Don't Expect 'The Falcon And The Winter Soldier' To Last More Than One Season

We're only a few weeks away from the debut of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the show that was originally intended to be Marvel Studios' first streaming series on Disney+. But according to one of the show's stars, the six episodes fans see in that first season might be all there is when it comes to the television adventures of Falcon and Bucky Barnes. But could those adventures continue under a different title?

In a recent profile of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier star Anthony Mackie in Variety, the outlet reports that "while bound by standard Marvel-grade secrecy, the actor confirms there have been no discussions of a second season for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier."

Last week, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige explained that the show would only be six episodes as opposed to the nine episodes we'll see for WandaVision. "Six hours is what we landed on as the best way to tell our story," he told Deadline. "Six hours, whether it's six episodes, or nine shorter episodes like WandaVision. The shows aren't inexpensive, so the per-episode cost is very high and to get that bar I was talking about." He wasn't kidding about the show being costly to produce: the first season of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier reportedly cost a cool $150 million.

But while we will almost assuredly see Sam Wilson/Falcon and Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier team up again in future Marvel Studios movies, could the duo also return to the small screen in a slightly different way? Maybe Feige and Mackie are being coy with their wording here: perhaps there have been no discussions about a second season of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier because that series is all about Falcon grappling with the legacy of Captain America and deciding to officially take the mantle from Steve Rogers. But what about a Captain America and Bucky show exploring a different set of ideas? (After all, that was a comic book title at one point.)

An approach like that would give the studio the chance to further dig into these characters' stories in different contexts. (It also would create a sort of revolving door scenario for the behind-the-scenes creatives like the showrunner and the director, who would probably get booted in favor of new voices coming in; I have mixed feelings about that.)

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier season 1 premieres on Disney+ on March 19, 2021.