When Sam Wilson (played by Anthony Mackie) made his official debut as the new Captain America in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, fans everywhere were immediately excited for the future of the character. Where would he go from here? Would he take on a sidekick? When will he start appearing in other Marvel movies? Well, apparently a fan decided not to wait before attempting to answer one of those questions on their own terms, and it's surprisingly well-done.
Reddit user and aspiring video editor leunnam took two well-regarded scenes from two rather differently regarded films and mashed them into something that works way better than it probably should. Combining shots from Captain America's big fight in the finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier with a fitting scene from the 2007 Sam Raimi film Spider-Man 3, leunnam created an alternate reality where the new wielder of the shield showed up in just the nick of time to save Spidey and Mary Jane.
Instead of Sam Wilson/Captain America hurling his shield through a window to take down one of the Flag Smashers, he hurls that same shield through that same window to lay out the creepy and toothy Venom. The editing matches up the two films almost flawlessly, to the point where the viewer probably won't even notice that they never actually see the shield hit the symbiote villain. It all comes together when Sam himself crashes through the already compromised window and strikes a superhero pose, with the footage timed out perfectly to suggest he's looking down at Tobey Maguire's beaten and bloody Spider-Man. Maguire's weary "you came" line originally directed at James Franco's Harry Osborn fits remarkably well, making for a fantastic end to the scene.
It almost inspires the mind to think about the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is already set to feature Alfred Molina's return as Doc Ock. Aside from that big reveal, it's been heavily hinting that Maguire will reprise his role as Spider-Man along with Andrew Garfield doing the same with his respective version of the character. With these sorts of possibilities, the scene shown in this Reddit post starts to sound bizarrely plausible. After all, if alternate versions of one hero can travel to a different world like this, who's to say Captain America can't travel to a pivotal moment in one hero's past? Hey, they've done time travel before in the endlessly critiqued Avengers: Endgame.
Of course, this is all just fun "what if" scenarios. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is nothing if not tightly planned out and scripted far ahead of time. So the only way something like this admittedly hype-worthy scene would ever come to pass is if it was already going to happen before being proposed on a Reddit post. It's not like it's impossible or anything, but it is unfortunately quite improbable.
Still, it's an impressive piece of editing, and leunnam should feel proud of what they accomplished. After all, it got the minds of Marvel fans thinking about something new, and it's always fun to hear about new ideas. Maybe the next one will bring back Paul Giamatti's Rhino from The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Hey, people can dream.
Captain America 4 is in development at Marvel Studios.
Source: Reddit/leunnam