The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Just Opened the Door to Luke Cage's MCU Return

After weeks of speculating upon the arrival of new characters in WandaVision — of which, little to no fan theories actually panned out — the latest episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier did what it could to introduce a handful of new characters ripped straight from the Marvel Comics mythos. Right out of the gates, the episode gives John Walker (Wyatt Russell) a proper introduction as the new Captain America, before introducing his very own sidekick Battlestar (Cle Bennett).

Then there was the arrival of Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), an introduction that unlocked a separate corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and an entirely new mythos, people never got to see before. It's here the foundation could have been laid to reintroduce Luke Cage to the masses as part of the proper MCU.

As teased in the series, Bradley was given a version of the Super Soldier Serum, turning him into an American asset used in the Korean War. Though his comics origin — which you can read about in this excellent Truth piece from ComicBook.com's Aaron Perine — differs slightly time-wise from what we see in the show, everything else largely remains intact. He was wrongfully imprisoned and subsequently experimented on by the United States government.

It's an origin story similar to that of Power Man, another character that was imprisoned and experimented on, granting them superhuman abilities against their will. In fact, there have even been scientific studies done by scholars comparing the origins of both Bradley and Cage to the Tuskegee syphilis experiments.

Though the two don't necessarily share a definitive relationship in the source material save from a passing reference or interaction, we know by now the Marvel Cinematic Universe changes the origins of characters and events to make everything have a stronger connection to the ever-growing world. That's why it's possible for the introduction of Bradley to not only lead directly to the introduction of his grandson Eli but also of Luke Cage and other powered characters.

Much like WandaVision before it, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has fleshed the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+.

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