The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021-) is just the beginning of Marvel Studio's new wave of television, and the Captain America spinoff series has asserted itself as a valuable bridge between the studio's past slate and their future. Series star Sebastian Stan is unsure yet of the show's future as the series is at its midpoint, but hungers deeply for more.
Stan's Bucky "The Winter Soldier" Barnes, now teamed up alongside the high-flying Sam "Falcon" Wilson (Anthony Mackie), are faced with the implications of a new Captain America within the modern-day United States. Politics, race, and battling trauma are no strangers to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, burying themselves within the heart of the series with an intense iron grip.
There has been no noise from Marvel around a second season, but Stan said that he would "do anything" for Marvel Studios president and producer Kevin Feige. "My impression is that nobody's over at that studio getting caught in the noise. They just love the work. They're just always constantly grateful," Stan said in an interview Collider about the now-Disney-owned studio. "Which if you look at the movies, a lot of the endings of the movies [are] like, 'Well, this could be it, but maybe we'll get lucky and we'll get another one!' There's never been, 'Well, yeah, we're Marvel, we'll just f—ing hit another home run.' There's always this thing of embracing the last film for what it is and the hope of a continuation without expectation, and that's very difficult to do at that level."
When prompted about giving any indication for Marvel's plans to continue on with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the Winter Soldier actor admitted his uncertainty. "No, we have not, and I'll tell you that honestly, we have not. As per usual, I don't quite know what the next step is. We never really do. Maybe some people do, maybe [Robert] Downey [Jr.] used to know, I don't know. I got on the phone with [Feige] just to catch up, and I was saying to him, 'Dude, you could f—ing tell me to go swim under[water], I'll do anything,'" Stan said.
There have been rumors that have hinted at the series' renewal that will identify under a new title, and that the renaming will be consequential of expectations that Wilson will accept the shield that he was once so uncertain of bearing, as it has been said that Marvel will have its new Captain America by the series' final episode.
"It's a funny question and it's one that we obviously get asked much more in television because people expect it to be like what people know before," Feige said during a virtual press conference last month pressed to comment on the second season of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. "We really did approach it like we do the movies... if we were able to do another one, [there are certain] ideas."
It was then added by Feige that the two central, titular characters are "are essential to the [Marvel Cinematic Universe] and as they change, or as they evolve, or whatever they go through could and should have a big impact on the MCU ... there can be character shifts that have massive, massive implications for the stories we're telling in the future," which could be interpreted as a nod to that these heroes' journies are not quite finished yet.