maxiekat:

“Originally the movie opened with a World War II sequence,” Feige says. “It was in the script early on and we boarded and did some concept art for it (ed. – top 2 pictures) to try and remind the audience that he is from the past, reestablish Bucky as a character, and use that to transition into the world. Before production, as we were going through it, we realize the Smithsonian served that purpose, and the best thing for the movie would be just to throw the audience into the modern world with Cap. Then everything we needed to know about his experiences in World War II we could get out of his discussions with Sam and Peggy and the Smithsonian trip., which is why the WWII sequence fell out of the film.” – The Art of Captain America: The Winter Soldier