From the moment that Captain America handed his shield to Falcon at the end of Avengers: Endgame, actor Anthony Mackie began anxiously awaited the call for his Captain America movie.
The call came, and it was not what he expected.
Marvel told Mackie they were going to continue his story in a Disney+ streaming series called The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
This filled Mackie with a sense of dread.
Anthony Mackie worried streaming series would tarnish Marvel
In an interview with the New York Times, Mackie said he was taken by surprise at the announcement.
“I’m walking in with the assumption that the new Captain America movie is going to be me,” Mackie said.
“I was taken aback, mostly because I didn’t want to tarnish the Marvel moniker,” the actor continued when discussing a TV series based on his story.
The main concern was that there was no way a television series, even one on a streaming network, could provide the pop and experience of a movie production.
The good news is that Mackie had nothing to worry about.
While these are not movies that make massive sums of money at the box office, the subscription rates of Disney+ allows the company to put a lot of money into the Marvel series, making them feel as big as a movie.
WandaVision proved that Marvel was able to make a streaming series that was required weekly television in an era where people are expecting to binge-watch shows, and that series was big enough to match up with an MCU movie release.
Falcon and the Winter Soldier less than a week away
Unlike WandaVision, which checked in at under 30 minutes, not including the credits, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will be between 45-55 minutes per episode.
There will also be fewer episodes, with only six weeks total, so the running time will be similar to WandaVision overall.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier follows the story of Captain America’s two closest friends, Bucky Barnes (Winter Soldier) and Sam Wilson (Falcon) as they try to ensure that Steve Rogers’ final wishes are honored.
However, when a new Captain America showed up in a man named John Walker and an old enemy returns in Baron Zemo, the two Avengers find themselves fighting to protect the country and preserve their friend’s wishes at the same time.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier hits Disney+ on Friday, March 19.