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Bucky Barnes has been places, man. From the streets of Brooklyn in the 1940s, to working as an assassin for the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War, to Wakanda where he hung out with some goats, Bucky has had the chance to go on more side quests than perhaps any other human character in the MCU. And now, in Thunderbolts* he's making his debut as Congressman Barnes. Wait, what?

As set up in exactly one line of dialogue in Captain America: Brave New World, Bucky has a new job within the world of the MCU: as a member of Congress. What's up with that? In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, actor Sebastian Stan has an explanation. 

"Imagine a quarterback of a football team getting replaced or retiring, and then he keeps showing up even though he’s not playing anymore. And they’re just like, 'Yeah, man, whatever you want to do. Don’t worry.' He just wants to be helpful in some way, and they give him a little pat on the back and go, 'It’s so nice to have you here.' So that’s how I look at it. He’s just consistently trying to find a way to be useful, and maybe someone gave him the idea of trying [politics] out to still be around."

Of course, it doesn't stick. (We've seen the Thunderbolts* trailers; we knew that it wouldn't.)

"But it’s so out of left field that, annoyingly, he comes out of retirement and goes right back to what he’s only known," Stan continued. "He’s also had his own suspicions about Valentina, so I think [Congress] is his way of trying to, in the legal and moral way, keep track of her. And then he realizes, 'I can just do this in my way, the way that I’ve always done it [as the Winter Soldier].'”

So there you have it, folks. In order to get a better handle on these strange times in the world of the MCU, Bucky takes a job on the inside. We'll find out how well that goes for him when Thunderbolts* releases into theaters on May 2. 

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