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If you liked WandaVision, should you watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier?

Marvel newcomers may not be sure whether to give it a go

Jacob Stolworthy
Friday 19 March 2021 07:28 EDT
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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier final trailer

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The more casual Marvel fans who were particularly taken by WandaVision are probably wondering if they should give The Falcon and the Winter Soldier a go.

Just two weeks after the conclusion of Marvel’s acclaimed debut TV show, the studio has unveiled the next in a run of different series that will be released over the coming years.

While WandaVision was a mind-bending mystery show that generated theory upon theory with each new episode, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is more a straightforward Marvel adventure.

WandaVision’s intriguing premise meant that newcomers could watch and find enjoyment, but this new show would definitely benefit from having seen a number of previous titles.

It bears the most similarities with the three Captain America films – The First Avenger (2011), The Winter Soldier (2014) and Civil War (2016) – especially considering the memory of Cap himself, Steve Rogers, looms large. Chris Evans, who played Rogers, left the MCU and handed his shield over to The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.

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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which reunites Falcon and Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), is set six months after not only the departure of Chris Evans’ character, but the return of all who disappeared for five years due to Thanos (Josh Brolin).

This means that the new show is set just under five months after the events of WandaVision, which takes place 21 days after the events of Endgame. Wanda Maxmioff’s Westview antics seem to be referenced in an early scene between the Falcon and War Machine (Don Cheadle).

Anthony Mackie in ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’
Anthony Mackie in ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ (Marvel Studios)

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier isn’t the furthest into the future that we’ve glimpsed since Thanos’s “blip”, however. Spider-Man: Far From Home, released in 2019, was set one year after the blip, meaning that the events of this new show would already have transpired by the time of that film.

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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is available to stream on Disney Plus now.

Read our review of episode one here.

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