Marvel Studios is about to launch its second-ever live-action TV series next week, and the first reactions to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are in. This six-episode series was originally supposed to be the first Marvel Studios show to air on Disney+, but COVID-19 delays caused a bit of a switcheroo, and they started with the delightfully trippy WandaVision instead.
Like WandaVision, this series takes place in the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, but it focuses on the characters of Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) as they’re forced to team up in a buddy action comedy-type story. The series will feature the return of Daniel Brühl’s Baron Zemo and Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter, both of whom were featured in Captain America: Civil War, and also Wyatt Russell as John F. Walker.
Malcolm Spellman serves as showrunner and veteran TV director Kari Skogland directs all six episodes, and the first reactions are fairly positive – albeit slightly apprehensive. These reactions are to the first episode only, so while there’s praise to be found, most seem to agree the first installment is merely the beginning of a longer story and thus hard to judge on its own.
Indeed, it sounds like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier feels much more like an MCU movie stretched out to a TV series than WandaVision did, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
The six-hour length also means that yes, we're getting much more character development for these two fan-favorites.
And while there's a lot of focus on the action sequences, the series also apparently takes time to dig into the trauma and baggage of its central characters.
In contrast to WandaVision, it sounds like this show really returns to the grounded roots of the MCU.
