Set photos from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier have revealed Wyatt Russell’s U.S. Agent in full costume, complete with Captain America’s iconic shield. Starring Anthony Mackie as Falcon and Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, the upcoming Disney+ series follows the events of Avengers: Endgame, which saw Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) hand off the shield and mantle of Captain America to Falcon, but set photos and other evidence have confirmed the theory that the government isn’t interested in Sam Wilson being the new Captain America. Instead, the government has selected John Walker to be the next Sentinel of Liberty.

In the comic books, John Walker was a soldier who actually bought his super powers off the black market and became the villain, Super-Patriot. Later, he succeeded Steve Rogers to become a much more aggressive, less idealistic version of Captain America. After a brutal battle with Steve Rogers, Walker stepped back from being Captain America and forged a career as the superhero, U.S. Agent. Though still greatly disliked by many of his peers, U.S. Agent became a key member of the West Coast Avengers and helped save the world on numerous occasions.

Recently released set photos show Russell’s John Walker in-costume waving to a crowd while carrying Cap’s shield. Walker is dressed in a dark blue suit, with red horizontal stripes across his chest, and a helmet that looks nearly identical to Captain America’s. There’s also a star on one of his shoulders. The biggest takeaway here is that his costume appears to be combining elements of Walker’s U.S. Agent costume and the MCU Captain America costume worn by Steve Rogers.

As U.S. Agent in the comics, Walker wore black instead of blue, but the pattern of the star and stripes is clearly inspired by U.S. Agent’s comic design. Apart from this, Walker looks more like Captain America than he does U.S. Agent, but this does make sense, considering that Walker apparently is Captain America at this point in the story. He has yet to become U.S. Agent. In the comics, Walker’s Captain America looks the same as Steve’s, and the character doesn’t actually develop his own look until after his days as Captain America are over and his career as U.S. Agent begins.

By using this look, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is paying homage to U.S. Agent’s comic book look and staying true to his comic book arc by not making him U.S. Agent right away. What he’ll look like by the end of the season remains to be seen, since it’s likely that Falcon eventually will become Captain America, just as Steve wanted. If that happens, Marvel can go a step further with Walker by making adjustments to his design and giving him his classic red, black, and white color scheme. What this means is that when Falcon evolves into Captain America, John Walker can go through his own evolution and become U.S. Agent.

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