Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s been a rare year with almost no Marvel Cinematic Universe activity so far – Black Widow has been pushed back to early 2021, and WandaVision isn’t quite done cooking yet. But there’s plenty of stuff waiting in the wings, including The Falcon And The Winter Soldier – the Disney+ series focused on, you guessed it, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes. Taking place in the wake of Endgame, which – spoiler alert – saw an elderly Steve Rogers hand over the Captain America shield to Sam, the series is set to push the MCU forward while also reaching into its past.
That’s according to writer Derek Kolstad, who spoke on the latest episode of the Script Apart podcast about his original screenplay for John Wick. There, he teased a little of what’s in store in Falcon And The Winter Soldier – including the fact that some familiar faces from long ago in the MCU will make appearances. “What I will say is that there are characters from the earliest Marvel movies that are coming back,” Kolstad said. “We’re layering them in and reinventing them in a way that’s gonna shift the storytelling structure. It’s fucking awesome." While it’s known that Daniel Brühl’s Zemo is returning – as is The Winter Soldier’s Batroc – could that mention of the “earliest Marvel movies” mean we’ll see some Phase 1 characters return too? Stay tuned to find out.
In the main, the series is a chance to take two of the most popular characters in Captain America’s orbit, and make them the co-leads, Kolstad explains. “I’m very proud of and honoured by what it came to be,” he said. “Here’s what I’ll say: growing up, everyone would give someone like Robin shit. But Robin’s pretty badass, and became pretty badass in the comics. [We're] taking secondary characters and putting them in the primary roles, and [as a result] they’re cooler. They’re more interesting. There’s more humanity, more longing, more suffering, and coming to grips with who and what they are.”
Listen to the full interview – discussing the origins of John Wick – on the Script Apart podcast here. The Falcon And The Winter Soldier is due to arrive on Disney+ at some point in 2021.