There are a lot of upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows on the horizon, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier sets up many of them, including some MCU projects that have long been rumored, if not officially confirmed. Falcon & Winter Soldier was very much a show built on Marvel's past. Its foundational stones included the long history of the super soldier serum, Bucky Barnes' time as the Winter Soldier, and the legacy of Captain America and what it means today. As ever with Marvel, though, it had one foot in the past but an eye on the future.
Across its six episodes, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier brought a lot of transformational changes to its main characters. Sam Wilson truly become Captain America, Bucky learned to let go of his Winter Soldier past, John Walker became the new Cap and then US Agent, and Sharon Carter was revealed to be the villainous Power Broker. Add in further new additions, such as Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and Isaiah Bradley, and there was a lot for not only Falcon & Winter Soldier to explore, but for future MCU movies and TV shows as well.
At the time of writing, there are well over 20 upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows to follow The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Some of them will have little-to-no links at all, of course, focusing on very different characters and even being set on completely alien planets. Others, however, are very much connected, be it in terms of character, story, or tone. With that, here are all of the possible MCU movies and shows that Falcon & Winter Soldier set up.
Announced on the same day that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier season 1 ended, Captain America 4 will reportedly be penned by showrunner Malcolm Spellman and writer Dalan Musson. While not yet confirmed, it's widely expected that Captain America 4 will follow Sam Wilson's version of the Star-Spangled Avenger, after he officially took on the mantle in the Falcon & Winter Soldier finale. Since so much of Falcon & Winter Soldier was setting up Sam becoming Cap, then having a movie explore how he actually fares as the hero and facing the fresh challenges it brings is a natural progression. There's certainly scope here too for many of Falcon & Winter Soldier's key players to return: Bucky Barnes is an obvious choice to be back alongside his buddy, while it might cement Joaquin Torres as the new Falcon, and there could also be room for the likes of John Walker and Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine as well.
Prior to the announcement of Captain America 4, then The Falcon and the Winter Soldier season 2 seemed like the best place to continue this story. Not only are there still several threads worth pulling at some more - such as the aforementioned Walker and Val - but the very ending of the show even seemed to tease a new direction for a possible season 2, with a title card revealing its new name: Captain America and the Winter Soldier. Aside from confirming Sam is now Cap, it also means that Bucky is still the Winter Soldier, and so any possible Falcon & Winter Soldier season 2 would presumably cement his redemption and turn him into either the White Wolf, just Bucky, or something else entirely. It now seems more likely that Captain America 4 will happen instead of season 2, rather than as well as, but either way there's plenty more to explore with these characters.
Were it not for the coronavirus pandemic leading to huge changes in Marvel's schedule, then Black Widow would not only have released by now, but it would have set up The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Aside from rumors that Yelena Belova would have made an appearance in the Marvel Disney+ show, it's also been revealed that Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Val was originally set to debut in Black Widow. Whether her appearance in that movie is still going to happen remains to be seen, but it's not hard to imagine how she might fit in, and it could connect to those Yelena rumors. She is putting together some sort of team of powered and talented individuals, and so Val appearing in Black Widow - perhaps, given the timeline differences, in a present-day post-credits scene - to recruit Yelena would make a lot of sense after Falcon & Winter Soldier.
Wakanda had a major impact on Bucky Barnes, curing him of his Winter Soldier programming so that he could begin to truly heal and overcome the trauma from his Hydra missions. That, however, wasn't the end of his interactions with the Wakandans, as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier brought him face-to-face with Ayo and other members of the Dora Milaje again, who were none-too-happy with his helping Zemo escape from prison. While Bucky eventually turns Zemo back over to the Dora Milaje, he's told to give it some time before he shows his face in Wakanda again. While that suggests Bucky won't be making a trip there anytime soon, enough time should have passed for him to appear in Black Panther 2, which could be linked to his White Wolf future.
By further establishing Bucky's loyalties to Wakanda, then it could be that he finds a place there once again; he may not be much like the comics version of White Wolf (who was raised by King T'Chaka), but the idea of Bucky becoming the White Wolf and living free in Wakanda, where he could truly find a sense of peace, is a potentially fitting one that Black Panther 2 could explore further. Even if he doesn't become a more permanent resident, he's still a trusted and useful ally, so the Dora Milaje could call on him for help in the movie too.
James "Rhodey" Rhodes appeared in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 1, and the crossover favor could be returned in Armor Wars, the upcoming Disney+ show that will star War Machine. Since Rhodey currently works for the US government, then there's a chance that Armor Wars could align with Sharon Carter aka Power Broker's plans. Now that she's been pardoned, Sharon wants to take down the government from the inside, and the story of Armor Wars could be one way she attempts to do that. As revealed in Falcon & Winter Soldier episode 6's post-credits scene, the Power Broker wants her buyers lined-up, as she'll have "full access to government secrets [and] prototype weapons." In the comics, the Armor Wars storyline was about Stark tech leaking out and falling into the wrong hands, and the TV show is expected to head in that same broad direction. The weapons Sharon mentions could easily be Stark tech, setting her up as a rival to Rhodey and a potential villain in the show.
If not Armor Wars, then Sharon Carter's villainous Power Broker story could instead be setting up Marvel's Secret Invasion, a Disney+ show that will deal with a rogue group of Skrulls who have infiltrated Earth and the upper-echelons of its various power systems. This would work for a couple of reasons: firstly, Sharon being a Skrull would help explain the Power Broker twist, which is very much at odds with what her character was like from the Captain America movies. If a Skrull had taken over Sharon's identity, using it to build a base of power and eventually return to inside the government, it would arguably make more sense than the Sharon fans know doing it. It would also better fit with the timeline, since Falcon & Winter Soldier hinted the Power Broker came to power after Thanos' Snap but before the Hulk's, a time period when Sharon herself had been wiped from existence by the Mad Titan. Sharon's goals as the Power Broker also closely align with what's known of the Skrulls' motives, so her appearing in Secret Invasion works in that regard as well.
The Power Broker isn't the only way The Falcon and the Winter Soldier could connect to Secret Invasion. In the comics, Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine was taken over by a Skrull in order to spy on Nick Fury. While there's no firm indication that Val has a close working relationship with Fury in the MCU, she is someone who clearly has a lot of influence, contacts, and dubious motives, all of which would make her an ideal target for the Skrulls. It's likely that Val was the one Sharon was speaking to at the end of Falcon & Winter Soldier, so it's even possible both of them are Skrulls in disguise.
Ever since it was announced that Baron Zemo would return to the MCU in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, there's been an expectation that it would ultimately lead to the Thunderbolts, a team of reformed supervillains and anti-heroes from Marvel Comics. The events of Falcon & Winter Soldier further fit with this idea, since it turned Zemo from the (admittedly sympathetic) villain of Captain America: Civil War into a much more likable anti-hero, and revealed he's incredibly rich to boot, given him the means to create a supervillain/hero team of his own, and the charm factor to lead it in the MCU. Perhaps most crucially is that, when taken in by the Dora Milaje,
Zemo is being sent to The Raft, the high-security prison from Civil War that briefly housed some of Team Cap, and notably wasn't the jail Zemo broke out of. By changing his location, and calling direct attention to it, then it suggests Zemo being in The Raft will prove important. There, he'll have access to several powerful supervillains, whom he is more than capable of bending to his will. Later versions of the Thunderbolts have even operated out of The Raft, so the key pieces would seem to be in place for this to happen, be it as a solo movie, a Disney+ show, or even just the team appearing in another story.
The Thunderbolts isn't the only supervillain team that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier sets up; if Zemo's recruits don't come off, or even if they do, similar foundations are in place for the Dark Avengers. In the comics, the Dark Avengers team is born out of the Thunderbolts in the wake of Secret Invasion, with the lineup led by Norman Osborn. While Osborn's arrival in the MCU still seems a good way off yet, he will presumably be introduced eventually, and so it's understandable that Marvel might already be laying the groundwork.
More important, though, is the presence of Val, who is seemingly assembling a super team of some kind, with her recruitment of John Walker turner her into a dark mirror of Nick Fury. It's unclear just who Val is working for - it could yet be Fury, but it could be a much more nefarious person, and perhaps even Osborn himself. With Walker onboard, Val's link to Black Widow on the horizon (with Yelena a possible recruit), and no shortage of other characters who could be worked into the MCU's Dark Avengers team (such as Abomination), then a movie or TV show based on the team after Secret Invasion seems pretty likely.
Another Avengers team who could be joining the MCU in a future movie or show is the Young Avengers, whose name rather says it all as far as the make-up of it goes. Marvel Phase 4 is introducing several members of the Young Avengers, including Kate Bishop in Hawkeye, America Chavez in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and a recast Cassie Lang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. WandaVision, meanwhile, added two members by way of Scarlet Witch and Vision's twins, Billy and Tommy, who become the heroes Wiccan and Speed; while their fates are unconfirmed, the finale of WandaVision hinted that they were still alive. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier adds another character into the mix in the form of Eli Bradley who, in the comics, takes on the moniker Patriot.
Patriot is a founding member of the Young Avengers who takes a dangerous growth hormone in order to appear as though he has super soldier abilities. Eventually, though, he received a blood transfusion from his grandfather, Isaiah, allowing him to actually become a super soldier. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier introduced both of those characters, and setup the legacy of the super soldier serum upon Isaiah Bradley. What's more, Eli was clearly as stunned as his grandfather when the statue of Isaiah was unveiled to them at the Smithsonian, suggesting that he will be inspired into heroism by those actions, as well as by Sam as Captain America. With so many pieces in place, then it seems like a question of when, not if, a Young Avengers movie or TV show will take place, and it's only made more likely by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
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Reviewed by Riyad
on
April 27, 2021
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