The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s new Captain America wants people to love him too much. John Walker debuted as Steve Rogers’ successor at the end of the show’s premiere episode, and subsequently, Marvel Studios revealed more about his background to justify why he was chosen to be the wielder of the iconic shield. But while the government and the public support him, like the viewers, Sam and Bucky disapprove of him.
So while Walker hasn’t really done anything straight-up evil, his first encounter with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier heroes in episode 2, titled, “The Star Spangled Man” was tense. Despite repeated attempts for the pair to support and work with him, Sam and Bucky are not on board, and one can’t really blame them. For starters, Walker and the government are once again using the Captain America mantle as a PR tool — something that Steve actively fought against. Additionally, they also both know that Sam is the rightful owner of the shield. For Walker, however, this was a huge blow, and according to Russell, this doesn’t do Walker any good as he craves for the love of people.
Speaking with TVLine, the actor shared that while the new Captain America is at his core, a moral man, in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he sounds like he is a little insecure, maybe even narcissistic as he wants people to fully love him. So, when he gets resistance from people like Sam and Bucky, who are essentially Avengers, it really gets to him, and might even motivate him to do things that he wouldn’t normally do. Read what Russell said about Walker below:
John’s a guy who’s very principled, and he doesn’t want to do anything that he would consider wrong. But what we’re learning is that people’s versions of what’s wrong or right are very different, so those lines can get blurred very easily, especially for someone who wants something so bad as the poison of wanting to be loved too much. When you want people to love you too much, you become a person that maybe you’re not — and is that really the path that you want to take? That’s what he’s fighting with now. Maybe he’ll face that kind of thing down the road, maybe he won’t. But as of now, he’s just trying to do the best that he can with the body he has.
At the end of the latest episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Walker seems to have run out of patience after Bucky and Sam once again turned his offer down. He told them to stay out of his way as they both go after the Flag-Smashers — a new terrorist group led by Karli Morgenthau and is proposing a world without borders. This effectively pits Walker and the heroes against each other, as the latter do not have any intentions of giving up the mission. So much so, that they’re even willing to reach out to Zemo.
Given Russell’s aforementioned comment, it’s curious if his desire to be loved will ultimately lead him down to a villainous path in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Understandably, replacing Steve Rogers is a tall order and it’s only normal for one to have self-doubts — even Sam grapples with this. But for Walker, this obsession might result in his own doom as he becomes more focused on it rather than doing his job as Captain America.
Source: TVLine
Originally from https://screenrant.com/falcon-winter-soldier-wyatt-russell-john-walker-details/