Steve Rogers is on confirmed hiatus from Captain America duties. Joe Russo, who has directed the last two Captain America movies with his brother Anthony, told the Huffington Post, “I think him dropping that shield is him letting go of that identity … [It’s] him admitting that certainly the identity of Captain America was in conflict with the very personal choice that he was making.†At the conclusion of Civil War* (spoilers ahead!), Rogers dropped his shield, but then showed up on the floating-raft prison to rescue his captive Avenger friends sans the red, white, and blue suit. But he’s obviously still super and still around, even if he isn’t Captain America. And there was a brief comics arc in the 1970s in which the Cap, feeling disillusioned with the United States, became a hero with no country called Nomad. So that’s a possibility the Russos could explore, because Steve Rogers will definitely be called back into action for Infinity War: Part 1 in 2018 (which the brothers are also directing) when Thanos shows up to rain down intergalactic terror on everything and the whole Marvel universe will likely have to come together to stop him. In the meantime, the Captain wouldn’t have been that busy onscreen. Between now and Infinity War we’ve got Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Thor: Ragnarok, which means one of those three movies should provide just enough screen time for Rogers to debut his new fighting duds in a post-credit sequence before coming back full force — maybe full Nomad? — for the battle against Thanos.
* This post previously identified the third film in the Captain America series as The Winter Soldier; the correct title is Captain America: Civil War.Â