The Falcon and The Winter Soldier may have primarily been about Sam Wilson's transformation into the Marvel Cinematic Universe's new Captain America, but it was also a crucial part of Bucky's journey. Still recovering from his time as a HYDRA assassin, Steve Rogers' oldest friend had to make amends for past actions before finally being able to move on with his life.
By the time the finale rolled around, Bucky had ticked those names off his list and put the Winter Soldier behind him (even if that final title card suggested otherwise). The question is, where does his story go next? Well, Captain America 4 writer Malcolm Spellman has shared his thoughts on that in a recent interview with The Playlist.
"I think Bucky is free in a way," he mused. "Even coming out of Wakanda, he still wasn’t totally free. He was freed programming, but I believe Bucky is free now in a way. Look at the way he smiled at the end; he got a family, he’s invited to the cook-out, as we say in the community.
"He is free in a way that I think we haven’t seen, and that leads to a lot of possibilities for him."
As Spellman suggests, Bucky's story really can go pretty much anywhere now, especially as he's moved on from the trauma of being under HYDRA's control.
On the one hand, it seems pretty obvious that the hero will join Sam in the next Captain America movie (Sebastian Stan's chemistry with Anthony Mackie is too good not to revisit), but it would be pretty cool to see Marvel Studios do a little more with the White Wolf than keeping him in a sidekick role to whoever is wielding the shield.
Perhaps he could join whatever the MCU's version of the Thunderbolts ends up being?
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