Why Falcon & Winter Soldier Works Better as a TV Show According To Director

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier director Kari Skogland explains why the series works better as a television show as opposed to being a film. The Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson centric series was originally meant to be the MCU's first foray into streaming in 2020, but COVID-19 related delays forced a schedule change. WandaVision premiered first and was a hit with critics and viewers, and Falcon and the Winter Soldier is primed to do the same.

Helmed by Skogland and showrunner Malcolm Spellman, Falcon and the Winter Soldier debuted its first episode this week to a mostly positive response, but, like WandaVision, the series is playing its cards close to its chest. The first episode, titled "New World Order," didn't even feature the titular pair in the same room and instead opted to develop Bucky and Sam's stories separately while teasing out their eventual reunion. This was seemingly intentional and Skogland's latest comments explain why this is the case.

The director told DF why the series will work better as an episodic story, saying that fleshing out the characters is an important facet of a television show that movies sometimes aren't able to do. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's six episodes will give Spellman and Skogland more time to spend with the characters and explore their inner lives in a way that a movie featuring the two would not. This format allows more world building, more time with the characters fans love, and room for tangents that would otherwise end up on the cutting room floor.

I’ve been calling the movies, they’re like the snack and this is like the meal. You really can get involved with the characters in 6 hours in a way that you can’t in a film. The films are high octane already and they’re immersed in some world saving event. So it’s very hard to go off on a little tangent with a character, because the stakes are so high in one singular direction. But on a series you’re able to meander a little bit. We’re able to get inside the lives of our characters. We’re able to do a little more twists and turns that are a little less streamlined in the end…and also world build.

Marvel president Kevin Feige has long touted their streaming series as four to six hour long movies, but this is part of a larger pattern in the era of prestige television and streaming when viewers are able to view all episodes at once. Of course, that's not the case with shows like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and much of fans' irritation has come from the weekly episode release format. Still, this is a matter of circumstance and doesn't take away from the fact that these shows do feel designed to be like their theatrical counterparts in many ways.

Skogland's comments make it clear where the series and the films of the MCU differ in that they will take a much more focused approach on the characters at the center of them. With a huge television slate over the next few years, Marvel is diving deep into some characters that haven't gotten the solo film treatment, including Loki, Hawkeye aka Clint Barton, Ms. Marvel, and the aforementioned Wanda Maximoff and Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier looks to be especially incisive when it comes to the characters dealing with their trauma and the series is likely all the better for it and this type of poignant storytelling would be impossible to do in just a two hour film.

More: Falcon & Winter Soldier Episode 1 Asks 5 Big Post-Endgame Questions

Source: Discussing Film