BEST OF FRENEMIES
ANTHONY MACKIE AND SEBASTIAN STAN ARE HEROES AT EACH OTHER’S THROATS IN THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER
IT’S easy to deride all Marvel projects as being much of a muchness but each does have its own flavour. SpiderMan is a coming-of-age tale. Ant-Man is a heist flick. And The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, the latest in what’s going to be a long line of Disney+ original series, is a buddy cop show – a buddy cop show where the two leads really don’t like each other.
‘Lethal Weapon, 48 Hrs and Bad Boys were the movies we always talked about,’ says Anthony Mackie when pressed to nail down an influence.
His co-star Sebastian Stan, however, took stranger inspiration: ‘I referred to Revolutionary
Road for guidance,’ laughs Stan. ‘A couple in a marriage who are no longer inspired by one another in the way they used to be.’
The mega-budget The Falcon And The Winter Soldier is the second of six (SIX!) Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) shows coming this year. Those who found Disney’s WandaVision a little weird will be glad to hear this effort is more strait-laced with plenty of action-packed set pieces, and two of the MCU’s lesser-known characters front and centre.
It takes place in the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, where half the world’s population have been returned to existence after a five-year ‘Blip’ and major deaths have left the future of the Avengers in doubt. Sam ‘Falcon’ Wilson (Mackie) has been offered Captain America’s shield but has turned it down and James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier (Stan), is going to therapy.
‘Grief is a big thing with these characters because they deal with very extreme circumstances,’ says Stan. ‘In the show we’re still feeling the effects of Iron Man being gone, the Blip and Steve Rogers [Captain America] being gone.’
The show doesn’t shy away from hot-button issues, either. Falcon’s decision not to become Captain America (instead returning to his hometown and family to become, er, Uncle Sam) is motivated by inequality and prejudice.
‘Race is an important issue,’ says Mackie. ‘Being a black man in America is a turbulent existence. How do you stand up and represent a country that has never loved you? He didn’t accept the Captain America shield because his reality is not that of an appreciated American.’
The show also has a lot of fun with the dynamic between the pair. Both were Captain America’s BFF at different points and the two have had a largely antagonistic relationship thus far. Stan and Mackie clearly had a lot of fun being at each other’s throats and the duo gently rib one another in real life. Stan is extremely entertained by Mackie’s new-found enthusiasm for home-made ravioli, while Mackie is happy to point out to Stan how many more members of the Avengers cast he has on WhatsApp than his co-star. They seem to be having a blast working together.
‘This is only the start,’ says Stan. ‘After this, we’re going to remake Trading Places.’ MIKE RAMPTON
‘Race is a key issue and being a black man in the US is a turbulent existence’
The Falcon And The Winter Soldier is on Disney+ now