A shield left behind signifies one man’s hopes, one woman’s fears and the loss of a dear friend and symbol. Released to Disney+ on March 19, “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” is a six, hour-long Marvel series taking place six months after the events of Endgame. Captain America’s best friends, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) aka Falcon and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) aka Winter Soldier, deal with the decisions Cap made to leave the timeline and give up his mantle to Sam and Bucky are left to deal with the aftermath. 

Getting back to what Marvel does best, “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” is a classic MCU film, it’s action packed, suspenseful, and centers around heroic superheroes. Keeping their frenemies dynamic going, Sam and Bucky’s unusual relationship is explored once again to see what it will become without Steve. 

The series takes place post-blip, which is the five years half the universe was snapped out of existence by Thanos. Sam continues to struggle with Cap’s wish for him to become the next Captain America and finds himself unable to carry the shield and all it represents. Instead he donated the shield to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Meanwhile, Bucky tries to find his place in the world after working as an assassin of Hydra for 70 years and taking a two year sabbatical in Wakanda. 

Sam and Bucky are not the only characters to appear from the MCU movies, Emily VanCamp reprises her role as Sharon Carter (Agent 13) and the main antagonist Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) coming back into the fold, now hell-bent on eliminating all superheroes on earth. Hopefully we will find out what Agent 13 has been up to the two years she has been on the run and whether she too was blipped out of the universe. 

Following the trend of Marvel, the series introduces new characters to the MCU: U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell) and Flag Smasher (Erin Kellyman). U.S. Agent is the United States’ solution to the loss of Captain America and has fought Captain America in the comics multiple times, while Flag Smasher is another of Captain America’s foes who believes that there should be no countries and no borders. 

Disney has spared no expense as they continue to release Disney+ originals with the budget and quality of an actual MCU movie. And following the lead of the movie Black Panther, racial issues such as systematic racism are addressed in the background of the story, adding depth of character for Sam. 

“Falcon and the Winter Soldier” is a great show to watch and a great way to get back into the MCU following the drought of MCU films due to the pandemic. Plus it provides something different to viewers as they now get six, hour-long episodes to explore and tell the story of Sam and Bucky.