Falcon and the Winter Soldier Won't Be 8 Hours Long, Says Kevin Feige

Expectations are high for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+, as the series will finally reveal what's next for the legacy of Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the six-episode series has caused fans to anticipate a long adventure in the MCU that will rival the runtime of the Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame saga. But fans shouldn't get their hopes up, especially after the short episodic content of WandaVision. While Falcon actor Anthony Mackie might have promised an "eight-hour movie," Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is preparing fans to temper their expectations.

During an interview with SciFiNow+, Feige spoke about the runtime for the episodes of the upcoming series. While addressing The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Feige revealed new details about the length of the show.

"Not quite eight hours, but yes. It all comes down to the storytelling. I guess the short answer is we don't distinguish it too much," said Feige. "The bar is set high for the features and for the series, and we try to exceed that bar every time. Obviously, the week-to-week unveiling gives us opportunities, as we're now seeing with WandaVision for sure. But we're building the shows to be experienced that way, the way we build our features to be experienced in a run, and sometimes they have tags that hint at the future. It's fun to be able to do that week-to-week in series programming. But other than that, it's very much the same high bar that we try to set for ourselves and want to meet the expectations that the audience has when they go to a theatre to see one of our films or when they now turn on Disney+."

Feige spoke about the opportunity to dive deeper into some characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Heroes like the Falcon and the Winter Soldier haven't had the opportunity to receive the spotlight, but all of that changes in a big way on Disney+.

"Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan are spectacular actors that we felt like we hadn't explored their stories or their backstories or their personal stories enough as Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes," Feige said. "So it was always the thought that we wanted to learn more about both of them. And in the little interactions they had with each other in [Captain America: The Winter Soldier], in [Captain America: Civil War] – from the dailies of Civil War, seeing them interact with each other as friends of a mutual best friend in Captain America, it was a very fun dynamic. We thought if we ever had that opportunity, we'd watch a whole show with the two of them, and Disney+ finally gives us that opportunity"

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premieres on Disney+ on Friday, March 19th.