My 9 Month Secret About THE Captain America Shield

I have been keeping a super top secret, secret for the last 9 months and it’s been KILLING ME. I’ll give you a hint. 

Not only did I get to play with Captain America’s shield, but we were was also given the unique opportunity to interview Property Master, Russell Bobbitt. (I also might have met and placed my hands on a certain someone who I will have to wait yet ANOTHER 3 months to tell you!!)

Russell was an absolute pleasure to speak with and went into great detail on the creation of the shields. (Yes, there are more than 1!!)  

Obviously this is “Captain America 2” so I’m the first one to establish the look of this thing. In our movie we have four different looks because he goes into different scenarios, different missions. And then there are different Marvel materials that help make the shield stealth in different situations. We also have four different styles. In this movie we have a couple surprises with the shield and it’ll appear that there are different shields – but it’s only one shield.

We have one shield but I have to make 50 of them to accommodate all the different scenarios — I have hard rubber, soft rubber, fiberglass, metal too depending on if there’s an insert. I like to use the metal one ‘cause it looks the best.

The one we got to take pictures with was the hard rubber version and was fairly heavy (says this 100lb girl). According to Russell, it’s the next best looking to metal but it’s much lighter. 

We need so many shields because we do different sort of scenes. If he’s walking around and it’s on his back, I can put a really clean nice heavy one on him. And when we photograph them from behind, it looks shiny and new like metal. When he takes it off and starts fighting with it, obviously we can’t hit each other with metal shields or the boys won’t be able to play very long. 

While there are many shields in the movie, in MARVEL lore there is essentially a single shield. In fact, the history of the shield is as interesting as the story of Steve Rogers. 

• The shield was presented to Captain America by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• Captain America’s shield is his primary weapon. The most well-known of his shields is a disc shaped object with a five-pointed star design in its center, within blue, red, and white concentric circles.
• This shield was created by Dr. Myron MacLain and is composed of a unique alloy of Vibranium, Adamantium, and an unknown third component. 
• The reason Hulk and Thor can pound on the shield while Captain America is holding it – without simply sending him into the air or pounding him into the ground – is because the shield absorbs a great deal of kinetic energy from impacts because of its Vibranium component.
• It is virtually indestructible. Resistant to penetration, temperature extremes, and the entire electromagnetic spectrum of radiation, the only way it can be damaged in any way is by tampering with its molecular bonding.
• In Marvel history, the shield has only been destroyed one time and in a strange turn of events the matter released by the destruction of the shield is ultimately what saved the shield and put it back together. 

Stay tuned for a more in depth look at being ON SET of the new Captain America: The Winter Soldier film coming in a couple months with another surprise photo and exclusive info!

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER 
releases in theaters everywhere on April 4, 2014!
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Thank you to Disney Motion Pictures for providing this experience. All opinions remain my own.