The MCU has a new Captain America, with Wyatt Russell portraying the character on the Disney+ show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Russell, the son of MCU actor Kurt Russell, has now spoken about how he had no clue about the MCU before joining the show.
He told Jimmy Kimmel, "I didn't grow up knowing much about comic books. My heroes were athletes. So when I came on set, I was asking, 'What does that mean?', 'Who's that person', 'How do they fit in?'"
"And finally, Sebastian Stan was like, 'Dude, stop asking questions. You're going to get more confused. When you get answers, it's going to be worse.'"
Russell didn't have zero knowledge of the MCU, as he said he watched the Guardians of the Galaxy 2 featuring his father, Kurt Russell.
Russell said at the early stages, he pretended to know more about the MCU than he actually did. The producers showed him a picture of Captain America and he pretended to know who he was. "Then they start running me through the stuff, like, 'You know when Thanos snaps his fingers.' I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' And then finally, about 15 minutes into the explanation of why I am who I am [Captain America], I had to look over to her and say, 'I'm really sorry, I don't know any of this stuff,'" he said.
This lack of knowledge works for the character, Russell pointed out, because he is a new Captain America chosen by the government and understood to not be involved with the developments of what happened in the earlier films.
Still, it was an awkward moment for Russell. "It was semi-embarrassing to be in the Marvel office going, 'I don't know,'" he said.
Later in the interview, Russell said he requested to wear one of Chris Evans' Captain America suits, but instead he got a new one. Russell also shared his reaction to seeing himself in the suit for the first time.
"It was, 'Oh gosh, take it off. You got the wrong guy. Send me back. You're going to lose so much money,'" he said. Russell also remarked that the suit was very uncomfortable to wear.
For more on the new Captain America, check out GameSpot's explainer that catches you up on everything you need to know about John Walker.