Who Captain America’s Shield Really Belongs To

Warning: SPOILERS for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 5 – “Truth”.

The question of who Captain America’s shield really belongs to is one of the central themes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) passed on his shield to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) at the end of Avengers: Endgame but Falcon and the Winter Soldier has questioned who is most fit to wield the star-spangled Vibranium weapon, what the shield’s legacy really means, and how it can be recontextualized going forward in the new world order of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was certainly a lot easier when Steve Rogers was around because the shield undisputedly belonged to the first Captain America (although even he lost ownership of it for a while).

As seen in Captain America: The First Avenger, Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) built Rogers the discus shield to replace the prop shield he was given when Captain America was on tour with the U.S.O. Stark made the shield from the only supply of Vibranium owned by the United States. The shield was frozen in the Arctic with Captain America in 1945 and recovered by S.H.I.E.L.D. when Rogers was revived 66 years later. When the Avengers broke apart in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, Rogers dropped the shield to Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), who accused him of not being worthy of it. Tony Stark (who also had a replica of the shield in his lab in Iron Man 2) kept the shield for seven years and gave it back to Steve in Avengers: Endgame. Captain America’s shield was then destroyed by Thanos (Josh Brolin) during Endgame‘s final battle, but Rogers later time traveled and took an alternate shield, which he passed on to Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie).

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier continued the game of passing the ownership of Captain America’s shield. Fearing he wasn’t worthy to carry it, Sam Wilson “retired” the shield and gifted it to the Captain America Smithsonian exhibit at the National Air & Space Museum. The U.S. Government then took possession of the shield and gave it to John Walker (Wyatt Russell) when he was made into the new Captain America. This incensed Steve Rogers’ two best friends, Sam and Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) and they considered how they could take the shield back from Walker. Barnes and Wilson got their chance in Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 5, “Truth”, after Walker publicly murdered Nico (Noah Mills) of the Flag-Smashers. After Sam and Bucky beat Walker and broke his arm, Wilson took the shield home with him to the United States.

However, the introduction of Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) throws a wrinkle into who really owns Captain America’s shield. As she told a despondent John Walker after he was stripped of his title and mandate as Captain America, “Here’s a little dirty state secret: It doesn’t really belong to the government. It’s kind of a legal grey area.” This bombshell contradicts what Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) told Steve Rogers after he was arrested for violating the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War: “Technically, it’s the government’s property. [Sam Wilson’s] wings too.”

So who really owns the shield? The U.S. Government’s claim to it is understandable since they consider the role of “Captain America” as its property, plus Howard Stark originally used the United States’ Vibranium supply to make the shield. It’s also interesting that Wilson kept the shield even after it was used as a murder weapon, and he didn’t turn it over to the Latvian Police or other European authorities as evidence of the crime. The old expression “possession is 9/10ths of the law” seems to apply to Captain America’s shield. In that case, the shield belongs to Sam Wilson as the shield’s current owner, and it can permanently be so if the U.S. Government signs off on Sam keeping the shield – and possibly becoming the new Captain America – in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier‘s finale.

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