Why The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is Worth Watching

Because of the pandemic, Marvel has pushed back all movies and TV shows that were supposed to air, but one of the highly anticipated miniseries, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, has finally come out and is the highest viewed show on Disney+.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier stars Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon and Sebastian Stan as James “Bucky” Barnes/Winter Soldier, who reprise their roles from all the Marvel movies they’ve been in.

 The series takes place in 2023, five years after the events of Avengers: Endgame, where Sam Wilson who passed on the shield of Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) and Bucky Barnes, who deals with the loss of Rogers, is struggling to live in a world without his long-time best friend. The duo deals with an anti-nationalist, super soldier group called the Flag Smashers, led by Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman), who believes the world was better when the Blip happened.

Though long-time friends Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan have a special bond in real life, their characters don’t seem to. It is evident in the first four episodes that Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes despise each other but only work together because it was what Rogers would have wanted. Besides this, the only thing they thought they had in common was not liking the former U.S. soldier and new Captain America, John Walker (Wyatt Russell), who represents a symbol of protection but leads towards his downfall during episode 4. After seeing the type of person Russell’s character was, many fans took out their hatred on the character on social media. Though it did not affect him, Russell responded:

“It’s partly why I liked it [the show]. People were going to hate it. I knew it. That’s the reason you do it. That’s the point. You elicit that response and it’s like, Great, it’s working. I’m the kind of person [where] the gray area is a place that you must live. If you don’t live there, you’re going to have a very difficult time in your life trying to figure out who you are, because you’re limiting the kinds of questions you can ask yourself and ask others….” 

Notable stars who reprise their role from the franchise are former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp), who is on the run after the events in Captain America: Civil War and is currently living in Madripoor but hides a secret that Wilson and Barnes don’t know about, Ayo (Florence Kasumba), who is a part of the Dora Milaje and was last seen in Black Panther (2018), and my favorite, Baron Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl), who serves as an anti-hero by helping out Wilson and Barnes locate Karli.

During one scene in episode 4, Wilson, Barnes, and Zemo head to a club in Madripoor and Zemo is seen for only two seconds showing off his dance move that fans adored. Brühl revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that there is an extended version of Zemo dancing that wasn’t included in the show. Fans used the hashtag, #ReleasetheZemoCut, on social media to allow Marvel to release the full clip. Because it was highly requested by many fans, Marvel released the clip as well as Brühl the same week.

Director Kari Skogland did an amazing job exploring Bucky’s soft side of his character and developing Sam to finally be confident enough to use Roger’s shield and have a similar outfit as him while still using his falcon wings and drone Redwing to become the first Black Captain America.

Though there have been no talks of a season two from Skogland, many fans, like myself, were surprised at the end of the series. At the end of each episode, the show concludes with the title “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” but the last episode concluded with the title, “Captain America and the Winter Soldier,” indicating that Sam is the new Captain America as well as confirming that Captain America 4 is coming. 

According to Anthony Mackie, “he didn’t find out through Marvel Studios, but through a cashier at a grocery store” but was very happy with the news.