There sure will be a lot of characters and subplots in the next Captain America movie

By Sean O'Neal | October 30, 2012 | 4:41pm

Aux Features Film

Though the next Captain America movie will be subtitled The Winter Soldier, it does not concern Chris Evans' displaced WWII-era superhero retreating to a snow-blanketed cabin, contemplating the stillness with nothing but a fleece pullover and some Robert Frost poems. As that would make for a rather dull superhero film, there will be other characters in it—most obviously Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes, confirmed by Variety to reprise the role of the sidekick-turned-titular-Winter Soldier alongside (as recently rumored) Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, plus Cobie Smulders' S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill and, of course, Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, whose participation is required for this to be a Marvel movie, or even just a movie.

And yes, there will be new people: Anthony Mackie will be there as The Falcon, it's been rumored that Downton Abbey's Jessica Brown Findlay has become the "frontrunner" out of all those rumored love interests, and now the film has its "key villain" in The Grey's Frank Grillo, who will assume the role of Crossbones—the Red Skull henchman and "Civil War" assassin whose presence alongside The Falcon and the Winter Soldier suggests there sure are a lot of characters and era-crossing subplots going on in this thing. Perhaps enough to make a man want to retreat to the wintry wilderness and be alone with his thoughts.