The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has a perfect synergy with real world events, according to its showrunner. The Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes led show is next up for the MCU's new foray into streaming. WandaVision is set to complete its nine episode run on March 5 and while that will have major implications for the MCU going forward, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's titular characters will still have to reckon with the past.

Like WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Solider will take place right after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Despite the titular superhero group fixing the damage Thanos had done, the trauma is still there. So, too, is the grief of the loss of the original Captain America. Bucky and Sam will have to deal with Steve Rogers' stepping aside and what that means for the iconic hero. All of this creates a timely conversation around race that the show will not shy away from. What it means for a black man to take over as Captain America will be explored prominently.

Related: Why Falcon & The Winter Soldier Is Hiding The New Captain America

On top of everything else, showrunner Malcolm Spellman told SFX Magazine that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will address another timely event, although in more subtle ways. Spellman says that the show will naturally address the effects of the blip on the rest of the world, but that this happens to tie into the coronavirus pandemic in interesting ways. Spellman says that the disappearance of four billion people in the MCU is a macrocosm of what has happened in the last year with the pandemic and that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's concerns line up with these real world events.

There's no hiding from the fact that four billion people in the MCU disappeared for five years, and then came back. And our show picks up from there and directly talks about what the world feels like to be in flux and dealing with one global issue. When the pandemic hits, and the entire planet has to come together and deal with it, the synergy there is perfect.

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It's sounding like Marvel's next show has a lot on its plate. It will have to grapple with a multitude of things, including the return of Captain America: Civil War villain Zemo, the aforementioned conversation around race, and the trauma both personal and global that its titular characters carry with them. How it will balance all of this in just six episodes remains to be seen. It certainly sounds as if the show is taking a more grounded approach to the MCU, especially after WandaVision's more existential plot.

Fortunately, that approach may be just what the MCU needs. As it looks forward to the future, the franchise is clearly gearing up to go in a new direction. With the multiverse breaking wide open, the opportunities to tell stories like the one in The Falcon and the Winter Solider become slimmer. Still, it sounds like Marvel isn't skimping on the bombast: Anthony Mackie says that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier cost hundreds of millions of dollars, so, even with its grounded approach, it will still have that MCU flare.

More: All 3 Falcon & Winter Soldier Villains Explained

Source: SFX Magazine

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