In one of the trailers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sam and Bucky are asked how old they are, and while it's a joke referring to their immature behavior, it does raise a legitimate question. Age is a contentious issue for many characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially given time travel, cryosleep and the Snap. However, Bucky, who has been affected by most of these issues, is arguably the character whose age is the most unclear.
Unlike some characters, Bucky does have a canonical birthday: March 10, 1917. He's a little more than a year older than Steve, which makes him the oldest human Avenger at a chronological 106-years-old. This puts him in his twenties during Captain America: The First Avenger, as he would have been about 26 in 1943, when he and the 107th were captured by Hydra.
This is worth noting because when Bucky was captured, he was experimented on by Arnim Zola and Hydra. Zola dosed prisoners of war, including Bucky, with his attempts to replicate the super soldier serum used to create Captain America. The specific details of the formula used on Bucky have never been explained, and unlike Steve, no physical changes were immediately visible in Bucky. However, the serum was powerful enough to help Bucky survive the fall from the train, and much like Steve, he exhibits enhanced physical qualities, so it can be assumed that, also like Steve, he ages slower than the average human.
Bucky was about 28 in 1945, when he was presumed dead and captured by Hydra. He was held prisoner for some time before Zola started to use him for the Winter Soldier Program. The exact timeline is unclear, but the Kennedy assassination in 1963 has been attributed in-universe to Bucky, so it's reasonable to assume that he was active from at least the mid-1950s -- when he would have been in his thirties.
As the Winter Soldier, Bucky was subject to more experimentation that could have unnaturally extended his lifespan. Hydra also put him in a state of suspended animation between missions. Presuming a mission lasted one week, he would live and age for that one week, then return to his cryogenic state until he was needed once more. He was active as the Winter Soldier for fifty years, but during that time he likely only aged a year or two, but there's no way to know for sure.
He broke free from Hydra's control in 2014 and lived and aged relatively normally for the next two years. After the events of Civil War, Bucky was granted asylum in Wakanda, where he agreed to go back into cryosleep until Shuri could figure out how to remove the Hydra programming from his mind. He was brought out of cryosleep sometime before the events of Infinity War, which took place in 2018.
2018 also brought about the Snap, during which Bucky was one of the many people to disappear. When everyone was brought back in Endgame, it was 2023, meaning that he and the others had lost five years. Taking the experimentation, cryogenic freezing and time skips into consideration, Bucky is physically somewhere in his mid-30s by the time The Falcon and the Winter Soldier takes place, making him appear seventy-some years younger than his chronological age.
Directed by Kari Skogland, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier stars Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Emily VanCamp, Wyatt Russell, Noah Mills, Carl Lumbly and Daniel Brühl. The series premieres March 19 on Disney+.
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