Exclusive: Falcon and the Winter Soldier showrunner on how the show relates to the pandemic and Black Lives Matter

Falcon and the Winter Soldier is swooping onto our screens this March and, although the series was predominantly written and filmed pre-pandemic, the events of the last year have made the Marvel series more relevant. 

In 2020, race relations in America came to another boiling point, igniting a global conversation. Anyone of color in the US is painfully aware of the ever-simmering problems that flare up even regarding something as joyful as Sam Wilson, a Black man, being handed Cap's shield.

That was something showrunner Malcolm Spellman did not want to shy away from in the upcoming Marvel show, the writer enthusiastic about folding that American reality into Falcon's decision about what to do with the mantle he's been handed.

"It's funny, because if someone asked me, 'In a million years, could you have ever predicted what was going on?' I'm like, 'Yeah, I’m black,'" he deadpans to GamesRadar+'s sister publication SFX Magazine. "We are uniquely qualified to diagnose this country and have a sense of where it's going. And Nate is black and he's one of their most senior execs, so he was the perfect partner for me."

What's also become more apparent in the making of the series is the potent parallel between the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic and the MCU’s "Blip", which saw half the universe's population wiped out, only to return five years later. Spellman says that the fact that humanity is living through an extended state of stasis has made The Falcon And The Winter Soldier's narrative more pointed.

"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," he shares. "When the pandemic hits, and the entire planet has to come together and deal with it, the synergy there is perfect.

"The same thing with the issues of a black man confronting that shield," he continues. "The stories have been out there. They've been in our face forever. There's no avoiding it, and Marvel doesn't ask you to avoid it. What they do ask you to do is never burden the storytelling. Let the storytelling be energetic and fun and aspirational, and within that, be honest and be truthful."

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Falcon and the Winter Soldier will bring both Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes to the small screen on Disney Plus. However, Anthony Mackie was not always sold on the idea of the series, revealing that he was hesitant about the show at first.

You can check out the full interview with the team behind Falcon and the Winter Soldier in the current issue of SFX Magazine, which features the Marvel show on the cover. The show will stream weekly on Disney Plus from March 19. For more from SFX, make sure to sign up to the newsletter, sending all the latest exclusives straight to your inbox.