Sebastian Stan lays out Bucky’s future after Thunderbolts

By Blair Marnell Published May 5, 2025

There are some spoilers ahead for the ending of Marvel’s Thunderbolts. Stop reading now if you don’t want to be spoiled.

Earlier this year, Captain America: Brave New World briefly introduced a new direction for James “Bucky” Barnes, a character Sebastian Stan has been playing since 2011 in Captain America: The First Avenger. In Brave New World, the former Winter Soldier apparently retired from being a reformed hero and went into politics by running for Congress. Thunderbolts reveals that Bucky won his election to the House of Representatives. But his stay in Congress was short.

Stan recently spoke with Entertainment Weekly about where Bucky’s political career stands now that he’s joined the team of misfit heroes in Thunderbolts. By the end of the movie, the team’s fortunes drastically change. And in the post-credits scene, Bucky is still with the team months after they’ve rebranded. That seemed to suggest that Bucky was done being a Congressman and Stan agreed that his brief stint in politics was over.

“Yeah, it’s almost like crossing it out, right? He’s still been trying to find his way of how he can contribute in a way that he hasn’t before,” said Stan. “Ultimately, he realizes, ‘No, I am who I am, and I do things how I do them, and I should just do that.’ … The only issue I had was, ‘Well, why is he growing out his hair if he’s going to be a congressman?!’ But I still wanted to grow it out, so I was like, ‘I don’t care.'”

Jake Schreier, the director of Thunderbolts, also confirmed that Bucky’s term in Congress is “pretty well done,” before adding “I think he’s found a new place that makes much more sense for him.”

Without spoiling the exact details of the ending or the film’s post-credits scene, Bucky and his new teammates are poised to play an even bigger role in Avengers: Doomsday than previously believed. That means the stars of the Thunderbolts will be back in theaters roughly a year from now when Doomsday arrives on May 1, 2026.