Already in the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the new Disney+ series has given us a fun little nod to Sebastian Stan’s co-star in I, Tonya. In the pilot episode, we see Bucky Barnes working on his list of amends that he’s working through in his therapy. As we see him cross off a name, some familiar names are on the page like Shawn Eckhardt himself Paul Walter Hauser!
If you get to be the Winter Soldier, then you should also get to make references to your friends for fun! The list is a collection of names that Bucky needs to apologize to for his time as the Winter Soldier and while it is probably just a fun nod to his I, Tonya counterpart, it’d be fun if we eventually got to see Hauser too.
A Twitter user shared the screengrab from the episode, tweeting about the shout-out and writing “So much to love about the first episode, but one tiny thing — Paul Walter Hauser being on Bucky’s list hahaha”. The Cruella star also saw the nod and tweeted: “This is my favorite thing, #mydude I Stan for #sebastianstan”.
Stan and Hauser starred in the 2017 film I, Tonya, which was based on interviews conducted with Tonya Harding, Jeff Gillooly, LaVona Golden, and more of those involved with the 1994 attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. In the film, the idea is that the skaters heading to the 1994 Olympics were trying to intimidate one another and when Gillooly works with Shawn to try and “send a message” to Nancy Kerrigan, Shawn misunderstands and issues the attack that damaged Nancy’s knee.
Since then, Hauser and Stan have kept their friendship alive with Instagram posts and interacting with each other frequently. Their friendship clearly goes beyond the friendship between Jeff and Shawn that we saw on screen and watching the two of them still have fun together is delightful to see!
It’s a beautiful little shout-out to Stan’s incredible work in I, Tonya and the friendship between him and Hauser that keeps going! We will have to wait and see if there are more I, Tonya references hidden throughout the new series.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier debuts today on Disney+, with new episodes debuting every Friday. Check out the I, Tonya Easter egg below.