Just yesterday, we brought you the news that Marvel Studios unleashed the new titles for the sequels to Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, the latter being Captain America: The Winter Soldier. While we weren’t expecting to hear any casting news for the film in such short-order, we’re pleasantly surprised that not only do we a new cast member already, but he’s also portraying a new-to-the-big-screen Marvel hero to fight alongside Cap.

THR reports that Anthony Mackie (Gangster Squad) is in talks to join the cast as Falcon. The character was created by Stan Lee and artist Gene Colan, and was introduced in the September, 1969 issue of Captain America. His alter-ego, Sam Wilson adopted a wild falcon he trained and named Redwing. When a group of men on an island “in the tropics” wanted a hunting falcon, Wilson answered the ad, only to discover that the self-dubbed “Exiles” were former Nazis in league with the supervillain the Red Skull.

The Red Skull uses the Cosmic Cube to mentally fuse Wilson with Redwing, creating a “super-normal mental link” that would, with time and concentration, give Wilson broad powers over all birds.

Wilson escaped, but remained on the island to organize the natives to confront the Exiles, who had turned them into serfs. At the urging of Steve Rogers, whom he later learned was Captain America, Wilson took on the costumed identity of the Falcon and underwent training with Rogers in order to better inspire the villagers and lead the fight.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is slated to hit theaters on April 4, 2014.