The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s approach to long-from storytelling showed its best and worst sides over the course of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s six episodes, which culminated in Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson stepping into the star-spangled breach to assume the mantle of Captain America from Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers.
Of course, anyone to have seen Avengers: Endgame (which was pretty much everyone based on the money it made at the box office) knew that this is where things were headed anyway, leading to questions as to why we needed six hours of storytelling to get to a destination that had been signposted already.
On the other side of the coin, it was great to see Mackie and Sebastian Stan’s bromance given room to breathe, Baron Zemo seized his moment in the spotlight, and Wyatt Russell’s John Walker gave audiences a villain they love to hate, without even mentioning the beginning of the trail of breadcrumbs that will probably lead to Thunderbolts.
Now that Mackie’s standalone Captain America movie has found a director in The Cloverfield Paradox‘s Julius Onah, it didn’t take long for an assortment of varied reactions to begin making their way online.
With a star, director, and writing team in place, we could be hearing even more from Captain America 4 at San Diego Comic-Con, where Marvel Studios is returning for the first time in three years, and is widely expected to blow the roof off Hall H through a cavalcade of earth-shattering announcements, reveals, and surprise guests.