![]() ![]() As Collider’s Matt Goldberg recently observed in an excellent piece, one of the themes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is white supremacy, and how easily Walker adapts to his role in a systemic engine of oppression without consciously realizing it. As I mentioned earlier, nepotism is a real thing, and it works perfectly here as a visual shorthand for entitlement and the ways certain opportunities remain closed off to 99.9% of people. However, the meta element of Russell’s casting isn’t completely sympathetic to Walker, nor is it meant to be. ![]() ![]() The problem is, there were two other candidates waiting in the wings who were even more perfect. Despite the fact that Sam ( Anthony Mackie) turned it down and Bucky ( Sebastian Stan) was never even offered the gig, we still feel like Walker doesn’t deserve to carry the shield, even though he consistently demonstrates that he absolutely does. And tell me how Walker deciding to dig in and fight a team of super soldiers on top of a speeding 18-wheeler despite not having any superpowers of his own is any different from Steve Rogers pulling himself up out of the trash to say, “I can do this all day.” To lightly paraphrase Stanley Tucci, Walker is the perfect choice for Captain America. Just look at the way he whips that shield around like he’s an old hand at hurling vibranium. He can certainly hang with the non-metahuman members of the Avengers like Rhodey, Clint, or Natasha. Erskine’s top candidates for the Super Soldier program in World War II, way back in the summer of 2011. So, Walker is a character who is more than qualified to lead paramilitary missions around the globe and would’ve arguably been one of Dr. RELATED: ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Star Erin Kellyman on Playing an Empathetic Villain and Why She Agrees with Her Character He also looks unspeakably strange dressed as Captain America in a way that exudes awkward menace, sort of like staring really hard at a Magic Eye until a ransom note appears. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier clearly demonstrates that John Walker isn’t just some senator’s son – he’s the real deal, a dyed-in-the-wool solider with an impressive record and a genuine desire to make a positive impact on the world. It’s an interesting paradox nepotism is a very real thing and calling it out is a valid criticism of the way opportunities in lucrative industries tend to be awarded, but it also provokes unfair assumptions about a person’s talent and qualifications. We expect that person to essentially justify their existence – we believe the onus is on them to prove that they belong in their chosen field and didn’t simply skate by because of Mom and Dad. But as I walked out of Overlord, I wasn’t thinking, “Who does this kid think he is?” I was thinking, “Make a new Escape from New York sequel with Wyatt as Lil’ Cobra Plissken and do it before you give us any more Baldwins, Hollywood.” But the point is, I very easily could have landed on the former.Īny time the child of a famous parent begins to break out in a medium in which their parent was successful, the general public tends to raise a collective eyebrow bracing for incredulity. And while the world didn’t reject Russell the way it projectile vomited at John Walker trying to step into Captain America’s crimson boots, the potential was there – who the heck does this Wyatt Russell think he is, coming in here looking like Kurt Russell and getting cast in roles Kurt Russell would’ve played 25 years earlier? He even had the temerity to play the Kurt Russell character in Overlord, Julius Avery’s grindhouse action horror film that wears its John Carpenter inspiration on its sleeve. John Walker is the new version of a beloved old hero. RELATED: ‘The Falcon and the Winter Solder’: Wyatt Russell Answers All the Beard Questions I Could Ask ![]()
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