Whether it was fighting and eventually befriending Ant-Man, being framed for the death of Black Panther’s father, or fighting a time-traveling space God that wants to kill half the Universe, I think it’s safe to say that since making their debuts in 2014, both Falcon and Winter Soldier have found themselves involved in a few none of us ever expected. It’s following their latest adventure of defeating said space God that the two heroes find themselves in an unfamiliar place. With the either now dead or, at best, retired Steve Rogers handing over the mantle of Captain America to the man once known as Falcon, Sam Wilson now finds himself in a role of leadership, one he hasn’t been in since maybe high school. While the goal of today’s breakdown is to bring as much light to the 2020 Marvel project as possible, there just isn’t a lot of confirmed information out there, but don’t worry, I’ve got a few surprises up my sleeves.

What We Know:

The Cast:

Anthony Mackie: Falcon/Captain America

Sebastian Stan: Winter Soldier

Daniel Brühl: Baron Zemo

Emily VanCamp: Sharon Carter

Unlike for the Black Widow movie, the announced cast for The Falcon and Winter Soldier series is comprised of people we already know, and while it will be interesting to finally see Baron Zemo wear his comic book gear and also learn what Sharon Carter has been up to since kissing the man that was in love with her great Aunt, I think it’s the cast that we don’t know about yet that makes this show interesting.

Theories

William Hurt: Thunderbolt Ross

Every website with absolutely no shame has been running around talking about how the plot of the show, other than Baron Zemo being back to do more bad guy stuff, is that the government isn’t very interested in Falcon being the new Captain America. Well, as it turns out, this giant piece of information comes from a Kevin Smith podcast where his co-host Marc Bernardin made the claim. While I don’t doubt that the man responsible for writing a few Marvel comics of his own is saying is probably true in some way, it is hilarious to find out that this piece of the plot that everyone has been running around claiming to be official just came from a random podcast.

With all of this being said though when it comes to Marvel Mondays, the goals of these articles are to report on official news and most importantly, to be fun. So if the internet thinks this is what the plot is about, then damn it, this is what the plot is about. So with the government not wanting Falcon as Captain America… I can kind of see where they’re coming from. I’m not saying I agree with them, but I can see where they’re coming from. The government wants to control anything they can and as far as their concerned the Captain America brand is theirs, but for the last 10 years or so, that brand has been worn by a man that the government deemed a war criminal. And to make things worse, now that Steve Rogers is no longer Cap, the next guy in line is… another war criminal. And you if think that the events of Endgame are going to change how the government feels about Falcon, don’t forget Infinity War where only moments after aliens have invaded Earth, Thunderbolt Ross, once discovering the location of Captain America and his crew, calls for their arrest despite the heroes offering to help stop the alien attacks.

Florence Pugh: Yelena Belova

If you read the last Marvel Monday where I broke down everything Black Window, then you’re familiar with my theory that The Task Master, the villain of that film is actually Florence Pugh’s character, Yelena Belova. I also discussed how in the comics, this character goes off the grid and starts hunting down other baddies only to be confronted by Bucky Barnes and Hawkeye. Well, since Hawkeye is busy with his show, why not substitute him out for Falcon? Assuming Yelena doesn’t die in the Black Widow movie, I think this is a great way to bring her into the modern-day Marvel storylines as well as begin the process of having a new Black Widow to fight along the rest of the Avengers.

On top of all of this, once again as I mentioned in the last article, you really should go read that one if you haven’t, this also gives The Winter Soldier something to do. Since the character’s introduction, the poor guy’s been brainwashed to kill people, put in cryo-sleep to have his mind wiped, fought against an invading alien army, been wiped from existence, come back to life, fought that same invading alien army again, and then had to say goodbye to his best friend after that said friend turned into an old man and died… Bucky has been through some stuff, but now his future seems unsure. He needs direction and I think setting up a path that leads to him teaming up with Belova is a great idea.

Now I know what you’re thinking. The government not wanting Falcon to be Cap, Baron Zemo, the man that broke up the Avengers is back on the run, and the inclusion of Yelena Belova is just too much for one season of television. Well, The Falcon and Winter Soldier show is going to be 6, one-hour episodes. That’s 3 Marvel Movies, that’s Infinity War and Endgame combined, that’s an entire season of Full House. At first, I didn’t think there would be enough time to introduce so many storylines either but with the amount of time the show is taking up unless the pacing is completely changed up to be more like a television show, I would be slightly disappointed if the show doesn’t introduce a lot to the MCU.

In closing, we’re about a year away from this show’s release and we still know so little about it. Thor Love and Thunder is over 2 years away and somehow we know more about that film than we do this show and it’s because of this that I think it’s fair to have a little fun with theories. I didn’t even get into the fact that the last two Avengers films clearly spent time setting up some kind of friendship between Sam and Roadie. Is there a chance we get, at the very least, a small cameo from War Machine? Who can say? What I can say is that everything Captain America whether it be Steve Rogers or Sam Wilson, has always been my favorite part of the MCU and I can’t wait to see what Marvel has in store for us next and if you like this article, don’t forget to come back in two weeks when I try to breakdown everything about the upcoming Eternals movie. Considering I know absolutely nothing about those characters, I can’t wait to not only hopefully educate everyone reading but educate myself in the process.