In a new post, Sam Wilson actor Anthony Mackie addressed his playful squabble with Tom Holland.
In Captain America: Brave New World, Sam Wilson will once again strap on his high-tech flight pack, pick up his indestructible vibranium shield, and fight the good fight as Captain America.
Things might get dicey for the winged Avenger, though, as he’ll be forced to contend with Gamma-powered bad guys and a race between global powers to control the adamantium-infused corpse of the Celestial Tiamut.
Anthony Mackie Extends an Olive Branch to Tom Holland
Anthony Mackie, the lead in Marvel’s next film, Captain America: Brave New World, took to Instagram on August 26 to share photos snapped during Marvel’s Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) in late July.
In the caption of his post, Mackie tagged Spider-Man himself, Tom Holland, and wrote the following, conceding that he may have been in the wrong about an element of the pair’s longstanding, joking feud:
“I had to take time and let the scope of what happened sink in. You were right @tomholland2013, it is different when you go with your own movie!“
What the Captain America star is getting at is that the MCU experience is a whole different ballgame when one is leading their own Marvel movie instead of serving as a supporting cast member.
This remark from Mackie seems to directly respond to the comment that sparked this essentially pretend beef.
At Ace Comic-Con in 2018, Tom Holland and Anthony Mackie appeared on stage at a panel together. Mackie confessed he hadn’t seen any of Holland’s Spider-Man films. Holland said he hadn’t seen the "Falcon movie" because "there isn’t one."
While on the press tour for 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Holland doubled down on his original claim that there is no such thing as a film starring Mackie’s Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon.
At the time, Mackie had only been the lead of an MCU TV series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. So not only did he share the spotlight with Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, but Holland was unequivocally correct; the project was not a feature film like the kind he had already done three of as Spider-Man.
Over the next few years, the back-and-forth teasing between Anthony Mackie and Tom Holland continued. This included comments made at the MTV Movie & TV Awards in which Mackie promised Holland he was "on [his] ass."
Rightfully so, Anthony Mackie will fully step into the role of Captain America in the forthcoming Captain America: Brave New World.
The duo’s friendly rivalry culminated at this year’s SDCC when Anthony Mackie, on hand to promote Cap 4, threw some serious shade in Tom Holland’s direction:
"Well, he's Cap. Finally. Now we see him running missions on his own and trying to figure out where he fits into the whole world. This is way better than any of Tom Holland's movies. And, I have Harrison Ford!"
With this new social media post, it looks like Mackie is finally ready to bury the hatchet, as he conceded that Holland’s perspective is one of merit.
Does Anthony Mackie Really Have Beef With Tom Holland?
This isn’t the first time two Marvel actors engaged in some mutual trolling of one another. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman traded barbs for years, and everyone knows how that eventually turned out (Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine).
But for those who aren’t in on the joke, the contentious banter between Tom Holland and Anthony Mackie primarily appears to be all in good fun.
Sam Wilson and Peter Parker have shared the screen on a handful of occasions in the MCU thus far, and with the lead-up to 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday and the following year’s Avengers: Secret Wars in full swing, fans can likely expect the two heroes to cross paths once again.
Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World lands in theaters on February 14, 2025.
