Marvel’s ‘Winter Soldier’ tackles race and patriotism
Disney+’s new Marvel TV series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” features two of its three primary personalities right there in the title. Left out: Captain America’s shield.
“It’s the main character, my man,” says creator and head writer Malcolm Spellman. “The shield is everything in this show.”
Like the recent hit “Wandavision,” “Falcon” catches up with members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after the events of “Avengers: Endgame.” But instead of a sitcom vibe, the new six-episode series (that premiered March 19, then weekly) shares the global adventure feel of the “Captain America” movies, although Cap – Chris Evans’ earnest dogooder Steve Rogers – is gone.
Instead, the show shines the spotlight on his old pals Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), aka Falcon, and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), the Winter Soldier, in the style of a buddy action film, even as it tackles timely themes of patriotism and race.
Ever since Mackie and Stan first met as onscreen foes in 2014’s “Captain America: Winter Soldier” and then became bickering allies in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War,” “it’s always been my dream, and we’ve talked about the idea of doing something like ‘48 Hours’ or a ‘Miami Vice’ with the two of us,” Mackie says. “There’s no two people on earth who are more opposite, so it kind of works perfectly.”
The end of “Endgame” is where “Falcon” begins: After a time-travel jaunt, an elderly Cap returns to leave his starspangled shield for Sam. Instead of immediately accepting the mantle, Sam says “It feels like it belongs to someone else.” That quote was “a guiding principle” for Spellman. “What would make someone say that and respond that way?” he says.
“If people think this show is about Sam carrying that shield and being Captain America, it is not.”
The new series finds Sam, an Air Force veteran, working with the military on missions while Bucky, Steve’s childhood best friend and fellow World War II soldier, is having an existential crisis and making amends for decades of subterfuge and murder as a brainwashed assassin. “They’re both trying to make the best of it,” Stan says. “One of them doesn’t really have a home, but they both have different life issues waiting for them.”
As the post-“endgame” landscape has thrown the world into geopolitical turmoil, Sam and Bucky have reason to team up again, and the American government decides to get involved when the country needs “new heroes.” Yet as much as Spellman liked the bantering duo, he also wanted to dig deeper into Sam’s backstory and mindset.
“The thing I most wanted to explore was the conflict of a Black man becoming Captain America or not,” Spellman says. “What does it mean if he succeeds? What does it mean if he fails?”
Mackie, 42, felt it was a “perfect time” to tackle the issue in a Marvel project. “It’s a very universal conversation amongst Black men, and it’s always been that way,” the actor explains. “The loudest voice in that conversation was Muhammad Ali when they were trying to force him to go to Vietnam. How do you represent something that’s never appreciated, respected or in any way, shape or form allowed you to be considered human? How do you love the person who’s never shown you love and who’s mentally abusive towards you?”