This year, the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicked off a whole new era for the franchise – and we’re not just talking about the beginning of Phase 4. With the launch of WandaVision on Disney+, the storytelling in the comic book world has added a whole new dimension, and it promises great things to come. In fact, it already has us extra excited for the soon-premiering next Marvel original on the streaming service: The Falcon And The Winter Soldier.
While it can’t be said that WandaVision was perfect, there’s a lot about it that is wonderful, and the reaction that it inspired as new episodes premiered was fantastic. It’s because of those things and more we now have some piqued anticipation for The Falcon And The Winter Soldier – both in terms of the content and because of what it means for the vast fanbase.
Every Episode Feels Like An Event
For years and years, movie prognosticators have warned about the potential for burnout on superhero content – especially as Marvel Studios has gradually gone from releasing two to three to four movies a year. What very much flies in the face of that concept, however, was the excitement that was generated week-to-week waiting for the latest episode of WandaVision. While the whole story was dished out in 20-40 minute increments, the anticipation for each chapter had a comparable feeling to taking your seat in a theater and waiting for the lights to turn off.
It’s funny that The Falcon And The Winter Soldier won’t have an equitable punch as its predecessor simply because it has fewer episodes in its run, but what we can still be sure of is that it is guaranteed people across America are going to be awake in the wee hours of the morning buzzing with energy and hoping that the streaming service doesn’t crash.
Fan Speculation Has Been Active And Rabid
By extension of each episode of WandaVision generating blockbuster-level hype, fans became incredibly active in the discourse surrounding the show, and that proved to be an exciting thing to be a part of. With each new episode adding pieces to the developing puzzle, speculation about where things were headed was wild, and it proved fun to see viewers engage with the material on such an extreme level.
The Falcon And The Winter Soldier clearly has a different energy than the mystery-driven WandaVision, and it won’t inspire the same kinds of fan theories – but that’s definitely not going to stop fans from offering their two cents regarding where things are going, which characters can be trusted, etc. If you’re a person who isn’t able to watch each episode until Friday evening or later, do yourself a favor and set up your social media filters for spoilers now, because there is going to be a deluge week-to-week.
Marvel Clearly Didn’t Skimp On The Budget With Their Disney+ Shows
Having released eight films in the last decade that have grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, Marvel Studios has never been shy about putting a hell of a lot of money on the screen – with each of their blockbusters always promising a visual spectacle with massive scale. Now launching the new Disney+ shows, there was some curiosity about how resources would be allocated – but WandaVision soothed all concerns by looking as polished and flashy as any other Marvel production.
This is a particularly important thing to keep in consideration regarding The Falcon And The Winter Solder given its more expansive plot. WandaVision clearly had to spend a lot of money in set construction and production design, but the scale of the show was relatively small – mostly contained to the borders of Westview, New Jersey. Being more akin to blockbuster action movies, the follow-up looks a lot bigger, but we have every expectation that it was given the money it needed to be the best show it could be.
The Falcon And The Winter Soldier Episodes Are Approximately Twice As Long As WandaVision’s
By the time we reached the mid-point of WandaVision, audiences began to hate the phrase “Please Stand By,” as it perpetually punctuated a cliffhanger on the show, and restarted the countdown waiting for the next week’s episode (it was a popular joke on social media that it had become the most horrible villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe). It can’t be promised that the end of each The Falcon And The Winter Soldier won’t deliver a similar feeling, but at the very least audiences will likely feel more satisfied by larger portions.
WandaVision episodes, for the most part, mostly mirrored the runtimes of the classic sitcoms that inspired it, and while that often left the sensation that each one was over super quickly, we’re excited at the possibility that the follow-up won’t have that same effect. When you do the math between episode length and series order, you realize that both shows are ultimately about the same length, but there’s a hell of a lot of action that can be delivered in 40-50 minutes…
The Falcon And The Winter Soldier Promises A Totally Different Experience
One of the key reasons why Marvel has been so successful warding off the aforementioned superhero fatigue is the fact that they have done a great job mixing up the kinds of stories that they tell with their diverse cast of characters. The conspiracy movie-inspired Captain America: The Winter Soldier doesn’t really have much in common with the space opera that is Guardians of the Galaxy with the exception of the fact that they exist in the same canon and were released in the same summer. After watching WandaVision, going into The Falcon And The Winter Soldier seems like it is going to be a wholly different thing, and that inspires its own kind of excitement.
While WandaVision unfolds as a fantastical mystery series that evolves our perception of characters we’ve known for half-a-decade, The Falcon And The Winter Soldier promises to be more of a buddy action film starring two characters who have a brilliant knack at getting under each other’s skin. We’d be a bit wary if just after the first Disney+ show Marvel was serving up a similar new series, but that doesn’t appear to be the case at all here, and that has us pumped.
As noted up top, you don’t have to wait much longer for The Falcon And The Winter Soldier if your own personal excitement for the show is ready to max out. The show, which will unfold across six 40-50 minute episodes, will premiere on Disney+ starting Friday March 19 at 12am PST/3am EST. To see what else is coming up on the streaming service from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, be sure to check out our Upcoming Marvel TV Shows guide.
