Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Erin Kellyman’s Flag-Smasher Is a “Reinvention” of the Marvel Comics Villain

Forget what you know about Flag-Smasher: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier star Erin Kellyman says her Karli Morgenthau is a total "reinvention" of the masked Marvel Comics villain. In the Marvel comic books, the costumed Flag-Smasher is an anti-nationalist freedom fighter named Karl Morgenthau who wages war on patriotism after his father is killed during a riot. The Marvel Cinematic Universe's Morgenthau is the leader of the Flag Smashers, an anti-patriotism group of masked fighters who think that the world was better during the Blip — the five years where half of all humanity was snapped out of existence by Thanos (Josh Brolin).

"I'm looking at it as a reinvention. I think they are quite different," Kellyman told Screen Rant about MCU's Karli and Marvel's Karl. "There are some similarities, don't get me wrong. I think Karl is in there somewhere. But what I took from the script was that she is quite different and their drive is a little bit more different, and their experiences are a little bit different as well."

"I didn't actually read the comics, I researched Karl himself. I didn't want to dive too deep because I did get the vibe that they were going to be different from what Kari [Skogland, director] had said on our Facetimes and things," Kellyman added. "And so I didn't want to base my entire performance off the comics because it is a reinvention and they are very different, so I didn't want to think about that too much. I instead took the scripts and kind of used that as my research."

Morgenthau's mission has already put her into conflict with the Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and James 'Bucky' Barnes (Sebastian Stan) — as well as the government-backed duo of Captain America (Wyatt Russell) and Battlestar (Clé Bennett) — with the revelation that the Flag Smashers are powered by a version of the Super Soldier Serum.

"I hope that people understand her," Kellyman previously told ComicBook.com about her masked mystery character. "So, I guess, if you're understanding someone, then you may be rooting for them. There's a lot of layers to Karli and I think it... yeah. It's not so simple as being black and white. She's this middle section, you know?"

Starring Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Emily VanCamp, Wyatt Russell, Erin Kellyman, Danny Ramirez, Clé Bennett, and Daniel Brühl, new episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premiere Fridays only on Disney+.

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