The following contains spoilers for the Disney + debut on March 19 The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Read at your own risk.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has crowned a new Captain America, and it’s not Sam Wilson or Bucky Barnes!
The debut of the Disney + series saw Sam donate Cap’s shield – which Steve Rogers handed him in Avengers: Endgame – to the Smithsonian, just for the United States government to turn around and put him in the hands of a new Captain America: John Walker (played by Lodge 49Wyatt Russell). In the comics, Walker’s Super-Patriot is a villainous counterattack to the Steve Rogers version of the cap, representing extreme and obscure patriotism. His rise is a major betrayal of Sam, who hoped the shield would continue to be displayed in honor of Steve’s legacy (“This belongs to you.”)
Malcolm Spellman, who wrote and executive produced all six episodes of the Marvel series, says that while Sam is hurt by the revelation, it is not surprising that the government would do such a thing.
“The reason all of this has happened is the doubt that Sam would naturally have in this country, if not the world,” says TVLine. “As a black man, he knows how he is seen and he knows the electricity that would come from him carrying those stars and stripes. You know his family, and [they] already have opinions about it – you’re hearing some jokes, but it’s very straightforward. A black man being betrayed by his country, I don’t think it’s an amazing thing for Sam or any of our viewers, but he is powerful because it goes to the heart of Sam’s doubt. And how he deals with that doubt about the series will determine who he is advancing in the MCU with. “
The premiere also featured a cameo from Rhodey, also known as War Machine (Don Cheadle), who raised some important questions for Sam about where the world is now. According to director Kari Skogland, this relationship will be significant for Sam, as he ponders whether or not to recover Captain America’s mantle.
“There is a little bit of mentoring to it. It is also very relevant to the story of Sam and the shield and what he will decide, ”explains Skogland. “Rhodey is asking the question, ‘Is there a world where no one will carry the shield?’ Is that what it is, where allies become enemies and the post-Blip world has changed? During the Blip, obviously, there was a shared pain and you had a world that was cooperating in a different way. Now you’re a post-blip, and suddenly, people want you to go back to how you were. How [Sam is] pondering the idea of the shield and whether he should accept it or not, Rhodey gives even more reasons, both for and against. “
“There is an abbreviation that they have together,” adds lead editor Spellman. “Just by stopping and being silent for a minute, the audience can fill in the blanks.”
We still don’t know what exactly will bring Sam and Bucky together – they spend the first episode separately – and how supervillain Zemo (Captain America Civil WarDaniel Brühl) fits all of that, but it’s clear that Falcon and the Winter Soldier are operating in a world that looks very different from what they experienced in the captain America and Avengers films. The debut alludes to growing tension with the emergence of a violent extremist group known as the Flag-Smashers, and ends with the government’s baptism of a new Captain America who represents “true American values”.
These developments are “relevant to Blip and the fact that enemies and alliances have changed, and everything has changed very quickly,” explains Skogland. “We will find out over the next few episodes what that means.”
“We wanted the crisis that the heroes were facing was something that all fans could look at and say, ‘Oh, I can relate to that. This is a very real crisis, ‘”says Spellman. “We wanted these villains to be born out of this crisis and we wanted our heroes to approach them from a point of view that is so human and so anchored in modern struggle today, that this whole piece looks like the superhero franchise of the future. These heroes are from the era, they are dealing with the problems of the era and their worldviews are from the era. “
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