Warning: This article includes minor spoilers for the sixth episode of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”
“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” has come and gone, and we will never see it again. If we ever do see it again, we’ll have another name to call it after the events of this episode — “Captain America and the Winter Soldier” because Falcon, finally, became Captain America.
The series finale for “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” premiered on Disney+ Friday morning, giving us our final look at the Marvel project centered around Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). The final episode wrapped up all of the storylines and threads created by the show, and it set us on a good path for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In terms of the story, we saw exactly what you’d expect in a finale of a Marvel project, as we saw our heroes take on the villains face to face, and we saw our heroes accept their new identities. Sam finally took on the role as Captain America and Bucky made peace with the fact that he can start a new life as the Winter Soldier, bringing an end to the two running storylines of the series.
And “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” laid the groundwork for what’s to come next in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in multiple ways. Here’s a look at what the finale means for the future of the MCU and what we should expect next.
There’s a new Captain America (for real this time)
“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” gave us a new Captain America in the opening episode of the series as John Walker (Wyatt Russell) took on the role, much to the despair of Sam Wilson, who didn’t want anyone to assume the role after Steve Rogers. But alas, we got our selves a Captain America. John Walker’s run as the Captain was short-lived, though, as he ended up murdering someone with the Captain America shield, which was filmed on camera. The U.S. government took away the role.
In the series finale, we finally saw Sam take on the role as Captain America — something we have all been expecting to see since Steve Rogers handed the shield over to Sam at the end of “Avengers: Endgame.”
This means we’ll have a new Captain America for the future the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sam accepted the identity and will be one of the most famous Avengers moving forward. This could mean we’ll see future “Captain America” films and television series, too, only they’ll be centered around Sam in the role.
It’s great to see the MCU give us another Captain America. This is also the first Black Captain America in the MCU’s history, which is an excellent move to give more diversity to the MCU, too. This was a great page-turning moment in the history of the MCU, and it’ll be fun to see where they go next.
The Winter Soldier’s future is unclear
It’s hard not to see “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” as a show more about Sam and his journey than anything else. We did see Bucky’s journey toward full acceptance of his past as the Winter Soldier, but there was less of a focus on the direction of the future.
If anything, we saw the Winter Soldier accept an unknown future. It will be interesting to see what Marvel does with Bucky and how he integrates into the MCU moving forward. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him become an advisor to new characters as an Avengers veteran. But an unknown future allows Marvel to have some fun with Bucky, and that’ll be great to witness moving forward.
Two new villains emerge
I’ll cover this in more specific articles, but “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” series finale ended by giving us two new villains to keep our eyes on as we continue to watch Marvel Cinematic Universe projects.
We saw Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) return to give John Walker a new suit, claiming that things are going to get weird and the world will need a U.S. Agent and not a Captain America. So if that doesn’t hype you up, I don’t know what will. Clearly, Valentina knows something is about to happen in the MCU. Make sure to see where she goes next.
And then there’s Sharon Carter. She revealed in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” finale that she was the Power Broker. Then, she accepted a pardon from the U.S. government and told someone — we don’t know who — that she will provide access to government technology secrets. So she’ll have a role to play moving forward, too.
Big takeaway
Look, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” was great for the personal story it told about Sam Wilson becoming Captain America as a Black man and showing us how Bucky has been dealing with grief for his role as the Winter Soldier. But it laid the groundwork for some new, fun storylines on what’s to come in the MCU. So while the show felt more like a character-driven, action-focus epic, there were little tidbits here and there that actually could impact the future of the MCU.