How The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Finale Sets Up Marvel's Thunderbolts

If you've watched The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, you're very well aware by now the series has served as a launchpad of sorts for all kinds of future storytelling within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. From the introduction of yet another Captain America — a move that has already led to the development of Captain America 4 — and a heel turn for Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) most everyone saw coming, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier continued to set up the Thunderbolts, Marvel's very own team made up of anti-heroes and villains.

We've said time and time again a Thunderbolts property is inevitable at some point in the near future of the MCU, and the finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier proved that. Naturally, the episode ends with John Walker (Wyatt Russell) getting his own superhero moniker and uniform, all thanks to Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) — and that's only the tip of the iceberg.

Not only that, but Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl) is alive and well on The Raft, a prison that he'll eventually break out of before too long if his jailbreak in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was any indication. We haven't even brought Carter into the mix yet either, even though she was just revealed to be the Power Broker, a global arms dealer based in Madripoor.

With someone like de Fontaine at the helm, plus a surplus of villains we've already met within the MCU that have yet to meet their demise, the future is bright for a team-up like the Thunderbolts. After all, even Kevin Feige has said someone like Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) could reappear in the future at some point.

"It varies," Feige began. "In this case, the story was always – spoiler! – to keep her around. This was not the story of defeating a villain and everybody cheering. This is a different kind of villain story. When and where – in the tag, he mentions 'his new Ghost friend' – is something we'll see. But there's nothing better than struggling over the decision about what characters to bring into a movie, casting those characters, writing and putting them together in a way that works in the movie, and then have audiences go 'we love them, when are we going to see them again?' Shuri for sure is a great example of that. So with Ghost it is, step one: complete. As for step two, we'll see where we go with that."

Watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+.

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