As we learn more and more news about the upcoming Marvel shows on Disney+, Fangirlish wants to make it easier for fans of the franchise to get up to date on all the things they need to know. This biweekly round-up includes some of the biggest and most fun news from the last week or so about all of our upcoming favorite Marvel shows, like WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Solider, and Loki.
This is a special edition because there is a lot to get through, since we’ve been on hiatus since March. This has a lot to do with all Marvel’s Disney+ series that were in production shutting down due to the pandemic. Variety reported on this, adding that any shows in pre-production could continue work remotely.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
The first bit of news for TFATWS dates back to April 24th. Sebastian Stan discussed the upcoming series during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter about his film Endings, Beginnings. Here’s what Stan said about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier:
“In a lot of ways, it felt like a movie. Again, we’re not finished; we still have some stuff to do. What I loved about it was that, tonally, it was very much in the same world that Captain America: The Winter Soldier was, which was one of my favorite experiences that I’ve ever had, period. So, in a sense, it was grounded and very much in the world as we know it. But, it’s also really jam-packed with a lot of massive, massive action scenes mixed with deep focus on character. That’s what’s really exciting about this. We’re getting to keep it in the world of the movies, so it’s recognizable that way, but at the same time, these characters are getting so much more mileage for all of us to explore them. We can put them in situations that we’ve never been able to put them in before because you now have six hours as opposed to two. It’s always a discovery.”
Stan’s words don’t necessarily offer any new information about the series, but that’s understandable as Marvel likes to keep everything a secret for as long as possible. However, Stan is a consistent advocate for Bucky’s character both on screen and off. He shows his love for the character he portrays through meaningful conversations with fans and celebratory Instagram posts on Bucky’s birthday. To know that Sebastian Stan sees more growth happening with a character who greatly deserves it is proof enough that TFATWS will be great for Bucky Barnes fans.
The interview provides some insight on Stan’s thoughts about the ending of Avengers: Endgame, including why Sam is deserving of the infamous shield and why it wasn’t the best fit for Bucky. It exemplifies how well Stan knows his character, so definitely check it out.
Anthony Mackie participated in Variety’s Actors on Actors series to discuss his work on Altered Carbon and Black Mirror with Daveed Diggs (Snowpiercer). When the conversation shifted to TFATWS, Mackie shared the same sentiments as his co-star, solidifying how large-scale the Disney+ is:
““The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” will also look like a Marvel movie. “We’re shooting it exactly like a movie…Everybody who had worked on TV before was like, ‘I’ve never worked on a TV show like this.’ The way in which we were shooting, it feels exactly like we were shooting the movie cut up into the show. So instead of a two-hour movie, a six or eight-hour movie.”
We’ve heard from other The Falcon and the Winter Soldier cast members since March. Daniel Brühl spoke about his return as Baron Zemo in an interview with Collider. He had nothing but kind words to say about his co-stars and the experience so far. This marks Brühl’s return to Marvel after his debut in the 2016 film Captain America: Civil War. Brühl spoke about that infamous shot on his Instagram that fans got a first look of at SDCC last year. He said, “I remember that Kari Skogland, the director, came to Budapest and we recorded something with me being Zemo, and I was very happy and enthusiastic to see the mask.” He’s not the only one, we were pretty ecstatic, too.
Over a month later, Sebastian Stan knew we were starved of news and gave us a beautiful and poignant Instagram post. Not only does this post give us some much-needed Bucky content, it also makes us nostalgic for last year. This photo may not look like a clue for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on first glance, but a closer look at the dog tags around Stan’s neck proves otherwise. Stan shared those same dog tags in an Instagram story in November of 2019. Bucky fans will recognize them as the ones he wore during the war.
The social media posts don’t stop there. Stan posted an iconic photo on Instagram just last week, on September 14th. This photo confirms that TFATWS is back in production but staying safe all the while. It also lets fans know that Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie are just as goofy as they’ve always been. It’ll be a real gift when we can finally see them on screen together again!
The antics continued when Anthony Mackie posted the very photo on Twitter that Stan took in the aforementioned post. These black and white photos are sneaky because they hide all the little details in their suits. However, the pictures look cool in black and white, so we can’t argue with their choice. Plus, this only amplifies the anticipation of seeing their suits in HD for the first time. Hopefully we’ll be discussing a TFATWS trailer soon enough.
On another note, there’s been quite a debate about the true meaning of Mackie’s hashtag. Some believe it says ‘Winter Soldier Shot,’ since Stan did take the photo. Others read it as ‘Winter Soldier’s Hot.’ Honestly, we’ll take either.
WandaVision
In a twist of events, WandaVision is set to be the first Marvel Disney+ series to stream on the platform. This resulted in a quick turnaround of content after quite a few months of a drought. There were a few things here and there over the last few months, though. For example, Kat Dennings spoke with People back in July and answered some questions about WandaVision. Similarly to Daniel Brühl, the Disney+ series serves as Dennings return to the Marvel Universe. We last saw her character Darcy Lewis, a political science student, in Thor: The Dark World in 2013. Dennings can’t tease much, but she does say, “I think anyone who likes Darcy will be really happy.” Check out her comments in full:
Everything happened much faster this month. We are experiencing a WandaVision overload, and it’s the absolute best. Just in case you missed any of it, we’ll fill you in. The first WandaVision trailer premiered on September 20th during the 2020 Emmys. It stands apart from the footage we got during the Super Bowl teaser back in February. Much to our delight, a slightly longer trailer debuted on the show’s official social media accounts.
Marvel released a poster and stills from the series that same night. The stills are moments from the trailer, which is actually exciting because that means there is still so much to see from WandaVision. This is a TV show we don’t want spoiled! That sentiment only grows after reading Paul Bettany and Loki’s showrunner Michael Waldron’s tweets about the show.
Loki
Loki is still a ways away with its premiere date being Spring 2021, but that doesn’t mean that we’re short on news about the series. Loki fans are some of the most dedicated Marvel fans, and they’ll be pleased to know that the Disney+ show will only give them more reasons to love Loki.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw gave Entertainment Tonight an exclusive scoop about Loki, which includes her excitement in working with director Kate Herron. Of course much of Mbatha-Raw’s involvement on the show is still a secret, but Deadline described her role as the “female lead.”
Here’s some of what Mbatha-Raw told Entertainment Tonight in July:
“It goes to other places and you get to see [Loki] mature in a different way…It’s going to be exciting for the fans to really see Tom and that character take the center of the story.”
As Marvel fans, we adapt to getting as little information as possible about upcoming projects and really delving into the details of what we do know. Mbatha-Raw’s description of the series sounds like a Loki fan’s dream! Tom Hiddleston’s work with Chris Hemsworth is always a treat, but it will be entirely different to see how Hiddleston’s Loki exists without that counterpart. In fact, Loki’s new partner is the Tesseract. That much we know from Loki’s antics in Avengers: Endgame and the description of the series.
Hawkeye
There still isn’t a lot of Hawkeye news at the moment. Marvel Studios Director of Visual Development & Concept Artist, Andy Park, used that as a chance to give fans the content they needed. In early August, Park shared concept art of Kate Bishop for the upcoming Hawkeye show. It can also be seen in the Expanding the Universe featurette on Disney+.
The outfit Kate Bishop wears in this art is reminiscent of the comics, which makes the prospect of her live-action costume all the more exciting. There’s still no word on who will be cast to bring this incredible character to the small screen, but there have been plenty of rumors about who should wield the bow. There’s still plenty of time for all of Hawkeye’s news to come about because, as announced at SDCC 2019, the series isn’t set to stream until Fall 2021.
She-Hulk
Despite its track to premiere after Hawkeye, we actually casting news for She-Hulk before we have any news about Hawkeye. Deadline reported on September 17th that Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) was cast as the titular character. Maslany joins Kat Coiro as director and Jessica Gao (Rick and Morty) as head writer.
Maslany will portray Jennifer Walters, an attorney and Bruce Banner’s cousin. An accident requires an emergency blood transfusion from Bruce that gives Jennifer powers. However, they manifest differently for Jennifer than Bruce/Hulk, because Jennifer maintains her personality and intelligence when she Hulks out.
Bruce Banner/Hulk himself, Mark Ruffalo, tweeted congratulations to the newest member of the Marvel family:
We know Tatiana Maslany is going to be a great Jennifer Walters. It’s a shame we have to wait so long to see her take on the role. At least we know we have these other shows to obsess over until then!
What are you most excited to see from the Marvel series on Disney+? Let us know in the comments below!
