Sebastian Stan, who plays Bucky Barnes in the MCU, has some ideas about prequels involving his character.
Stan appeared at Comic-Con Liverpool in the UK, where he was asked which MCU films he would potentially wish to make prequels for. “We could probably do with a prequel before Captain America: The First Avenger, so we could really learn maybe more about their friendship,” he commented (via Comic Basics), referring to the friendship between Bucky and Steve Rogers. “Their relationship, you know.”
He added: “Or we can even do a prequel to before Captain America: The Winter Soldier where we’re actually seeing what happened with him. We never really explore that. We always see him towards the very end of his Winter Soldier arc. But when he had this other double life you know, where, I don’t know, he taught like Black Widow how to be Black Widow.” In Marvel comics, the Winter Soldier did indeed help train Natasha Romanov in the Red Room, though the MCU seems to have taken a different approach.
Stan also shared the characters he’d like to return to the MCU. “Do I want Steve back? Steve Rogers should come back,” he said. “I think that would be fun. Who else? Natasha, obviously, there’s about 27 films with Natasha that haven’t been done yet that I keep pushing for.”
Next up for Stan in the MCU is Thunderbolts*, which will see Bucky teaming up with a rag-tag group of misfits, including Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova and Wyatt Russell’s US Agent.
Thunderbolts* arrives May 2, 2025. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows for everything else that’s in store.