Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney +: “Captain America’s shield is a sensitive subject for the characters”

Be careful, spoilers. You are advised to have seen the first episode of Falcon and the Winter Soldier before continuing to read this article.

AlloCiné: From the first episode of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the action sequences are reminiscent of the staging of the Captain America films. Was it important to live up to these films? Were you able to stage the sequences exactly as you wanted with such a large budget?

Kari Skogland: There is never enough time and never enough money, that goes without saying. The goal from the start was to live up to the special world of Marvel. It was very clear to us that we were making a 6 hour film, that was the goal. The action sequences had to reflect the awe-inspiring world of Marvel.

I wanted Falcon’s to be the best we’ve seen because we could fly with him. I wanted it to be experimental. Technologies have changed over the past seven years, so we can put cameras on people and blow them off planes. I watched a lot of videos of extreme sports, skydiving, and wingsuit flying to get a good feel for the aesthetics.

For the rest of the action sequences, I really wanted them to be animated by the character and the story. So that we’re never in an action sequence just because it’s an action sequence. It must exist for a specific purpose: a new place, a new idea or an upheaval for the characters.

When you put black people in creative positions, they know very well what they are talking about. Not a single thing surprised us, not a single event had not happened before. So nothing you see on the show is an accident.

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Have recent events in the United States, the rise of nationalism and the #BlackLivesMatter movement, been factors taken into account in the writing process of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which digs deeper into the issues of nationalism and government power, already addressed in the Captain America films?

Malcolm Spellman: When you put black people into creative positions, they know very well what they’re talking about. Not a single thing surprised us, not a single event had not happened before. So nothing you see on the show is an accident. What has happened more recently in the United States is a stronger, more glaring version of what has been going on for a long time.

I am really very proud of our creative team to have been able and able to take this place and to have designed something very relevant and very current. To be honest, there’s even a version of the script, which I’m not allowed to talk about, that was incredibly consistent but we threw away because it wasn’t working and we couldn’t have put it together. , I think.

How much has the pandemic impacted the writing and production of the series? It can in a way echo the “blip” …

Malcolm Spellman: We had already chosen to explore what is called the “blip” because we knew that a global problem would resonate. We wanted to put our heroes on a human scale at a specific time. We knew the ‘blip’ was tapping into a well-known sentiment. But it’s true that when the pandemic hit and we had to halt production, we made it even more clear that the “blip” looked like the situation the whole world is facing today.

Falcon and Bucky are in full introspection in the series and manage the post-Endgame. We are entitled to more immersive scenes, with close-ups, which dig a little deeper into the psychology of the characters. How did you work with Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan to reveal a deeper and more moving game? Was it easier since they’re friends in real life?

Kari Skogland: Yeah, they already have that chemistry, they’re friends, and they’ve been playing these characters for quite some time. It was therefore easy to draw on their resources. But what was great was that it was also very different for them, they never dug their characters so deep. We have never seen their characters in a family setting or at home. So I think it’s always exhilarating and terrifying to explore new ground.

They had great ideas and came to the set every day very prepared. We did a lot of improvisation too to capture moments in which they really excelled. Partly, because they trust each other and as actors they are both very accomplished.

But for me the most important thing was to create a safe space where we could play and experiment. They understood that they had the opportunity to try things and if we didn’t like them, we didn’t use them. It is by experimenting that we always manage to find something interesting.

We know that Chris Evans will not be returning to the MCU, so will we be entitled to a true successor to Captain America? He still bequeathed his shield to Sam at the end of Endgame, he should logically be his heir.

It’s a big responsibility that Steve Rogers put in Sam’s hands by giving him the shield. Sam carries a real burden especially as a black man. And whether Steve did it on purpose or not – we might not know – Captain America’s shield is a sensitive topic for all characters. And I can’t say if anyone will really get the shield back in the end.

The end of the first episode introduces a new character, John Walker aka the US Agent, introduced as the “new Captain America”. Are we going to be surprised by this character?

Malcolm Spellman: He was perfect. Wait until you see episode 2 because each character represents a problem and embodies it perfectly. We didn’t need him to fit in from his first appearance because it’s assimilated into his character. We had to soften it a bit compared to the comics to make it “worthy” of the shield. But he is never really far from what he should represent.

Falcon and the Winter Soldier should be at least as filled with easter eggs and hidden details as WandaVision. Did you have to have that in mind when you were shooting?

Kari Skogland: These are very organic things that happen almost naturally. We always assume that we immerse ourselves in the world of the MCU and see if we can connect things together. Easter eggs and small references never take precedence over history. It’s always the plot that prevails and if we can add little details to spice it up then we do it.