Sebastian Stan Talks Marvel In Past Tense — Is This The End For Bucky Barnes Ahead Of Avengers: Doomsday?

Sebastian Stan just talked about Marvel like it already happened, and Bucky Barnes fans are sweating. With Avengers: Doomsday lining up as the first big MCU team-up since Endgame in 2019, the stage is set for some heavy casualties. Add in a cast list that is... a lot, and yeah, people are reading the tea leaves.

Speaking on the Stronger Podcast (flagged by Variety), Stan looked back on his MCU stretch in a way that sounded very past-tense. That set off alarms across the fandom. Here is what he said, in full, that got everyone spiraling:

'I have to try to offer something different than before. And I have never favored one role over another. The Marvel stuff, I will always, till the end of time, [feel it] really helped me grow as a person and helped me grow as an actor and it taught me relationships and [I worked with] Robert Downey [Jr.] and Scarlett [Johansson] and all these people I looked up to… It was a family and it gave me a sense of belonging, it is always there for that, but it was only the step one for me.'

You can see why people fixated on the words he used. Fans zeroed in on the 'was' and 'step one' phrasing and immediately jumped to: Bucky is doomed in Doomsday. The reactions ranged from confused head-tilts to full-on prediction posts declaring him cooked, with at least one person going caps-lock begging Bucky not to do anything reckless. Subtlety is not part of the discourse right now.

Before we all start carving memorial plaques, though: it is entirely possible Stan was just reflecting on his MCU tenure so far and talking about personal growth, not telegraphing an exit. Actors lapse into past tense when they are looking back all the time. It might be nothing. Or it might not. Welcome to the waiting game.

So who is actually in Avengers: Doomsday?

Short version: nearly everyone. Which is exactly why fans are bracing for big swings (and big deaths). Here is the lineup we know about right now:

• Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes
• Anthony Mackie as Captain America
• Letitia Wright as Shuri
• Chris Hemsworth as Thor
• The Thunderbolts* roster
• The Fantastic Four
• Returning X-Men legends Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen
• Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom

That is a massive cast, and Marvel has a habit of clearing the board when the room gets crowded. If you are worried about Bucky, you are not alone — but for now, all we have is a reflective podcast moment and a lot of speculation. We will find out in Doomsday whether that past tense meant anything more than nostalgia.