clip — which, agree or disagree, tells you the man is not shy about calling it how he sees it.

Would Mackie have crushed it as Black Panther? Probably. But watching him fly, then step up and carry the shield, it is hard to argue he did not end up exactly where he was supposed to.