Small Details You Missed In The Falcon And The Winter Soldier Trailer
Two of Captain America's best buds are blasting back into the world of bad-guy-butt-kicking in their very own streaming series — a fresh trailer for which was dropped during Disney's 2020 Investor Day presentation on Thursday, December 10.
Amid an avalanche of other reveals, Kevin Feige, the boss of everything that happens at Disney's superhero subsidiary Marvel Studios, ushered in a new look at The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — the upcoming Disney+ show that stars Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan in their respective roles as Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes.
For as secretive as Marvel is known for being, the studio has actually told us quite a few things about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier prior to its scheduled release on Disney+. It'll take place after the events of Endgame, which saw Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) passing on his Captain America shield to Sam, and find Sam teaming up with Bucky for a series of adventures that will push them to their limits and test the strength of their character. Along the way, the pair will cross paths with faces fresh and familiar alike: Daniel Brühl is reprising his role as Baron Helmut Zemo, Emily VanCamp is back as Peggy Carter's niece Sharon, Georges St-Pierre will pop up once again as Georges Batroc, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will introduce Wyatt Russell as a comic book character called John Walker.
Through this new trailer for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel is finally showing us more than it's telling us, which is a good thing for fans who've wanted to get a better taste of what the series has in store. Still, there are several things shown but not explained in the footage — small yet meaningful details that you might have missed. Let's break them down.
Three cheers for the red, white, and blue
The trailer for The Falcon and the Winter Solider begins with Sam saying that the legacy of Cap's shield is "complicated." It certainly is, and just because Steve hand-selected Sam to take his place as the new Star-Spangled Avenger doesn't mean that mantle-passing will play out as expected in the Disney+ series. Sure, Sam and Bucky will continue busting up baddies and being the heroes they are, but let's not forget who was behind Steve's transformation from a scrappy, skinny U.S. Army soldier into Captain America in the first place: the U.S. government, specifically its military forces.
The government will certainly have a say in who actually gets to become the new Cap following Steve's retirement — and Sam and Bucky aren't the go-to guys, for obvious reasons. In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, fans will meet the government's newest creation, the man meant to succeed Captain America and be a beacon of hope for not just the people of America but also for everyone in the world.
That ties into the next line of dialogue we hear in the trailer: Bucky saying, "The world is upside-down. People need something to get behind. They need a symbol." Bucky says those final four words right as the trailer flicks to a sequence of a man — decked out in a red-and-blue suit and carrying a shield that looks suspiciously like Captain America's — running across a football field and high-fiving a drum major who's leading a band. Fireworks explode in the background. It's total merriment. But who, exactly, is everyone cheering for?
It's John Walker, otherwise known as U.S.Agent and Super-Patriot in the Marvel comics. He's billed as being the militaristic successor to Captain America, chosen by the U.S. Armed Forces to become Cap's replacement, and what we see of him in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier trailer lives up to that descriptor. It's important to note that in the Marvel comics, Walker actually begins as a villain, operating under the Super-Patriot name and existing as a dark answer to the good-hearted Cap. When Steve leaves the Captain America mantle, Walker takes it up.
Though it remains to be seen how Wyatt Russell's John Walker will be depicted in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, based on the brief glimpse we see of him in the trailer, it's obvious that his public persona is that of a hero on the same level as Steve Rogers.
Where in the world are Sam and Bucky?
Early on in the trailer, Sam and Bucky are seen walking across a bridge-like structure amid a futuristic-looking cityscape. Blue-hued lights, a web of power lines, tall buildings dotted with neon signs, crowded city streets that Sam and Bucky weave through — that's the backdrop for one location shown in the trailer. The footage also takes our two heroes to an idyllic lake-side house, the top of a semi-truck, inside a plane, in an abandoned building perfect for fighting villains (more on them later), and more. This all begs the question, "Where does The Falcon and the Winter Soldier take place?"
The answer is, well, lots of places. Marvel has described the series as taking Sam and Bucky on a "worldwide adventure," which this trailer does an excellent job of teasing.
That cyber-punk-looking city? It seems that's Madripoor, a fictional island found in Southeast Asia that's nestled between Sumatra and Singapore. Divided into Hightown and Lowton districts, Madripoor is featured prominently in X-Men comics, as it's the home of the X-Mansion, but has seen the arrival of everyone from Iron Man to the members of HYDRA.
That scenic locale where Sam and Bucky have a chat beside the water? That looks like it could be a coastal home belonging to Sam or a member of his family — especially given the fact that we see a sign at a fishing dock that reads "Wilson Family Seafood."
Marvel Studios/Disney+
Elsewhere in the trailer, there's a shot of a group of law enforcement officers wearing riot gear and running down a corridor. In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it-moment, you can spot that the shields the officers are carrying say "Justiz" — the German word for "justice." The Falcon and the Winter Soldier might take the action to Germany, but considering that the residents of several other countries in addition to Germany speak German (like Austria and Belgium), the series could also head to other European countries.
A grief-stricken Zemo
Another sign that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will bounce around the world is the scene from the series' trailer that shows Helmut Zemo standing at what appears to be a memorial for his family, built at what's likely the site of the Novi Grad destruction in the fictional country of Sokovia. But, of course, a globe-trotting adventure isn't all that this moment hints at — it also establishes the groundwork for Zemo's potential motivations in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
As fans remember, Zemo's family dies when the Avengers duke it out with Ultron during the Battle of Sokovia, which results in mass destruction, the city of Novi Grad sinking into the sea, and many Sokovians being killed. In Captain America: Civil War, Zemo seeks to avenge his family's deaths and defeat the Avengers, but he's ultimately unsuccessful. He attempts to take his own life before T'Challa (the late Chadwick Boseman) intervenes and brings authorities in to capture him.
Zemo's family's deaths are obviously still a sore spot for him, and with a number of the original Avengers either dead or retired at this point (specifically Captain America and Iron Man), it's likely that Zemo is going to redirect his anger onto Sam and Bucky and try to make them pay for having a hand in what happened to his family.
Who's that behind the mask?
At various points in the trailer for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a female character who dons a black mask with a red handprint across it pops up and goes head-to-head with our heroes. We see her unmasked face at the 24-second mark — she's grinning as a number of other people wearing the same red-and-black mask run behind her — and can tell based on her curly red hair that she battles Sam inside a historic-looking building and stares him down on top of a moving vehicle. Who is this mysterious woman, who's clearly a villain out to get at least one of the series' titular good guys?
It's English actress Erin Kellyman, whose Falcon and Winter Soldier character we know absolutely nothing concrete about. As of this writing, the public doesn't know her name, and Kellyman isn't even listed on the series' IMDb page. However, there's a potential clue that could lead us to a better understanding of both Kellyman's character and the others who sport the same mask she does.
As pointed out on Twitter, online marketplace Zazzle's storefront for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier lists two "collections" of products featuring that red-handprint-adorned mask seen in the show's new trailer. One is called the "Flag Smasher Global Hand Print" and the other is the "Flag Smasher's Graphic" collection. Haven't heard that name before? In the Marvel comics, Flag-Smasher (with the hyphen) is the supervillain moniker of Karl Morgenthau, a man who grew to despise diplomacy and patriotism after his father was trampled to death in a riot outside an embassy in the fictional country of Latveria. A fitting name for his beliefs, Flag-Smasher spreads anti-nationalist messaging to anyone who will listen, directly opposing Captain America's patriotism and eventually creating the criminal organization ULTIMATUM (The Underground Liberated Totally Integrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind).
Flag-Smasher has even gone up against U.S.Agent — whom, as you know, will be a part of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Plus, at one point, he becomes inhumanly powerful thanks to the help of Roxxon Oil, a petroleum conglomerate that — wait for it — gets a sneaky shoutout in the trailer for Disney+'s Loki series. Could Kellyman be a gender-bent Karl Morgenthau, leading her own ULTIMATUM group? Or might she be a new iteration of Flag-Smasher? There's precedent for that in the comics, as Guy Thierrault takes over the mantle after Morgenthau is seemingly killed.
It remains a mystery for the time being, but Kellyman's character and her band of followers will undoubtedly give Sam and Bucky a run for their money in the upcoming series, set for release on Disney+ on March 19, 2021.