After a year without any Marvel movies due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Marvel has decided to release a plethora of movies and miniseries on Disney+ and theatres in 2021. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the second marvel project to come out this year, will be a miniseries on Disney+ and will come out on Friday, March 19, 2021. 

After Endgame, while Captain America, Steve Rogers, went back in time to return the Infinity Stones, he decided to stay with his wife Peggy Carter in the 1940s. Thus, when he returned to the time travel machine, he was an elderly man, and he passed the mantle of Captain America to Sam Wilson. Following the events of endgame, in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson, the Falcon, and Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, will go on a global adventure that will test their abilities and patience (disneyplusoriginals.disney.com).

Based on the three trailers released about this miniseries, there are three villains that Wilson and Barnes will be facing: Baron Zemo, John Walker, and Flag-Smasher. Blaming the Avengers for the death of his family in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Baron Zemo caused the events of Captain America: Civil War because of his disdain for superheroes by finding the words that brainwash Barnes to kill almost everything in his way and the tape of Barnes killing Tony Stark’s parents, and he creates a divide between the avengers causing them to fight each other. At the end of Captain America: Civil War, he was in the custody of the CIA. In the trailer for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he is seen in a mask causing an explosion, and fans are wondering whether he escaped or someone let him out on an anti-superhero agenda. John Walker is a US agent that the US government is portraying as the new Captain America. In the comics, the US government was racist against Wilson, a black man, because they felt it would be better for the new Captain America to be white. During the trailer, there are scenes of Walker dressing up as Captain America for events like football games.  Flag-smasher leads an anarchist group in the comics called ULTIMATUM, and in the trailer, Flag-Smasher’s group all have super strength and similar abilities to Captain America and Bucky Barnes. Fans theorize that this is because they are taking a diluted version of the Super Soldier Serum.

Fans have been making countless theories attempting to predict what the show will entail. One theory is that Captain America will die in the series. In Endgame, he is very old, so it would make sense that his last appearance would be in a show with his two best friends. Another theory is that both Wilson and Barnes will become Captain America. Although Rogers gave the shield to Wilson at the end of Endgame, in the comics, both Wilson and Barnes have become Captain America after he dies, and in the trailer, there are scenes of both of them throwing Captain America’s shield. Also, there is a theory that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will set up the X-Men. After Disney and Fox made a deal that gave Disney the rights to the X-Men, many fans are excited to see iconic X-Men characters, such as Wolverine and Mystique, in the MCU. In set photos and trailers of the miniseries, Madripoor, the home of Wolverine, appears. Lastly, fans believe that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will set up the Thunderbolts. In the comics, Baron Zemo creates this team to damage the public image of superheroes. With the return of Baron Zemo, this could definitely be a possibility (screenrant.com).

After the success of WandaVision, Yorba Linda High School Students are excited for the release of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Steven Yano (11) is going to watch the first episode of the series on Friday and is “looking forward to seeing how Marvel handles the next phase of the MCU” because “actors like Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans have been a staple in the MCU for so long.” If you are a Marvel fan, you should definitely check out this show to see the development of two pivotal characters, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, for the next phase of Marvel movies.