Friday’s intermission between the finale of WandaVision and the premiere of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier saw Marvel Studios reveal a sneak peek into its sophomore television entry at Disney+. A featurette and snippets of two scenes from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier whet fans appetites for the forthcoming addition into the Marvel Cinematic Universe yesterday.
Prior to the pandemic, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was meant to soar onto screens as Disney+’s first MCU tie-in series in August of 2020, via Entertainment Weekly. Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes eventually took a backseat to WandaVision, whose production was furthest along before COVID-19 saw widespread production shutdowns. The Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Lock, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) and Sebastian Stan (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, I, Tonya) led series has been an exciting prospect for fans since Steve Rogers handed his shield over to Mackie’s Sam Wilson in Avengers: Endgame.
“We’re going to explore where these two guys left off, with one big character missing — the prominent figure that brought them into each other’s lives,” The New York Times quotes Stan on the upcoming series “where are they, and how are they coping with the world?” A first glimpse into the action series, that aims to bring MCU sidekicks into the spotlight, was given during Disney’s Investors Day.
While Marvel has been “coy about plot specifics”, a new version of the trailer that aired during the Super Bowl held more hints for fans in terms of what to expect from the series., via The New York Times. While The Falcon and Winter Soldier will bring back MCU characters such as Emily VanCamp’s (Revenge, The Resident) Sharon Carter/Agent 13, Daniel Bruhl’s (Inglorious Basterds, Captain America: Civil War) Barron Zemo and Don Cheadle’s (Hotel Rwanda, House of Lies) James Rhodes/War Machine, the dynamic banter between the show’s titular protagonists has been centered as the series’ selling point.
Friday’s short featurette took fans behind-the-scenes with Mackie and Stan, who described their characters’ relationship as “an example of opposites attract” (Marvel). The two subsequent clips released by Marvel Studios on Friday showed Sam and Bucky’s begrudging chemistry in action.
The first clip, of Sam jumping out of a plane with no apparent plan, gave further context to a high-flying action sequence prevalent in both prior iterations of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s trailers. In under a minute, this scene underlines a core tension between the characters stems from their opposing thought processes and attempts to form a working partnership without Steve Rogers.
A second The Falcon and Winter Soldier clip featured a debate between Sam and Bucky about “The Big Three” archetypes of MCU villains and showcased return-to-form for Marvel in terms of quippy dialogue and pop culture references. “The pair’s amusing debate is just a preview of what’s to come when this mismatched duo finally steps out on their own,” TVLine said of the dynamic between the former Captain America sidekicks on display in Friday’s newest clip. In their brief exchange, the heroes mentioned MCU entities such as Falcon’s reconnaissance drone Redwing and Benedict Cumberbatch’s (Sherlock, Avengers: Infinity War) Doctor Strange, in addition to the iconic Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit character Gandalf.
With one week until The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s premiere, TVLine anticipates that fans can “expect plenty of action and more pop culture references” from the six-episode series. Friday’s clips and featurette solidified the tone established in previous trailers, while giving audiences a closer look into the buddy-cop relationship that will drive the series, premiering March 19 on Disney+.
Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat