How Avengers: Doomsday Could Explain the Shield Old Steve Rogers Gave Sam Wilson

Avengers: Doomsday looked set to feature Chris Evans' Steve Rogers far more than I expected, and a quote from directors Joe and Anthony Russo to Empire that many overlooked is the reason. That quote also had me looking at the film's very first teaser differently. I suspect Doomsday could explain a question I've had for years about Avengers: Endgame (2019): where the shield old Steve handed to Sam Wilson came from.

Why I expected Steve Rogers to play a small part in Avengers: Doomsday

I knew Steve was the featured character in the first teaser, and the fact that he's a dad now is clearly a big deal to the film's plot. I expected Doomsday to connect to Steve's final scene in Endgame. I also expected it to explain more about his journey returning the Infinity Stones through time, and how his decision to stay in the past with Peggy caused the incursion that angered Doctor Doom.

Beyond that, I didn't expect Steve to play that big a role in the story. My speculation likened him to Loki in the opening minutes of Avengers: Infinity War. Loki was an iconic character from the previous age who gets killed off in the first 10 minutes to signal that any beloved character can die in the next two hours. The other possibility I considered was that Steve might be a character who decides to sit this one out.

The Russo brothers told Empire they couldn't see Doomsday without Steve Rogers

The Russos gave quotes to writer Chris Hewitt for an Empire article titled The Russo Brothers Break Down the First Glimpses of Avengers: Doomsday, Their Mammoth Return to the MCU. I've already covered that piece elsewhere, mostly exploring how I think Ian McKellen talking about Magneto destroying New Jersey is a fake plot leak given to the older actor to say in interviews. But one quote deserved more attention.

The article describes the first teaser as announcing the return of Chris Evans as Steve Rogers. It wasn't the old man Steve glimpsed at the end of Endgame, but a young version seen looking warmly at his old costume and a newborn baby. "We have a special affinity with the character," Anthony Russo says. "We can't see this narrative without his central role in it." He describes "the special place he holds among the ensemble" and adds, "He sort of retains that moving forward."

Why the Russos have a special affinity for Steve Rogers

It makes sense that the Russo brothers see the MCU through the eyes of Steve Rogers. He was the focal character of their first MCU movie, 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and their second, 2016's Captain America: Civil War. Even as their Marvel films became crossover ensemble events, Steve still got special highlights in Infinity War and Endgame.

In Infinity War, he was the last Avenger we sat with in shock upon realizing Thanos had won. In Endgame, Steve was the most brave-faced Avenger during the Blip, rallying the others to appeal to Tony Stark to consider time travel as a way to reverse the snap. The second act gave us two Caps at once, including a joke about his own backside. The film let Steve wield Mjolnir in its biggest moment, and its final shot belongs to Steve.

So I get the affinity. What surprised me is that the Russos couldn't see the Doomsday plot without Steve's central role in it, and that his unique status among Marvel's characters carries forward. That's not a character who dies in the opening act or sits the movie out. That's a character who leads the team through the whole movie.

What Steve's central role could mean for Sam Wilson's Captain America

This raises the question of Steve's relationship with the MCU's current Captain America, Sam Wilson. Some fans were confused when Chris Evans showed up in the first teaser because they felt it diminished Sam's role as Captain America. I don't know that I agreed, because the teaser said Steve Rogers will return in Avengers: Doomsday, not Captain America. Either way, Captain America is usually considered the leader of the Avengers, the one other heroes look to for calling the shots and deciding the strategy. If that leadership isn't the special place Steve holds among the ensemble, then what is?

An Esquire article released around the time of Captain America: Brave New World is worth bringing up. It described Anthony Mackie as set to return in both Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. Anthony Russo, who directed Mackie in four Marvel outings, recalled Mackie walking on set every day announcing, "Number six on set," a reference to his place on the call sheet. Russo said, "He has an energy to him that just lights up the set in a way that is extremely rare."

Mackie told Esquire, "What you don't want is Infinity War and Endgame 2.0." He added, "I don't know how you put all those people on screen together and make it work." Russo said Mackie's Captain America represents a unique space in the Avengers spectrum, adding, "And that's the greatest thing because sooner or later the collective storytelling is going to be in that space he occupies." The article also touches on negative online talk about Mackie, but that's never been my experience with the actor, and this industry is a complicated and messy place. For Doomsday, the only opinion that ultimately matters is the Russos', who clearly have something in mind for Sam that at least starts with him suing the Thunderbolts.

Steve Rogers could heal the rift between Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes

That conflict was hinted at in the post-credits scene of Thunderbolts, a scene the Russos directed and one we know will be part of Doomsday. I think it's part of the central role the Russos have in mind for Steve. While he's no longer Captain America, Steve could be the shared friend who heals the division between Sam and Bucky, the strange no-speaking terms that Bucky hinted the two of them were on.

Sam and Bucky seemed so friendly in their scene in Captain America: Brave New World. Whatever is at the bottom of their falling out, I think Steve can fix it. I also think the central role and special place Steve holds among the ensemble is represented in the shield itself.

The shield old Steve gave Sam in Endgame came from another universe

We often forget that the shield old Steve gave Sam in the second to last scene of Endgame did not come from the 616 universe. It came from whatever timeline or universe old Steve came from. So the shield that's the focal item of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and that Sam carries in Brave New World, is a different shield. It has a slightly different design, with notches and indentations that Cap's shield didn't have when he fought Thanos in the Battle of Earth.

Steve didn't have that shield when he went back in time at the end of Endgame. He carried the suitcase holding the Infinity Stones in one hand. In the other was the Mjolnir that Thor took from the 2013 era of the timeline he and Rocket visited to get the Reality Stone, the Aether, from Asgard. I believe the last time we see Steve's old shield is when Thanos orders his ship, the Sanctuary, to fire a barrage down on the battlefield. In the shockwave, Steve is blown back and his shield goes flying into the rubble.

For years I speculated that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier or Brave New World could explore the differences in that shield, but neither did. Maybe Marvel Studios' directive was that the answer would come in a future film, and maybe Doomsday is that film.

Old Steve's smile in Endgame may hide the cost of Doomsday and Secret Wars

If the Russos are saying Steve has a central role and a special place he retains going forward, I'm now assuming Steve survives these events and lives on to become the old man we see at the end of Endgame. In that case, old Steve gives Sam the shield after the battles of Doomsday and Secret Wars, and because of those conflicts.

When Sam notices Steve's walking cane and asks if he's going to tell him about it, old Steve replies, "No. No, I don't think I will." We previously read his mysterious smile as a man who never kisses and tells. Now I think it's the smile of a veteran that masks pain and sacrifice, with the newfound wisdom of an old man who knows that sometimes saying nothing is best. He's already paid the price of doing or saying the wrong thing, which caused an incursion. Maybe he doesn't want to cause another by telling Sam about the doom he's about to discover.

I think that smile also tells us that whatever resolution comes out of Doomsday and Secret Wars, it's better than the short-lived happy ending Endgame seemed to achieve, and old Steve doesn't want to undo it. Maybe that happy ending is Franklin Richards working with Doctor Strange and others to remake reality into a proper new 616 universe, with the Avengers, the X-Men and Spider-Man alongside each other and Iron Man alive again. Old Steve knows Sam will have to fight through the coming Doctor Doom conflict to see that sunrise on the other side of the storm.

I think Doomsday will show how Steve Rogers gets his new shield

The Doomsday teaser showed Steve in his new life as a dad looking at his Captain America suit, not his shield. Wouldn't he be looking at his shield in that moment? I think the Russos are clearly aware that this Steve doesn't have a shield yet. So I think part of his central role is someone in Doomsday saying, "Get this man a shield." I think the movie is going to show us how this Steve Rogers gets the shield he gives to Sam.

I also think the film could fix the shield so it's made not of vibranium but of its proper comics substance, proto-adamantium. That's the early alloy the Weapons Plus program later tries to recreate to form the adamantium used for Wolverine's skeleton. The MCU made the shield out of vibranium because back in 2011 it couldn't use that X-Men detail. That created the odd assumption that Howard Stark must have plundered vibranium in the 1940s, the kind of thing Killmonger was murdering museum curators for in Black Panther.

The "get this man a shield" line could come from one of the Wakandan characters seen in the Doomsday teasers. The fourth teaser, featuring Shuri and Namor, showed those two sharing Wakandan and Talokanil vibranium with each other. Or the line could come from someone who was around Tiamut's corpse in the 616 universe and knows it's a huge supply of adamantium. That would be Sam Wilson. Maybe Sam gives Steve the shield that Steve, as an old man, will give back to him later.