Sebastian Stan may be one of the MCU’s most beloved mainstays, having played Bucky Barnes since Captain America: The First Avenger back in 2011. However, the actor recently acknowledged he’s never led a movie for Marvel, and apparently he has the perfect idea.
Stan said he pitched a “Sicario-esque” Winter Soldier film to Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige. “We keep a real small budget,” he recalled in an interview with New York Magazine. “It’s about a guy who thinks he recognizes someone from his past that had something to do with when, you know, he was brainwashed, and he gets obsessed with this person. He goes on a whole journey to try to figure out who this person is. It’s a thriller.”
While the movie has yet to materialize, Stan added that Feige humored him, telling him, “‘Yeah, that sounds cool!'” I’ve got to admit, I think it’s an incredible pitch. Bucky has long been one of the best characters in the MCU, straddling the line between hero and villain. Thunderbolts* looked set to be a new opportunity for him to take the limelight, but instead he was underused.
Stan will be reprising the role as part of the New Avengers in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, but it’s pretty unclear at the moment how much he’ll be part of the story. Speaking earlier this year, he revealed that he’d never received the full script.
“We were just shooting scattered scenes,” he explained. “It’s a different way of working, continuous, constantly evolving. The producers didn’t want us to read it in its entirety, to avoid journalists asking us questions.”
Stan is busy filming The Batman 2 as well, where he’ll be starring opposite Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader. There’s been no confirmation yet about who he’s playing – and he refused to confirm it in the New York Magazine article too, but it’s widely speculated that he’ll be Harvey Dent.
For more on all the upcoming superhero movies on the way, check out our guides to upcoming Marvel movies and upcoming DC movies.