"It's Bucky, of course!" is what you're all thinking right now. Yes, in the comics, Captain America's sidekick became the master assassin. However, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is completely different place. Stories can be rewritten. Marvel knew that revealing Bucky as the Winter Soldier wouldn't be much of a surprise to comic book fans. Maybe one or two people in the theater gasped when his identity was revealed. So, I believe there's another plan at work here. Marvel is working on something else entirely, something else no fan expected.
Nick Fury is the Winter Soldier.
Even those who have seen the trailers have pieced together this: Nick Fury dies. Those who have seen
The Avengers and
Agents of SHIELD know that not everyone stays dead. So, it's possible that Nick Fury was revived the same way Phil Coulson was. Fury believes that he took a drug that dropped his heart rate to make him appear dead, but how do we know that's true? Coulson was convinced he rehabbed on a tropical island.
Nick Fury's dead body was tampered with. I believe that while off-screen, he was revived. And while being brought back to life, something
incredible happened.
Think back to
Agents of SHIELD. They introduced the villain Blizzard, who has the power to manipulate ice and water. The kid was also kind of a genius. A talented person with questionable morals and motives? Sounds like the perfect guy for SHIELD to hire. Using his deep knowledge of ice, Blizzard reformed his ice death machine into cryostasis technology. SHIELD wanted to use his machine to freeze Fury and keep him just barely alive so that they could operate on him and have more time to try and save him.
During the operation, something went awry. The machine malfunctioned, and just like what happened to Blizzard, it's power was absorbed by Nick Fury. And thus, a hero was born.
Nick Fury is the Winter Soldier. The Winter Soldier is Frozone.
Come on, is Bucky
really that winter-y? Nothing about him screams snow. Frozone on the other hand, is obviously winter-themed.
Disney recently announced a sequel to their superhero family hit,
The Incredibles. The voice actor for Frozone, the same guy who plays Nick Fury, said he'd be up to reprise the role. So, Nick Fury as Frozone will tell his friend, Mr. Incredible, that the world loves superheroes again. It's safe for him and his family to show off their powers. He teams up with them and fights alongside them. When they face a threat too massive for them, Frozone introduces the Incredibles to the Avengers.
It will be magnificent.
Someone get this guy his super suit.