Avengers: Endgame was, hands down, one real tear jerker, starting from Hawkeye losing his family, the "I love you 3000", Black Widow's heart-breaking death, to Iron Man sacrificing himself to save the world from the wrath of Thanos. And right when we thought that the sad moments were over, we meet an elderly Captain America (played by Chris Evans) who at last, hangs up the shield and passes it on to Sam Wilson. But according to Anthony Mackie this is not how the Marvel bosses had initially planned the scene.

In Avengers: Endgame, after the Avengers successfully defeated Thanos and held a funeral for Tony Stark, Cap volunteered to time travel to the past to return the Infinity Stones as well as Mjolnir to their respective timelines. But as Bruce Banners, Bucky, and Sam wait, Cap doesn't return as expected. While Sam becomes afraid that something went wrong and angrily demands Banner to bring back Cap, Bucky points out an elderly man sitting alone on a bench by the river who turns out to be a much older version of his friend and ally, Steve Rogers. 

It is revealed that Captain America decided to not return after placing the stones and the hammer in their rightful places and instead stayed in the past to live his life with Peggy Carter. While this became Chris Evans farewell scene in the MCU, according to initial plans of Marvel studios he wasn't even supposed to be in it. 

Recently, Mackie appeared on The Jess Cagle show on SiriusXM to promote his upcoming film, Outside Wire, and dished details on how three older actors were brought into play a genuinely older version of Steve Rogers. But Marvel Studios ultimately ended up choosing Chris Evans instead. 

"Well, it's funny they actually wanted to cast an old dude to play Chris Evans. So they brought in like three actors. They're like, none of these, like this, isn't how Chris will look when he's old. Like, he's gonna, he's like George Clooney. He's going to be 95 and still like handsome, you know? So they, they brought in a makeup team and prosthetics and makeup and made them into an old man. And how good of an actor Chris is it actually worked like he, he pulled it off with his voice and everything. He did a great job."

As you would remember, Captain America passed on his shield to Sam and not to his best friend Bucky, knowing that the former possesses the heart needed to wield it. Now, we thought that this would effectively nullify any lingering doubts as to who would be the new Cap. Well, we thought wrong as, Mackie clarified, Sam never did "agree to or say that I would be Captain America" and thus, the upcoming Disney+ series is going to address this elephant in the room. 

"The show, the idea of the show is basically, you know, and at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Cap decided he was going into retirement and he asked me if I would take up the shield, but at no point in time, did I agree to or say that I would be Captain America," Mackie clarified. "So the show walks the line of who is going to take up the shield and who's going to be Captain America if Steve isn't coming back."

So, yeah, while Chris Evans' Steve Rogers will continue to be "America's ass." we are still in the dark about who is going to be the next Captain America...at least until The Falcon and The Winter Soldier debuts on Disney+ on March 19, 2021. The news to us via The Jess Cagle show.