According to THR, Julius Onah has been tapped to direct Captain America 4, which will mark Anthony Mackie's first feature-length outing as Captain America, after he took on the mantle in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The Nigerian-American filmmaker is best known for his work on Netflix's The Cloverfield Paradox and Luce, and Captain America 4 will mark his first film since Luce's release in 2019.
The fourth Captain America film is set to be co-written by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showrunner Malcolm Spellman and staff writer Dalan Musson, which was announced shortly after the hit Disney+ series finished its run last spring. There is still no word on what the plot of the film will be, but given the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, one thing is guaranteed: Mackie is going to knock it out of the park as Captain America. While The Falcon and the Winter Soldier saw Mackie's Sam Wilson shed the mantle of Falcon and fully embrace what it means to be Captain America, he was first given the iconic Captain America shield by Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) in Avengers: Endgame. His rise to Captain America happened in a similar fashion in the comics in 2014, when an aged-up Steve Rogers appoints Sam as his official replacement as Captain America.
This announcement comes ahead of Marvel Studio's previously announced presence at San Diego Comic-Con, which will inevitably deliver new details about the upcoming release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, as well as the remaining projects of Phase 4. Marvel also recently announced that Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest were attached to their upcoming Wonder Man series, in addition to announcing that Jake Schreier is set to direct their Thunderbolts film — which could feasibly be linked to whatever happens in Captain America 4.
Onah was brought into the Cloverfield universe by J. J. Abrams when he was tapped to direct Netflix's hit-and-miss sci-fi thriller The Cloverfield Paradox. The issues with the film were no fault of Onah's, who brought a keen and creative eye to a messy script that aimed to do too much with its unique storyline. The film's cast was an impressive one, which ironically included Marvel's Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Loki), Daniel Brühl (The Falcon the Winter Soldier), and Elizabeth Debicki (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2).
At this time, there is no word on while Captain America 4 will go into production or when fans can swoop into theaters to catch Mackie's silver screen appearance as Captain America.