Why MCU TV, Not Movies, Will Explore Consequences of the Snap

With set photos showing The Falcon and the Winter Soldier at the G20 2023 summit, it seems that the TV side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be dealing with consequences of the snap in Avengers: Endgame. While Endgame explored the effects of half the population dying in the Decimation in Avengers: Infinity War, there are just as many consequences of bringing everyone back.

Spider-Man: Far From Home spent a little time with “The Blip”, but mostly as a source of jokes. There hasn’t been the time or place to explore what bringing back half of the population does to the world, and future movies aren’t likely to do so either. Black Widow is set between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, and other movies like Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are too busy setting up new corners of the MCU to focus on the past.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier seems to be picking up that mantle itself and dealing with the aftermath of the Endgame snap. Not only is it set right after Endgame, there’s at least one sequence at the G20 2023 summit. The main purpose of this scene seems to be a terrorist attack happening there, similar to the UN bombing from Captain America: Civil War. But why choose this particular international event?

The G20 summit is an economics forum for the most powerful nations in the world. In the MCU in 2023, it could only be about one thing. The return of so many people will have a massive effect on the world economy, only matched in impact by half the world’s disappearance five years before. This economic chaos would cause unrest across the world, resulting in the attack shown in the set photos. Combined with the Super Bowl trailer, this suggests that dealing with the aftermath of the snap will be a big part of the story.

This gives the MCU the chance to address the criticism that they haven’t dealt with the repercussions of either snap of the Infinity Gauntlet. Endgame showed the result of the Infinity War snap, but mostly focused on the Avengers’ reactions. There were hints to the chaos caused to the rest of the world with support groups and abandoned baseball stadiums, but not with a lot of depth. In fairness, the TV shows are much better suited to this purpose, leaving the movies to expand the MCU to new places while the TV shows go into more depth.

TV has this advantage because shows have more time to breathe. While The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will only have six episodes, unless every episode is bizarrely short, it’ll have more time to spend on its story than even Endgame with its notorious 3 hour runtime. Between the extra time and a more episodic structure, the shows have more freedom to have subplots exploring more of the finer details of the MCU. The G20 summit can be an opportunity to tell the story of the world post-snap with some real depth, more than just being background set decoration to the real plot.

The main focus of The Falcon and Winter Soldier is going to be on the title characters Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, how they deal with moving on without Steve Rogers, and the other potential Captain Americas. The additional time allowed by a TV series gives them room to do more than just that.

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