Going by MCU's track record, no one expected The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to end on the note it did- resolving every issue it had raised, giving a satisfactory closure to its characters, and wrapping up every loose end. Oh wait...not every loose end was tied up after all. For those who don't remember, the Disney+ series has vocalized the question that was present in every MCU fans' mind i.e., where is Steve Rogers? The finale came and went, the query was never solved. But we might have a few plausible answers. There are SPOILERS ahead for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier finale.

The elephant in the room i.e., the question of Steve Rogers' whereabouts were raised in the first episode of the series itself and it was established that the general public, including Joaquin Torris who is a member of the airforce and has even assisted Sam on many missions, believes that he is on the moon.

This faulty fact were again addressed in the finale episode, when one of the GRC senators saw Sam in the new Captain America suit and exclaimed that he thought that Steve was on the Moon. While it is one funny and humorous addition, it is about one of the most popular and beloved MCU characters whose whereabout and status is currently MIA.

As he is certainly not on the moon, where is he?

Steve Rogers is not alive anymore? By the time, the old Steve Rogers strolls in to meet Sam and hand over the shield in Avengers: Endgame,he is at least over a 100 years old. And while he is pretty good courtesy of the super soldier serum surging through his veins, the way The Falcon and The Winter Soldierbegins gives off the idea that Steve didn't live on a for a long time after that. The ceremony in the first episode, where Sam handed over Captain America's shield to the government, felt a lot like a funeral for the former Avenger.

There is also the fact that throughout the episodes, whenever Sam and Bucky talked about their common friend, they mentioned him in the past tense as if he was no longer between them. Also, what other reason there would be for neither of the two not reaching out to Steve for some much needed advice or counseling, especially when Sam was conflicted over the shocking truth Isaiah Bradley had told him or when Bucky was busy blaming himself for his actions as the Winter Soldier? Certainly the reason can't be the fact that Steve is too old to help in any way possible?

Well, there is another possibility as well. Steve is in an alternate timeline. In a podcast by Cinemablendthis year, the Russo brothers established that when Captain America went back in time in Endgame and took the decision to stay with Peggy, a branch reality was created that is different from the main timeline. This makes sense as if Caps' decision to stay in the past been a part of the main timeline, the events up until Endgamewould have been severely affected.

So, he traveledto the actual timeline, gave the shield to Sam, and then hopped back to his branch reality. Thus now that Steve is in a different reality altogether, it is impossible to contact him.

He is alive and in the main timeline.

While what the Russo brothers said makes more sense, back when Endgame came out, its writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely shared in a chat with Collider their opinion that Cap simply going back in time and staying their did not create a new timeline. He just continued to exist alongside another Steve Rogers who went on to fight against Thanos and then went back in time to Peggy, thus creating a time loop.

So, according to this, he is alive and well in the main timeline and is perhaps busy enjoying his retirement and is not much interested in the well-being of his friends anymore. But this sounds too unlike the Steve who has only thought about himself once in his entire lifetime when he took the decision of staying back. If he is in the main timeline, wouldn't he sometimes check-in on his friends? We don't think Sam and Bucky would look so sad and nostalgic thinking about him if he existed in their timeline- it is like they have lost him forever and are thus motivated to live up to the expectations he had from them. All episodes of The Falcon and The Winter Soldierare now streaming on the official Disney+ app.