Falcon and Winter Soldier: Wyatt Russell on John Walker Expectations

As Wyatt Russell is bombarded about what his John Walker/Captain America brings to the table on the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he wants to make one thing clear when it comes to his character: to throw out all your expectations. The actor spoke to Deadline Hollywood about how he fits into the series, the prep work he’s done, and how he approaches the role.

“As soon as you open Wikipedia, you’re more confused,” Russell said. “There are so many iterations of where he is and goes, and who he’s with, it’s just too confusing. I looked at a lot of the artwork of the comic books and that informed me more of who the character will be, the essence of the character in the artwork, and in his body language. I looked at a lot of photos, but I didn’t read any [of the] comics, there are too many different storylines.” Walker is better known to comic fans as US Agent, who’s enhanced like his predecessor Steve Rogers, played in the MCU by Chris Evans.

On The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Walker becomes the new Cap after Rogers retires from the role, but is more inclined to tow the line compared to his more morally-driven counterpart. “What the MCU does very well — they don’t literally take everything from the comics and put it into characters,” Russell said. “Sometimes they do a better job of making them more complex.” Joining Walker is Lemar Hoskins played by Clé Bennett, who is Battlestar in the comics. In the second episode “Star-Spangled Man”, Sam/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) show no clear interest in working with John and Lemar so John tells the two to “Stay out of their way”.

Wyatt, the son of Guardian of the Galaxy, Vol II’s (2017) Kurt Russell, is cognizant of what lies ahead on how he’ll make his mark in the MCU. “There is a dichotomy to him, there is complexity in his mind, in terms of what his past was and what and how it affects his presence,” he said. “That’s part of what drew me to him is the ability to be able to play someone who on the surface you might think you know what they are or what they’re like, but when you dig down a little bit deeper you might find that they’re doing things for reasons that are unknown to you before they were given to you.” New episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier stream Fridays on Disney+.