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MCU star Anthony Mackie has built up a suave reputation for himself since his role as Sam Wilson/Falcon propelled him into mainstream Hollywood. The actor was introduced into the universe via all-time Marvel favorite Captain America: Winter Soldier back in 2014, but it was in Captain America: Civil War when he really had to kick his action stunt work in full gear. Uhh… let’s just say it wasn’t without trial and error. In Mackie’s words:
The first day — I think we were doing Civil War, and there's the scene where [Vision] shoots Rhodey out of the sky and I land to see if he's okay — I'm supposed to land, so they pull me up like 30 feet off the ground and I'm on a pendulum, so I'm supposed to pull my legs under me and land to a stop. I didn't realize how much my lower body weighed, so I pull on the ropes to try and bring my legs under but I can't get my core in, and I literally land face-first in the dirt and bounce for about 10 feet. I have grass and mud all in my face. The crew is just dying laughing. Everybody is dying laughing.
Oops! I can’t even imagine Anthony Mackie doing this since it seems to come so effortless on the big screen. But it makes sense that it would – those are some massive wings to tame. As the actor told Entertainment Weekly, Sam Wilson was the first role he’d ever played that demanded him to be in action sequences.
Anthony Mackie is a trained dramatic actor of Juilliard, so his first approach to Falcon was actually to study the behaviors of birds as they land. His decision to spend his energy there came after direction from the graphics team and directors to emulate a bird when attempting the landing move. When it came to actually sticking the landing, there was more than one ill-fated incident it sounds like. As Mackie put it:
It became a comedy of errors of every day when I had to land and how they were going to kill me. To this day: 'How do we crash him into something?'
We’d like a supercut for the bonus features please, Marvel. Ultimately, the actor found a way to recalibrate his approach to his wire work and embody Falcon in six MCU films so far. Following Chris Evans’ Cap handing off the shield to his character in Avengers: Endgame, Sam Wilson will return aside Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes for the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
The highly-anticipated Phase 4 release shut down filming in March due to global health concerns, with only a few weeks left on its shooting schedule. But recently, the show was granted permission from the Czech Republic to wrap up shooting soon. While the show was originally expected to drop on the streaming service in August, that doesn't look to be happening anymore. It's not the only highly-anticipated Marvel project that's had to be delayed. For instance, Black Widow, which was initially scheduled to premiere ahead of the series, has been pushed back to November.
You can sign up for a Disney+ subscription ahead of Falcon’s return to the MCU, and stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more Marvel news.
