Confirmed what many fans had presumed to be the case, it looks as if the end of this year’s Captain America: Civil War was indeed a case of Steve Rogers giving up the Captain America mantle.

Speaking to The Huffington Post about the end of Civil War, co-director Joe Russo explained, “I think him dropping that shield is him letting go of that identity, him admitting that certainly the identity of Captain America was in conflict with the very personal choice that he was making.”

With Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers having dropped the Captain America moniker, that opens up certain other possibilities. Could Sam Wilson’s Falcon transition to becoming the new Cap, much like what has happened in the comic book realm? Could Bucky Barnes drop the Winter Soldier name and become a new Sentinel of Liberty, again something that has been seen in the comic books? Could A.N. Other become Cap? Could we even be left without a Captain America entirely for now? Could Steve Rogers only drop it in the short-term, or could it possibly be that Rogers will take on an alternative title for now?

In fairness, in the comic book world, Steve Rogers has previously given up on the Captain America identity, instead becoming the hero known as Nomad for a short while. In more recent years, Rogers actually handed the Cap mantle over to Sam Wilson whilst Rogers himself took on a supervisory coordinator role within S.H.I.E.L.D.

We guess we’ll all just have to wait and see how this develops when Anthony and Joe Russo’s Avengers: Infinity War arrives on April 27th, 2018.