We all know the bond that Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes share, and we have all seen the lengths Roger went to save Bucky. Later on, we went on to see his epic transformation to a complete evil to be on the good side, and fight alongside the Avengers. Before turning into a weapon for HYDRA, James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes was an admirable man who grew up in New York. After saving Steve from bullies, the two became close friends, embarking on memorable adventures well into adulthood. When the United States entered WWII, both men decided to enlist, but only Bucky was accepted. After Steve agreed to take the Super Soldier Serum, he carved his own path as a member of the Army. By this point, both Steve and Bucky would have been in their early to mid-20s.
Captan America: The Winter Soldier brought Bucky Barnes back into the fold, but also featured a plot hole regarding his age. Bucky Barnes, or Winter Soldier, played by Sebastian Stan, was first featured in 2011’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The movie and the plot were set in the 1940s, and the movie focused on Steve Rogers’s transformation into the titular Marvel superhero during the events of WWII. As his childhood best friend, Steve joined forces with Bucky to fight against the Nazi division of HYDRA led by Red Skull. While Bucky was presumed dead during a mission, it was revealed in the Captain America sequel that he was captured and experimented on following WWII, transforming him into the deadly assassin known as Winter Soldier.
After encountering Steve in The Winter Soldier, Bucky started to get inclinations regarding his past after choosing to save Captain America’s life. He would eventually learn the truth about his brainwashing at the hand of HYDRA, but until then, Bucky sought answers on his own. Set in 2014, The Winter Soldier featured Bucky shed his assassin armor before heading to the Smithsonian Institute, a location that Steve also visited, where he found a memorial dedicated to the Howling Commandos, which included himself. More than likely, the birth year inconsistency at the Smithsonian Institute memorial was an inconsistency snafu on the part of Marvel Studios.
The MCU has confirmed Bucky’s birthday to be March 10, 1917, despite conflicting details presented throughout the franchise. While some indications labeled 1922 as the year of his birth, some fans followed along with the Marvel Comics origin of 1925. Even Bucky’s presumed death during WWII had unearthed a few inconsistencies. The memorial states 1944 as the time of his apparent death, the MCU insinuated that Bucky disappeared in 1945. When Stan celebrated Bucky’s birthday on March 10th while filming The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he was given a cake with candles that read 107.
That would have been the case if he was born in 1916, but according to his real birth year and the timeline set in 2023, Bucky would have technically been turning 106. Here’s hoping that the confusion stemming from Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the rest of the MCU gets cleared up before Bucky’s next birthday.
