Who Plays The New Captain America In Falcon & Winter Soldier?

In Marvel’s upcoming The Falcon & the Winter Soldier on Disney+, there’s a new Captain America filling Steve Rogers’ shoes, and he’s played by Wyatt Russell – here’s where you’ve seen the actor before. If his last name and face seem familiar, his full name gives it away: Wyatt Hawn Russell. Russell is indeed the son of Hollywood legends and longtime couple Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, making him the younger half-brother of actors Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson, as well as Boston Russell, who is also an actor but keeps a lower profile. In the past few years, Wyatt’s own career has picked up and he’s starting to gain some real recognition for his own skills and not just as the son of famous actors.

Interestingly, Russell almost veered away from following the same path as his parents completely, focusing for years on hockey, even going semi-pro as a goaltender. But the acting bug eventually bit him for good, and he’s worked steadily before landing Falcon & Winter Soldier, where he plays new Captain America John Walker, a.k.a. U.S. Agent. In the comics, Walker is first introduced as a superhero known as Super-Patriot and then later became a replacement Captain America before eventually taking the name he has now in the comics, U.S. Agent. Russell’s physicality as a hockey player may very well serve him well in the role, which will surely put him on the map for his largest audience yet.

However, audiences likely already recognize him from previous work. His very first appearances were in his dad’s movies when he was just a kid, first playing an uncredited orphan boy in cult classic Escape from L.A. and young Todd in Soldier. Those two early experiences seemed to be enough for Wyatt Russell for a while as he didn’t appear in any other feature acting roles for over a decade, having fallen in love with hockey and focusing on that as his passion.

But he eventually returned to acting in earnest in the 2010s, appearing in a number of films in smaller roles and working on his resume. His first real role upon his return was acting with Daniel Craig in Cowboys & Aliens in 2011, playing Little Mickey. Russell also put his athleticism to good use, playing athletes in a number of movies, such as the “Flirty Hockey Player” in This Is 40, Anders Cane in Goon: Last of the Enforcers, and football jock Zook in 22 Jump Street.

But playing dumb jocks and doing comedy wasn’t the only thing Russell was limited to and he showed he had better acting chops than many may have guessed, also appearing as Ezra O’Keefe in indie dramedy Ingrid Goes West in 2017, the same year he appeared in Goon 2, and in 2018, playing Glyn in Ethan Hawke’s Blaze, a reimagining of the life of Blaze Foley, a famed songwriter of the Texas Outlaw Music movement. That same year found him in arguably his biggest role to that point, playing Ford in WWII-era horror film Overlord alongside a lineup of strong character talent and rising stars in Hollywood including Bokeem Woodbine, Pilou Asbæk, Jovan Adepo, Iain De Caestecker, Mathilde Ollivier, and John Magaro.

Interestingly, after Overlord‘s success, Russell turned his attention to television. His longest starring role to date is playing Sean “Dud” Dudley for all 20 episodes of AMC series Lodge 49‘s two seasons. After that, he once again reteamed with Ethan Hawke in 2020 for Hawke’s miniseries The Good Lord Bird, which told the story of abolitionist John Brown. And starting this Friday, audiences can see him in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier as John Walker. Marvel fans may initially dislike Walker simply because they won’t want to see anyone replace Steve Rogers, but in the comics, Walker is a good guy. It’s entirely likely Marvel cast Wyatt Russell in the role for that same reason, hoping his easy charm and charisma will endear Walker to audiences and allow him to eventually move past the mantle of Captain Americato become U.S. Agent and his own man. After that, he’ll next be seen playing David in The Woman in the Window.

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