Anthony Mackie was afraid The Falcon and the Winter Soldier would be “sh**ty”

After WandaVision draws to a conclusion, we won’t have to wait long until the next big Marvel Cinematic Universe TV show drops on Disney+: two weeks to be exact. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier promises to be a much more traditional superhero drama compared to the wacky sitcom-inspired WandaVision. However, star Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon) admits he had his reservations about taking part.

As the title suggests, the show sees Sam and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) headline their own adventure after their last appearances in Avengers: Endgame. That movie ended with Steve Rogers handing his shield over to Sam Wilson. Does that mean Sam is the new Captain America?

“At the end of Endgame, Sam didn’t accept the shield,” Anthony Mackie said on The Rich Eisen Show. “If you remember, he told Steve, ‘It doesn’t feel right because this shield is yours.’ So, you know, the show is a long way of figuring around who’s gonna be Captain America. Where the shield’s gonna end up and if Captain America, if that moniker is gonna come back and somebody’s gonna hold that moniker again.”

Anthony Mackie feared The Falcon and the Winter Soldier would be like the campy 1960s Batman show

Since the show was announced, Mackie has been pretty vocal about how well-made it is, saying it’s more like a movie than a TV show. But as he revealed on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast, it took a bit to get there:

"Right after we wrapped Endgame, after the big premiere party, splish splash, I have a meeting with everybody, and they’re like ‘We’re going streaming, and you’re gonna be in a streaming show.’ And I was like…really? Because you think there’s no way Marvel would be able to keep the level of sophistication, quality. There’s no way you would be able to do the exact same thing on a television."

His fear was that it would be more campy than classy. “So basically, I thought this show was gonna be like the old school Batman, I thought it was gonna be some shitty… or some of the other shows where it’s like soap operas.”

The ’60s Batman show, if you’re unaware, starred Adam West in a way over-the-top take on the Caped Crusader full of punny dialogue and gadgets like shark repellent Bat spray. It’s a cult classic, but pretty far afield of anything the MCU is doing.

Fortunately, it sounds like Marvel Studios were able to pull out all the stops for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. “The quality of our show with the acting, with the scripts, with the development of the characters and everything was so high-level, so high-brow. I didn’t think there was any way Marvel would be able to carry that on to television.”

As for Bucky Barnes, Stan recently posted a picture of his character’s badass new costume: “Camera test, October 2019. Less than 2 months to go.” He looks ready to fend off some bad guys:

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier drops on Disney+ on March 19. Later on this year, we get Loki, Ms. Marvel, and Hawkeye. There’s going to be tons of new MCU content to watch all year, and beyond.

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