The long-awaited series Falcon and the Winter Soldier is due to start on March 19, and it is worth revisiting the first look trailer which dropped during this year’s Super Bowl.
Set after the events of Marvel film Avengers: Endgame, the $25m per episode show is set to blur the lines between cinema and TV series with high-quality cinematics and Hollywood-style budgets. Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan reprise their roles as Sam Wilson (aka the Falcon) and Bucky Barnes (aka the Winter Soldier) for the show, set to feature on Disney+.
The bickering, wise-cracking anti-heroes need an antagonist to face off against, and that is provided by Daniel Bruhl, who reprises his role of Baron Helmut Zemo, a terrorist who first appeared in Captain America: Civil War. To Marvel fan’s delight, Zemo will be depicted wearing his purple mask, which was omitted from the film.
The series is sure to delight fans of the genre, the same fans who helped make Avengers: End Game a huge box office smash, grossing $2.8bn (₹ 197bn) worldwide. Its success was the culmination of 22 film saga, all of which wound towards the conclusion, but the new series now picks up the threads and looks to carry the story on, which will ensure fans are once again drawn to their screens in one way or another.
Whilst the new television series will be eagerly anticipated by committed Marvel fans, movies are currently the staple of the franchise and few are expected to be bigger than Thor: Love and Thunder, scheduled for 2022. Before that, we can expect Black Widow, Eternals and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but it was the hammer-wielding Thor who played a key role in some of the early 22 films and who will prove to be popular in 2022. Of course, whilst fans wait for its release, they can immerse themselves in multiple other media depictions of the Norse God, across gaming and pop culture. There are several slot titles on Foxy Bingo loosely based on Thor, such as Thunderstruck I and Thunderstruck II which lean heavily on his imagery. He also appeared as a playable character in the Christmas 2020 console release Marvel’s Avengers, and he remains a popular figure in numerous other games across mobile and consoles.
He is not the only character from the Marvel world to make it big in video games though. Spider-Man was a huge hit on the last generation of machines, whilst the sequel, Miles Morales, is having similar success on the next generation. Spider-Man can also expect a new film release, much like Thor, with an as-yet-untitled Far From Home sequel planned for late 2021. The constant evolution of the characters, and their use across a range of media, only serves to underline why series such as Falcom and The Winter Soldier have been allocated such an impressive budget.
The new series will keep fans entertained and it might even hint at a future direction for the Marvel Universe. With so many characters, films and threads, it is possible the cinematic budget series could be a blueprint for the future as a way of delivering an expansive, six-hour story directly to fans. With so many plots, characters and themes being developed and explored, a television series is often a popular choice with viewers and it seems a natural progression for Marvel if Falcon and The Winter Soldier is a success.
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