With Chris Evans now halfway through his six-picture contract with Marvel Studios and a perilous future ahead for Captain America in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, questions are naturally starting to arise about when and how America's hero will retire or die within the next few years - and which of his compatriots from Captain America: The Winter Soldier might take up his shield, if that happens.

Sebastian Stan, who plays Bucky Barnes, is signed up for nine movies; and Anthony Mackie, who plays Sam Wilson A.K.A. Falcon, said in an interview with Vulture last year, "I signed up for as many movies as I could... I signed up for, like, 50 movies." Both characters have taken on the mantle of Captain America in the comic books, but is one of them more likely to become the new Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

As of right now it's likely that even Stan and Mackie don't know the answer to that question, but Mackie nonetheless got asked about his potential future as the new Captain America during an interview on Windy City Live this week, where he was promoting Mike Binder's new movie Black and White alongside Kevin Costner. Mackie diplomatically avoided talking about the movies too much in favor of recapping what has happened to Captain America's shield so far in the comics.

"Well, you know there are many incarnations in the comic book, and we are now going into the Civil War. So, if you look at it in the comic book, Cap gives Bucky the shield, Bucky gives it back to Cap, Cap gives it to me... Then Bucky goes off and marries Black Widow, so I keep the shield, give it back to Cap, and recently Cap wanted to be old, so he gave me the shield back and now I got the shield; I'm not giving it back."

Putting aside Mackie's somewhat optimistic claim that Sam Wilson will get to keep the Captain America title for good in the comics, it's probably more likely that Bucky Barnes will end up becoming Captain America in the movies. He and Steve Rogers have a very long history and Bucky is in need of a new cause now that he has parted ways with HYDRA. Besides, it seems a little unfair to give Sam Wilson Captain America's shield when he already has awesome flying abilities.

Speaking of those flying abilities, Mackie touched on the subject of his new Falcon suit (the old one got a bit battered) in a red carpet interview with HollywoodChicago and teased that "The new Falcon suit is gonna be much better than the old Falcon suit." Not much in the way of detail there, so he could mean that the new suit will just be prettier, or that it will come with rocket launchers, or that it will have a cupholder. Whatever the changes might be, at least we know that the second Falcon suit won't be worse than the first one. That would be a bit of a let down.

Captain America: Civil War hits theaters May 6th, 2016.

Source: Windy City Live, HollywoodChicago (via CBM)