Captain America isn't representative of America? That's odd...

Marvel and its parent company of Disney are going into full blown panic mode right now. Why? Because the actor who plays Captain America - Anthony Mackie - just undercut the entire character. Mackie took over the stars, stripe and shield back in 2019, when the actor who had played Cap for almost a decade - Chris Evans - handed over the duties at the end of Avengers: Endgame.

So it's been over five years now, and we've really only seen Anthony Mackie play the character once in the limited-series Captain America and the Winter Soldier in 2021 (that aired on Disney+). Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will finally get to see Mackie play the beloved character on the big screen in February, when Captain America: Brave New World comes out on Valentine's Day.

Mackie has been on the press tour for the upcoming film as of late, and seemingly like a lot of actors and actresses these days, his latest comments about the character is surely causing headaches at Marvel and Disney headquarters. We all saw how well Rachel Zegler's comments about Snow White were received by the general public. The backlash resulted in the movie's release getting delayed until March of this year, and let's just say, it's not expected to do well.

Captain America: Brave New World is in a similar boat. The movie was already projecting to struggle a bit at the box office, and Anthony Mackie suggesting that the character of Captain America really doesn't represent America in a recent interview probably won't help drive people to the movies:

"For me, Captain America represents a lot of different things, and I don't think the term 'America' should be one of those representations. It's about a man who keeps his word, who has honor, dignity and integrity. Someone who is trustworthy and dependable."

Hey, all those things are fine to say about Captain America... but you've just got say that the character represents America right there. It's in the name, dude...

I guess in defense of Anthony Mackie, both Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War (the franchise's second and third installments) were about Captain America (then played by Chris Evans) not siding with the United States government, and actually fighting against them. So there is that...

However, with only weeks leading up to the movie's premiere, you've got to drum up excitement about the film... not hesitance. And much of the social media world have taken offense to Captain America himself saying that he's not representative of America:

And Mackie's comments also go against one of the taglines in the trailer below. About halfway through the sneak peak at the movie, the words "One symbol stands for all" flashes across the screen.

That certainly seems like it's at the very least America adjacent, am I right?