American Duty

Catch the shield! Here’s the inside word on The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, Marvel’s timely new TV hit

NOW STREAMING ON DISNEY+, THE FALCON And The Winter Soldier sees Marvel’s Phase Four kick into political thriller mode. Red Alert speaks to writer Malcolm Spellman, director Kari Skogland and stars Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan about superhero fantasy in a fractured America…

What was the biggest responsibility when you began writing this show?

Malcolm Spellman: It starts with the last scene in Endgame and that’s a traumatising thing to step into. Like, “Hey, Mac, it all amounts to this one moment, go ahead, pick it up from here!” It took me a second to shake off the jitters about that. You walk into the Marvel offices and there are statues of Iron Man’s armour and Thor’s real hammer, and you feel it. If you love those movies, you feel that pressure. So the biggest stresser for me was feeling, “I’m gonna be the guy that is part of taking Marvel into this next phase…”

Daniel Brühl’s back as Zemo. What does he bring to this story as an antagonist?

MS: We get a chance to spend enough time with him that you see how formidable he is. It’s not just one plotting bad guy who only has time to appear in a few scenes – now you’re really with him as a character. He’s just a formidable dude, in a lot of ways.

What was your approach to the action sequences?