Disney held a press conference for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier today, and a lot of great questions were put to those in attendance (Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, director Kari Skogland, writer Malcolm Spellman, and stars Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan).
One of them saw Feige asked about how important this series is to the wider plan for the MCU, and it felt a lot like he was thinking about the response to WandaVision in the way he answered that.
"Well, I mean, the characters of Bucky and Sam are essential to the MCU. As they change, evolve, and whatever they go through, [they] could and should have a big impact on the MCU" he started. "The answer is 'yes,' [but] it's hard to navigate every fan theory that's going to pop up."
"Not everything is world-shattering to the point of bringing in some giant element of the comics that's never been there before or smashing the Earth into two planets. There can be character shifts that have massive implications for the stories we're telling in the future, so it'll be a combination. And the end of the show does split the Earth in two; I forgot, so don't print that. That's a spoiler."
Oops, sorry about that, Kevin!
Anyway, the gist here is that not every show will have a game-changing new villain like Mephisto or aerospace engineers who are, in fact, founding members of the Fantastic Four! This is a good way to temper expectations for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, but we're still expecting some big surprises.
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier premieres on Disney+ this Friday, March 19th!