‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’: Will We Learn More About What Happens After the Snap?
December 10 became a huge news day not only for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but for the whole of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Disney unleashed a tidal wave of information about their offerings, including Falcon, which finally got its airdate.
Even before the big investors call, fans watched news for Falcon with great interest because it tells what happens to those characters after the events of Avengers: Endgame. However, some fans hope it will specifically address a post-snap world.
What is ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ about?
The official synopsis for the show, in typical Marvel fashion, only offers the barest basics: “Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) team up in a global adventure that tests their abilities—and their patience—in Marvel Studios’ The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”
Many fans thought that after Steve Rogers gave Sam Wilson the Shield in Endgame, the next time we saw him, he would be the new Captain America. All indications are that he will be eventually, but the show is an intermediate step that shows him still grappling with the weight of that title, and with resistance from the government, which is not too keen on him being the new Cap.
As for Bucky, his story has been less clear. We know that Baron Zemo, the villain from Captain America: Civil War reappears on the bad side, and that Sharon Carter reappears on the good side, with Bucky still struggling from being brainwashed. In a way, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is less Endgame 2.0 as it is Captain America Civil War 2.0.
What do fans predict about ‘Falcon?’
Even before Disney’s investors call, fans on Reddit were speculating heavily about what direction the show would take. One fan suggested, “I really hope that Falcon and Winter soldier being in the same vein as Captain America 2 and 3 delve a bit deeper into the socio economic and political fallout that came from the Snap. That’s why those two films are so great, they show the more realistic political reaction to superheroes and explore it in a rational tone.”
In other words, we have not truly seen what the fallout of the Snap has been. Sure, the Avengers and friends resurrected everyone who could be resurrected, but snapping back goes way beyond that. How do people cope with being absent from the world for five years? How do people who may have moved on in those five years react when the “old normal” is restored?
In a strange way, it presages the pandemic. Hopefully things will recover once the vaccine is widely distributed, but the 2021 “normal” will not be the same as the 2019 “normal,” because too much has changed.
Another fan doesn’t think the show will explore these issues, though. That person wrote, “From what we’ve seen and heard so far, it seems like the series is very focused on telling its own action story about the titular characters and things like the Captain America mantle, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for delving into the post-snap society aspect of the MCU.”
What new information was released?
Two bits of key information came out last week: The release date and a full trailer. Falcon was originally going to be the first of the Marvel/Disney+ TV series, until the pandemic turned the world upside down and WandaVision became the lead show, with a premiere date of Jan 15,. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will not be far behind, debuting March 19.
“I’m excited for my kids to see me in something that I don’t have to force them to see,” Mackie told EW. “Because I feel like now with Disney+ they’re going to be watching it all the time anyway, so I’m excited for them to just want to watch me work.”
