The Falcon and the Winter Soldier directly sets up multiple Marvel projects

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier may ride again on Disney+ after the first season.

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige confirmed to EW that, while a number of movies and shows on the current Phase 4 docket are "relatively standalone or connect back to Endgame," there are some being developed with multiple seasons in mind. Might that pertain to the latest outing, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier?

To answer that would be to enter "the spoiler realm," Feige says. "We have a future charted for characters post-Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but I don't want to say much more than that."

Season 2 or no season 2, Malcolm Spellman, the show's head writer, says there are multiple Marvel projects that tie directly into the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, in the same way that the events of WandaVision have a direct impact on the events of the upcoming movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. "I can think of three that I'm not allowed to talk about," Spellman says.

Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan return as Sam Wilson/Falcon and Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier in the new series, which sees the re-emergence of Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) after he wreaked havoc in Captain America: Civil War. Emily VanCamp also returns for this six-episode-long international political thriller, which also brings in newcomer Wyatt Russell as comic book character John Walker. The writers then threw in a masked militia group exhibiting super-human strength for good measure.

The meat of the show stems from the end of Avengers: Endgame; though Steve Rogers tapped Sam to be his Captain America successor, his friend remarks the shield "feels like it belongs to somebody else."

"Our character has to come to terms with what that is," director Kari Skogland, who helms all since hourlong episodes, tells EW. "He has to decide what carrying the shield is going to be. And he very much has feelings about what that future for the shield is — as does Bucky."

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will premiere on Disney+ this Friday.

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