Keep Your Shirt On: McConaughey Won't Play Captain America

 We didn't bother to report in this story a couple of weeks ago because we didn't feel there was any justification for it in the first place, and now, we're happy to announce that Matthew McConaughey will not play Captain America. IESB recently sat down with Marvel's Kevin Feige, who revealed that those rumors were absolutely false. A little more is known about Captain America, as well. For example, yes, that was the Captain's shield in Tony Stark's bad-ass garage, seen briefly when he takes off the Iron Man suit. What does it mean? Nothing, apparently. Just a tip of the cap, that's all. It's like E.T. making an appearance in the second Star Wars trilogy when Padme addresses the galactic council. But as for the shield being a thread that ties two movies together, don't bet on it. Another confirmation Fiege was able to make was that Captain America will be a period piece. That's actually a backflip-worthy development. Not to rehash the entire story for you now, but we made the case that one of the reasons Superman Returns was not as big as anybody wanted it to be was that as a superhero, audiences have a harder time relating to the "Man of Steel" concept in today's climate. They like flawed humans thrown in extraordinary situations now. It could shift back, but for the time being, audiences like complicated figures with tremendous weaknesses. Superman doesn't have tremendous weaknesses. Just a theory. How does that relate to Captain America? In case you haven't noticed, this isn't the most patriotic time in our nation's history. Captain America simply fits better if it's set in World War II. It was a more innocent, unified time, so that hero works in the 1940s but because Cap tries to defend American ideals at every turn, I'm not so sure he'd work in a contemporary setting. Plus, in the early 1990s, there was an embarrassing Captain America movie that went directly to video (and starred J.D. Salinger's son as Steve Rogers) where the premise was Cap had been frozen for decades and thawed out to battle The Red Skull. Dumb idea. The origin story of the character is during the war - Steve Rogers gets a dose of super soldier serum and a life of crime fighting begins - so it's best that Marvel is keeping it there. Captain America will soar into theaters in 2011, weeks before the Avengers movie.

Comments

[JMK]

I believe you meant to write "Superman RETURNS", not "Begins"...

[Get The Big Picture]

I did. And I changed it. So there.