After a successful flagship trip with “WandaVision”, Marvel Studios will allow fans to rest a week before releasing their next original Disney Plus series “The Falcon and the Winter Solider” on March 18.
Before the premiere, Marvel creative director Kevin Feige connected with Variety to discuss our cover star, Anthony Mackie, who is reaching protagonist status in a way that his Marvel character Sam Wilson (the incumbent Falcon) has never done before.
Feige provoked a significant examination of what it will mean for a modern black man to assume the Captain America shield (which Mackie received in “Avengers: Endgame”), the growing diversity of Marvel stories and the creatives behind them, and the most memorable moments To work with Mackie over six films and now an original series.
What is your earliest memory of Anthony?
The first experience was that he was the first unanimous choice to play the character. We just offered him the role, in my memory, he didn’t audition. This has only happened a few times at Marvel. Mr. Mackie was one of those times. I thought he would be great as that character. As we always do, when we are climbing, you are cast for the immediate role – which was Sam Wilson in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, but if all goes well, it can grow and evolve into countless things. You want an actor who can do everything, which, of course, Anthony can.
What is interesting about a hero like Falcon is that he is not an alien or royalty, but someone who represents the black American experience.
Sam Wilson played by Mackie is different from Thor or Pantera, as he is not a king from another planet or another country, one hundred percent. He’s always been that way since the minute Captain America said, “To your left!” running around the mall in Washington DC
He is a man and he is an African American. He has experience in the army, he has experience in mourning counseling with soldiers with PTSD. That was how Steve Rogers initially developed this friendship with him. What’s so great about the move to the long version of Disney Plus is that we can see a lot more of these characters. Mackie has an incredible presence, be on the screen for six seconds or six hours. In “Endgame,” it was close to six seconds. All the time we asked, “Where did he grow up? Who is his family? “We want to know more about this guy being thrown into this situation and dealing with it in a spectacular way, considering he’s just a man. That’s what the show is about. This man, this black man in particular, in the Marvel version of the world outside our window.
What has Anthony contributed to the growth of this character over time?
He’s good with a zinger, a moment of action and is also incredibly moving. What I think is great, and not unlike the best of our actors, is when they start to become as inspiring off-screen as on-screen. I think Mackie, in his press and on the set of doing this series, has become a leader that we seek for guidance in many ways.
I don’t think much has been said, anecdotally, about the decision to give Sam Wilson the Captain America shield in “Endgame”. When did you decide and how was that day on set?
The day we decided, we were in the conference room – the one that looks like we spent half our lives in Atlanta – telling the story. The shield had gone to some people in comic books in the past, but four years ago, it seemed that part of the great potential of these stories and the journey that Sam and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) made throughout the course of the films, it seemed certain that he would give it to Sam.
When we shot it – everything about those scenes was surprisingly moving and exciting on the day. We had done Tony Stark’s funeral, or his “wedding”, which was our code name. In fact, it was Mackie and Sebastian who suggested the bank blocked the scene at the end of “Endgame”. They walk to Steve Rogers together. As it was scheduled, only Sam noticed this man sitting on a bench. They had the idea that they start to walk together and then Sam steps forward. Even the idea of him holding the shield and saying, “It looks like it belongs to someone else.”
It was really a wonderful convergence while we were creating the end of the Infinity Saga. Bob Iger told us what Disney Plus would become. What had been a classic passing of the torch from one hero to another at the end of “Endgame” suddenly opened up our potential to tell a whole story about it. What does it really mean for someone to get into this situation? And not just someone, but a black man these days. That was what Mackie and our principal copywriter Malcom Spellman and all of us did not want to escape from.
With the loss of Chadwick Boseman, it seems that Anthony is the most prominent man of color in the Marvel universe right now.
The repercussions of losing Chad are vast. Being honest in our story is something that Chad and Ryan Coogler, of course, always want us to lead the charge in, and that goes on with Mackie and this show.
Increasingly in films, and certainly with Marvel’s Disney Plus, it seems that the MCU is opening up to D&I in a way it never has before. Is this intentional or is the narrative progressing?
I think it’s a combination. We are lucky to have the comics to guide us. They have been relatively progressive over the decades for their time. Character building allows us – we are not creating any of our characters, they have been in the comics for years – and we are finally able to tell these stories. Observing the extraordinarily positive experiences we had in making sure that the room where this happens is not a room full of people who all look the same. When this is not the case, when there are people of different origins and genres, the stories are better. Having been with a company for 20 years and having released 23 films, it has always been “How do you keep things new and surprising at the story level?”
When you’re writing a story about a lawyer who is giant and green [“She -Hulk], or a Muslim teenager with superpowers in Jersey City [“Ms. Marvel”], or working with filmmakers and writers of color as we are – is so prevalent and such an important part of who we are and what we do now, that it doesn’t seem abnormal. It is no longer a title. A woman is driving something! Wow! I hope that this becomes the norm, as it is no longer a rarity.
What has your experience been in pivoting the series, and do you think Marvel Studios can keep up with what the market believes to be a series launch rhythm?
It’s been about three years now, and we’ve been lucky with the shows we’re filming right now. We have many of the same teams working on the Disney Plus series and the films. We have all been together for a long time and there is a shortcut to expectations. With TV, there are only more pages to shoot. The schedule is practically the same, for a big movie or a big show. You just do a lot more.
What will we learn about Sam Wilson / The Falcon in this project?
For us it was, let’s learn a lot more about Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes [Sebastian Stan]. We’ve seen a little bit of Bucky’s backstory over the years, the horrors he went through. Sam Wilson, where did he come from and what is his backstory? What does that mean, especially in a post-blip world, and what is he going to do with that shield? I think there are a lot of expectations and assumptions about – you get an icon, you become that icon. That’s easy? Spoiler alert, it’s not.
It is widely said that you are among the most vigilant in Hollywood when it comes to preserving theatrical releases, rather than allowing Marvel films to go to Disney Plus.
It’s impossible [not to be, when you] go to the premiere night of 23 films, in crowded cinemas, and see the reaction of the moviegoers. This is what motivates us creatively as we do all of this, certainly culminating in “Avengers: Endgame” and “Far From Home”. There is nothing better than that, and we don’t want to miss it. I hope it is not necessary. If there is nowhere else to put these films, it is another conversation, but I am excited about the cinemas that can handle it. In addition, what is happening abroad in countries where [the pandemic] is more in control. Guess what? It is human nature to want to be together and have an experience. This continues on a large scale in the countries where they can.
Is there an indelible moment in Anthony Mackie’s workplace that will remain for you?
There are several, and they are all about Mackie’s duality – a gigantic and turbulent personality who is also so thoughtful and articulate in quiet moments. We were in a place that I will not reveal and there was a lake. There was Mackie with a fishing rod, fishing about half a meter from a “No fishing” sign. That image stayed with me.