Charles and Arlyn Murphy were fortunate enough to sit down with actress Indya Bussey. Bussey plays one of the Flag-Smashers and she talked about what that group is all about, the identity of the Power Broker and more in an exclusive interview!
Tag: The Falcon and The Winter Soldier
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‘The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’ End Credits Track “Louisiana Hero” Officially Released
If you found yourself air guitaring to that great end credit track at the end of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, you are in luck. Marvel Music and Hollywood Records have released the Henry Jackman composed track “Louisiana Hero” for download and the full end title sequence and track are linked below.
It’s interesting to note that Jackman also worked on Captain America: The Winter Soldier, among other things, with rock and roll icon and founding member of Aerosmith Joe Perry on guitar. According to IMDB, Perry is listed as working his guitar magic with Jackman again in all 6 episodes of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. It seems very likely that’s him on this track.
According to an article on Marvel.com, two digital soundtrack releases for the Disney+ series are also on the way. Episodes 1-3 will be covered in volume 1, released on April 9th. Music from episodes 3-6 will be in volume 2, which is to be released on April 30th.
Source: Marvel.com, Hollywoodrecs.com
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‘The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’ Episode 2 Primer
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is one of the most anticipated shows of 2021 and Episode 1, “New World Order”, didn’t dissapoint. Sam is now working for the Air Force, gave Steve’s shield away to the Smithsonian Institute, and is trying to help his sister with the family business. Bucky is trying to make up for all the wrong he did as The Winter Soldier and part of the terms of his pardon is that he has to go to therapy. We also see that Thanos’ snap changed the world a lot, because all of these people have been gone for five years and their return was another complication. For example, Sam wanted to get a bank loan but he couldn’t because he had no recent financial history. We also met some new villains in the MCU, the Flag Smashers. But what exactly are they? Some of them seem to have super powers, and they want one thing: a world without borders.
Obviously, Sam is having some self- doubt, he doesn’t think he is good enough for the shield so he gave it up. But what was really painful was when they announced the new Captain America, John Walker. Steve thought that Sam deserved it but why did he give it up? Why doesn’t he think he deserves the shield? Why did Walker get the shield specifically? What makes him a better choice than the person Captain America hand-picked to have the shield?
Arlyn’s Assumptions
Since John Walker was introduced in this last episode, that we will definitely get a good chunk of the episode devoted to him. You can’t introduce a new character and then just not talk about him at all and these exclusive set pics from Fall of 2019 seem like they could help tell his story. There are actually a couple of characters we know are in the show that haven’t been introduced yet in Zemo and Sharon Carter. We did see glimpses of them in the trailer but we have no idea at all how the Blip has affected them. Zemo said that he doesn’t want to leave his work unfinished, so that could mean he is going after Bucky and with his name on Bucky’s list as well, we’re set up for a lot of fun with these two. Director Kari Skogland said they shot this like a 6-hour movie, so we are definitely getting the rest of the first act in this episode before getting into some crazy action in Episodes 3 and 5 when the plot really starts to unfold.
The next episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier streams tomorrow.
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Leaked ‘THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER’ Marvel Legends May Hint at John Walker’s Fate, Wave BAF
Yesterday we got a good look at Sam Wilson’s new Captain America suit via the Disney Store. It wasn’t much of a spoiler as most fans believe Sam will eventually take on the mantle of Captain America and the suit itself looks to have been ripped straight from Stuart Immonen’s comic design; however, today a new set of images have leaked, this time of Marvel Legends from the upcoming series, and one might just be a little spoilery.
At the end of Episode 1 of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Wyatt Russell’s John Walker was announced to the world as the new Captain America. Since most fans are of the mind that the series will wrap up with Sam as Cap, logic dictates we aren’t likely to have 2 Caps, so what will happen to Walker? As you can see in the photos below, it looks like at some point in the show, Walker will change gears a little bit and become U.S. Agent.
Walker has gone by U.S. Agent more often than not in the comics, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise to avid readers, but not everyone watching Disney Plus is a comic book aficionado. The figure shows off a darker suit for Walker, more in line with his familiar comic book ensemble. If Walker is still standing at the end of the series, we could see Russell marching into future MCU projects (Thunderbolts?) as U.S. Agent.
In addition to Walker, the series will feature Baron Zemo (it’s still interesting to me that he’s called “Baron”) and Bucky Barnes figures and all 3 include what are clearly pieces of the wings we saw on Sam Wilson’s Cap suit, meaning that Sam Wilson Captain America is the Build-A-Figure for the wave! We’ll keep our eyes open to see if we can fill in the rest of the figures in the wave but for now we’ve gotten a great look and some insight into what to expect as the series unfolds.
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What The First Episode of ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Says About Being A Black Man
My Friday morning routines since the new year have consisted of me waking up before my soon-to-be threenager, sitting up in bed, and watching the latest episode of WandaVision. Marvel delivered literal magic with that show, but attention has now rightfully shifted to what comes next as we barrel through Phase 4. We have the time-hopping adventure starring the 2012 version of the God of Mischief, a Secret Invasion subtly set up by the end of the aforementioned trip through Westview, a Black Widow movie still on the way, and an animated What If…? series that may give us even more information about the MCU’s multiverse all headed our way through the summer.
However, as WandaVision dealt with a very self-contained story within Wanda’s reality post-Blip The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is the first time we are really on the ground on this Earth that has now had a few months to adjust to 5 billion people returning and is seemingly back up and running enough to where a Captain America memorial has been unveiled and groups trying to restore the world to a Pre-Blip status quo have been able to mobilize pretty effectively. There are a lot of questions that came out of the first episode, especially when it pertains to an easter egg of Shawn Bradley-like size and whether a non-Accords supporting Sam has his own rogue army personnel working with him considering WandaVision told us the Accords were still in place, but there’s also our main characters dealing with the trauma that accompanies not just them being snapped away and then coming back: no, they’re each also dealing with the subsequent loss of their best friend and the consequences of what it meant to leave behind a past that didn’t suit you anymore.
With Bucky, that trauma has manifested itself in the form of a list he keeps to make amends. As a therapist, I can tell you this is not a bad tool to use: I’ve recommended it for kids who feel they have let down their parents, but it eventually morphs into a lesson about how no matter how much we try to make amends the person we really have to make amends with is ourselves. We’ll talk more about that as the series goes on.
With Sam, he was handed a symbol that was created by Howard Stark, the father of dearly-departed Tony Stark, and was carried by Steve Rogers. In a lot of ways, Sam Wilson is the amalgamation of Stark and Rogers in the MCU in that he represents their combined strengths (Tony’s ingenuity as evidenced when he is working on Redwing plus Steve’s desire to do what he feels is right even if it’s unpopular as evidenced by his willingness to give up the shield) and none of their weaknesses. Sam emerging from the Blip and not being able to save his family’s business is evident of Stark emerging from the cave and losing his father’s company to Stane in Iron Man, and the way he doesn’t understand how things work financially in this new world mirrors Rogers’s awakening in Times Square in The First Avenger. However, there is one distinguishing characteristic that is very evident in episode one.
Sam is a Black man in the MCU in the same way Anthony Mackie is a Black man in the Marvel universe in the aftermath of the death of Chadwick Boseman. Sam was denied a bank loan: as his sister painfully mentions, things have a way of tightening up when it comes to loans for Black folks. The banker tries to shush that away and highlights Sam’s heroics, but those heroics don’t allow for the loan to go through. The gentleman from the Smithsonian, upon receiving the shield from Sam, tells Sam he is doing the right thing: in The First Avenger, the Army cannot wait to push Steve’s face and the shield to sell bonds to pay for a world war despite Steve not being allowed on the battlefield. Think about that: Steve never fired a bullet until he found out Bucky was behind enemy lines and was still able to earn a living, but Sam just helped save the entire universe during an alien invasion yet somehow he isn’t qualified to be Captain America!? Rhodey seems to understand what’s happening, as a Black man also set to follow the legacy of a white man battling demons in bottles, and tries to counsel Sam out of giving up the shield but Sam’s decision seems made up.
After Chadwick Boseman’s death, Anthony Mackie now has the highest-profile role in the MCU for a Black man. Chadwick was the King of Wakanda and was positioned to assume the mantle of leader of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, at least one of them, and now that will inevitably fall to the MCU’s new Captain America. For a guy who has taken so many twists and turns in his career, Mackie’s time in the spotlight syncs up eerily with the timing of Marvel needing a new face of their most successful franchises: as it stands the Avengers and Captain America films, respectively, are Marvel’s most lucrative and critically-acclaimed respectively, and they’re both set to be led by Falcon. Sam’s inability to get a bank loan is something many Black folks are familiar with as much as we are familiar with us grinding and finally getting the opportunity to lead. We’ve also heard folks brought in to lead us talked about in terms like the Smithsonian dude described the man with the most punchable face: the new Captain America.
Real American values, he said.
Somebody real white, we heard.
Nick Spencer, take a bow.
Sam Wilson? This IS America.
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How Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes Will Help Each Other Grow in “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier”
We don’t get to see the titular characters of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier interact with each other at any point during the show’s premiere, but the episode definitely lays the groundwork for their respective arcs in the series, as well as how they will intersect.
As hinted at in the show’s trailers, Sam Wilson’s arc appears to be that of learning to accept the shield as given to him by Steve Rogers and taking his place as Captain America. We already knew from Avengers: Endgame that Sam had difficulty seeing the shield as his own, but as it turns out that feeling runs much deeper than many fans anticipated. The first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier throws a curveball at the audience pretty early on, as Sam voluntarily turns the shield over to the authorities six months after Steve passed it on to him.
It’s likely that many factors – such as the pressure to live up to his old friend’s legacy and the added implications behind a Black man carrying the shield – were behind this decision. But beyond the scene at the Smithsonian with Rhodey, we don’t get to hear much about it in this episode. Instead, the remainder of Sam’s screentime after giving up the shield is focused on his personal life. He spends time with his sister Sarah and her two children – the nephews he missed out on seeing grow up during the five years he was Blipped – and his passion for keeping the legacy of his parents alive and not wanting to lose the family business is evident.
Bucky Barnes, on the other hand, doesn’t have a family, and the closest thing he had to one is now out of the picture. This not only makes him the only (known) Super Soldier on Earth, but also the only person with the experience of growing up nearly a century prior to present day but not having the life experience of the few other living people who also did. Basically, he’s a man with no real place in the world.
Between all of this and the decades of torture he faced from HYDRA during his Winter Soldier days, Bucky is extremely resistant to trust or develop a meaningful relationship with anyone. The closest he gets in this episode is the man he meets for lunch once a week, but even that turns out to be a reminder of his past since, as he discovers towards the end of the premiere, he murdered the man’s son while he was still the Winter Soldier.
Our two leads are living very separate lives during this first episode. It’s inevitable, though, that they’ll come together sooner rather than later (the series is only six episodes long, after all) and there’s a good chance the announcement of the new Captain America is going to be the event that sets this reunion into motion. There was one brief moment in this episode, though, that likely foreshadows the result of both characters’ arcs.
When Bucky’s therapist demands to see his phone (something that would probably never happen in real life, by the way) she mentions that Sam has sent him multiple texts that he has not replied to. While the content of these messages is unknown, their existence tells us that Sam is trying to reach out to Bucky and maybe make sure that he’s okay, just like he does with his sister in this episode, and just like he does for Steve and Natasha in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Despite the prevalent scenes in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s marketing featuring its two leads claiming they’re not friends, only co-workers, I highly suspect this will change by the end of the series. Bucky has been set up for an arc where he learns that there are people he can trust, and Sam is obviously going to be one of those people. But Bucky learning to trust again isn’t only going to serve his own arc, but Sam’s as well. Steve Rogers was chosen for the experiment that resulted in him becoming the original Captain America because Dr. Erskine deemed him as “not a perfect soldier, but a good man.” This is also a great description for Sam Wilson; he’s not a supersoldier, but he truly cares about people and is willing to go to bat for what he believes is right. Once he realizes that – and possibly succeeds in convincing others of it as well – he will be ready to accept the shield, and all that comes with it.
I guess the joke about “custody of Bucky” coming along with the Captain America shield just might actually ring true after all.
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REVIEW: ‘The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’ Is a Return to Form For Marvel Studios
Heavy is the hand that bears the shield.
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier wastes no time in centralizing the idea of legacy and the burden it brings; that Steve Rogers and his shield are impossible to live up to. Within the show’s first minute, we already know the burden Sam Wilson feels by simply holding the physical symbol of Cap’s legacy. Even for Bucky Barnes, it’s an issue of legacy. Compared to Steve’s, Bucky’s legacy on the world is as harrowing as it comes. His sins as the Winter Soldier continually creep up on Bucky in his nightmares and it’s up to him on how he makes up for his legacy.
The world hasn’t moved on from the Blip. In fact, the Blip has complicated things in unexpected ways. Instead of fixing the world back to what it was before the Snap, the Blip has only upended the status-quo of the last 5 years of the MCU. Perspectives have changed; an organization called the Flag Smashers wants a pre-Blip status quo for the world. One without borders or governments. Down to the minutiae, laws have changed: Sam Wilson can’t get a loan for his sister because everything went under for 5 years. Fans who’ve been yearning to see the true effects of the snap will be happy to watch this show.
This episode has yet to introduce the full ensemble. Zemo and Sharon Carter are nowhere to be found in this episode so it’s mostly relegated to just the titular duo. However, we do get to meet a new sidekick in the form of Joaquin Torres, played by Danny Ramirez. Comic fans will recognize Torres as Sam Wilson’s successor to the Falcon mantle in the comics . Torres, an intelligence officer in the MCU, is Falcon’s man-in-the-chair. Ramirez plays him with a Hardy Boys-charm that a lot of fans will like.
The episode’s strengths are in these character-heavy moments and it’s up to Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan to bring life into these moments that could be otherwise dull if mishandled poorly but man, do these two bring it. The beauty of these long-form stories is that they allow so much room for depth for each character. In this first episode alone, we see sides of Sam and Bucky that we’ve never seen before. Whether it’s Sam going to Louisiana to reconnect with family or Bucky having lunch with a friend, it’s all character gold. Just like how Wandavision humanized Vision by having him go on social calls with the neighborhood watch, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier brilliantly gives us lovable human moments with these titular characters. Who knew superheroes in their downtime could be so great to watch?
I’ve always felt that Stan always had the short end of the string when it came to sharing the screen with Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie at the same time and understandably so. Evans’ presence alone lights up a scene with his stoic gravitas while Mackie oozes charisma and charm. It’s almost inevitable to get upstaged by those two. Stan, for the most part, never got to do much in the shadow of the larger stories of the MCU and the intrinsic likability of his scene partners.
So as far as first episode performances go, I think Sebastian Stan gives a more noteworthy performance here. He brings a freshened sense of excitement to the role, despite inhabiting it for a decade now. Stan finally gets to have fun with the character and gives him range. There are inevitable moments of darkness for Bucky but also surprising moments of happiness and Stan deftly shifts between the two.
And of course, you have the action. Raving about Marvel Studios’ action feels trite so I’ll keep it to a minimum. Right from the get-go, they serve up an action sequence that’s on par with the helicarrier third act of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. There’s an awe-inspiring cinematic precision as to how they’ve managed to pull this off on television.
Henry Jackman’s score here really stood out for me and can only expect to be blown away in upcoming episodes. As a huge fan of what Jackman did for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, hearing him revisit some of his motifs from those two films but in a new context is chilling. If he brings back more themes from the last two Cap films, I’ll be beyond happy.
Without going much into spoilers, there are parts of this episode that feel clunky. There are premises and beats that don’t feel as polished as the rest of the episode’s high-quality aspects. Some moments have a bit of tonal whiplash wherein the subtext is meant to be serious and somber but the execution makes it seem unintentionally comedic. I have a lot of questions about Bucky’s road to redemption, which in concept is super intriguing, but in execution feels safe at the moment. Granted, there are 5 episodes left that could change these nitpicks of mine but as it currently stands, the episode flaws made it feel like a mixed bag as soon as I finished watching.
Overall, this show is gonna be one hell of a ride and the first episode is clearly just a taste of it. In retrospect, WandaVision being the first out of the gate feels very beneficial for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. After all the discussion WandaVision‘s mystery box generated, the outrage it garnered from its twists and turns, and heartwarming emotions that it elicited from fans, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier feels like the ideal follow-up. It’s a safe return to form in many ways but it’s also one that fans might need after all the Mephisto craziness. This is Marvel returning to what it does best: fist-pumping entertainment with a dose of depth.
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Malcolm Spellman on John Walker’s Humanity in ‘The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’
The next Empire Magazine will feature The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and give us a few more insights into the series. One that caught my notice was the quote about John Walker, (played by Wyatt Russell) also known in comics as US Agent, and a sometimes rather hot-headed version of Captain America.
Despite being introduced at D23 back in 2019, very little has been seen or said about the character, but one thing we do know, he will be donning the Captain America mantle and taking the shield, at least temporarily in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Rumors have circulated around the internet, as they often do about these shows, speculating that he’s going to be anything from a racist monster, a true villain, to being a sort of red herring as a villain, to perhaps being messed up and mind-controlled after taking the Super Soldier Serum. Whether any or all of these turn out to be true, it’s likely that Walker, as MCU characters often are, may turn out to be much more complex and sympathetic, than what some of these rumors might suggest. Some new quotes from showrunner Malcolm Spellman certainly support that theory.
“We took him in a more human direction, someone who’s dedicated every minute to being the perfect person to inherit the shield and represent the country.”
Malcolm Spellman via Empire MagazineThere have been a number of quotes recently from various people involved with the series, indicating that mental health and PTSD would be explored and John Walker won’t be an exception here. Those that choose to join the military carry a great deal of stress and trauma, that can stick with them as much as physical wounds sometimes can. This is something that Bucky, Sam, and certainly John Walker, could attest to and help show the audience what these people go through and how it affects, and sometimes scars, them.
“He has to confront that – ‘Was all the stuff I did righteous, if it’s not enough for me to be honoured or accepted as the rightful heir to this mantle?’ Wyatt crushed it – the humanity of that, the scar tissue of his journey.”
Malcolm Spellman via Empire MagazineOne of the things about Steve Rogers Cap that I’ve appreciated is the fact that he’s called Captain America, but he by far isn’t a “I’m going to follow orders and do anything and everything for my country,” kind of guy. The mantle of Captain America, isn’t just about America, to Steve, it’s about an ideal to do the right thing, to do your best. Chances are Walker is a good soldier, been following orders, possibly done some things he feels guilt over but has to live with on the way, so he feels he deserves the mantle for being a good soldier. But to truly be the rightful heir to Steve’s legacy, you have to be a good man too. Here’s hoping John Walker finds his way to be a better man, during the course of the series. (But let’s face it, we all want Sam to get that shield).
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier featured issue of Empire Magazine on March 18th ahead of the serie’s first episode releasing on Friday.
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How Marvel Studios Plans to Take the Fight to Superhero Fatigue
It probably feels like a lifetime ago but it was only in 2017 that the MCU started releasing three feature films every year. By that time the franchise was approaching its 10th year with 17 movies under its belt and many started wondering just how long could Marvel Studios’ dominance at the box office truly last until audiences’ superhero fatigue managed to creep up on it. The following couple of years presented everyone with a resounding answer to that question as five out of the six movies released in that period surpassed the 1 billion dollar mark at the box-office, with two of those going over the 2 billion dollar mark while making Avengers: Endgame the highest-grossing movie of all time.
By that point, and besides being the final chapter of a story being told since 2008 through 23 interconnected movies, the end of the Infinity Saga had audiences saying goodbye to arguably its two most important characters, Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, that had been at the forefront of the MCU since its inception. So being, Marvel Studios had a few problems on their plate as 2019 came to a close: How to reintroduce surviving characters making them a bigger presence within the franchise filling the void of the ones lost, how to make fans care for the new characters being introduced as they did the legacy ones, and most importantly how to maintain global audience interested in the MCU avoiding the aforementioned superhero fatigue to finally become a real thing, in what the MCU is concerned.
A few of the issues mentioned above had already started being addressed head-on by taking a chance on characters like Black Panther and Captain Marvel, allowing for a larger and more diverse audience to feel embraced by the superhero cinematic universe Marvel created, all while keeping longtime fans engaged by diversifying the type of stories being told, the angles in which they were told, and the voices that told them. Phase 4 would be doubling-down on this idea of bringing into the franchise a much more diverse group of filmmakers (Cate Shortland, Destin Daniel Cretton, Chloé Zhao, Nia DaCosta) and introducing characters like Shang-Chi, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Ironheart, and the incredibly diverse cast of Eternals that are further living proof that the MCU is trying to evolve and become a much richer and relevant franchise by allowing so much different voices to shine through.
But today, exactly one week after the WandaVision finale and one week before The Falcon and The Winter Soldier premiere, it’s becoming increasingly clear that, as contradictory as it may sound, another way Marvel Studios is trying to avoid superhero fatigue is by going all out and delivering ten projects in a single year. One would think that that would be against their interests as this means that there’ll be hardly a week throughout the year without some sort of new MCU content, but Marvel Studios is managing to circumvent that by turning inwards and redefining what the superhero genre can aspire to become. This way, instead of only releasing properties that could be described as being the generic superhero production and thus paving the way for audiences to quickly lose interest by the lack of novelty, they are expanding into sub-genres that are already a reality across the industry.
As WandaVision played with sitcom tropes while combining romance, mystery, and drama, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is set to be more of an action-thriller experience. Ms. Marvel could be categorized as a teen drama while Hawkeye (mystery-thriller), Eternals (action epic), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (martial arts action film), and Loki (sci-fi adventure) will each have their particular characteristics, making each project fresh in its own right. Going beyond 2021 we’ll find the same being applied to shows like She-Hulk (courtroom drama) or movies such as Thor: Love and Thunder (space
operarock show). All of this seems to mean that Marvel Studios is thinking that, by diversifying, audiences won’t grow tired of what they have to offer in the same way they don’t get tired of movies and tv in general. Even if all properties are a part of a larger franchise, their particulars will allow all of them to be experienced without the added weight of being presented with the same formulaic concepts and narratives.
Marvel Studios broke the mold for what franchises of this magnitude could become, and by keeping themselves in the public eye year-round but also understanding that a gimmick can only keep itself relevant for so much time, so much so that it’s not afraid to reinvent itself on the go (as we were able to see with WandaVision), is likely doing it again, before our very eyes.
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New ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Clips Showcase Bucky and Sam’s Frenemies Dynamic
Early reviews are beginning to drop for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and it’s exciting to see the positive reactions pouring out. Today Marvel also dropped a couple of new clips from the Disney+ series, which shows the friendly, yet combative relationship between the two leads.
The first clip entitled “What’s the Plan?” clearly showcases that the two just don’t get along. The staring contest and Bucky’s protest over Sam calling him “Buck” make that point very clear. Bucky and Sam are going to have to build trust and friendship if they’re going to succeed in their mission and survive their series.
The second clip is titled “The Big Three” and is easily my favorite. As a huge Hobbit fan, I loved the reference, and the thought of young Bucky buying the J.R.R. Tolkien classic back in 1937. It makes you wonder if he perhaps let his buddy Steve borrow it to read after. That is just too perfect for me. Also, I’m loving Old-Man-gatekeeper-fan Bucky telling Sam he read it when it first came out. Tolkien burn, Sam!
The fun back and forth dynamic mixes well with the tension and distrust that Bucky probably feels after so many years of being used as a killing machine. When you combine that with Sam’s slightly annoying charm, as he attempts to befriend the Winter Soldier and bring him under his wing (pardon the pun), we have a very promising dynamic. It will be interesting to see how their relationship grows throughout the next Disney+ series by Marvel Studios.
