The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Spoilery TV Spot Unmasks Erin Kellyman’s Flag Smasher

“They’re guys you gotta worry about.” The anarchist Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman) is unmasked in the latest TV spot for Marvel Studios original series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. In the series premiere, “New World Order,” USAF lieutenant Joaquín Torres (Danny Ramirez) alerts Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) to an emerging threat: an anti-nationalist group who call themselves the Flag Smashers. After stumbling across their manifestos on message boards, Torres discovers the Flag Smashers want a world that’s unified without borders and believe things were better during the Blip — the five years where half of all humanity was snapped out of existence by Thanos (Josh Brolin).

In a new look at the remaining five episodes of Falcon and Winter Soldier, James ‘Bucky’ Barnes (Sebastian Stan) chases down the masked Flag Smasher. She’s unmasked when we see next see Morgenthau holding a child during a funeral, possibly Morgenthau’s father. In the Marvel comic books, the costumed Flag Smasher is Karl Morgenthau, the son of a peace-seeking Swiss diplomat who is killed when a political demonstration becomes chaotic and violent.

Vowing to achieve world peace by forcibly abolishing all nations with a uniformed group called U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M. (Underground Liberated Totally Integrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind), Karl Morgenthau battles Captain America when he uses his resources to transform himself into the anti-nationalist and terrorist called Flag Smasher.

“The comics are a great source, but our stories are unique,” director Kari Skogland told Entertainment Weekly. “They might draw from the comics, but they aren’t actually in the comics so our characters can be unique and evolved and not be tied. We’re not duplicating a story and we’re not duplicating a character. That means if we come up with a group and we need a name for them, then, yes, we might go deep and find something that’s relevant.”

Series creator Malcolm Spellman teases that “people think they know” what’s going on with the masked anarchists seen robbing a Swiss bank in a nod to Morgenthau’s comic book history — but “they don’t.”

“All the villains in this series believe they are heroes,” Spellman said. “They can eloquate what they’re fighting for in a way that even the heroes are like, ‘Damn! That is a really, really good point,’ because they all exist in a world that’s very similar to the world we exist in today. Thanos has been dispatched and half the population has disappeared and come back. That’s created a global crisis, just like the global crisis today. And from that global crisis are these various antagonists born, but they’re responding to something the heroes also agree with and the citizens of the world are like, ‘Hey, man, this is a tough situation. Maybe they’re not wrong.’”

He added: “That conflict leads to some pretty amazing scenes because what do you do when the heroes identify with the villains?”

New episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premiere Fridays on Disney+.

Want to learn more about the latest Marvel Studios series? Check back on ComicBook CRAM to learn more about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and click here for even more articles and videos to find out everything you need to know about the new show!

If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here. Note: If you purchase one of the awesome, independently chosen products featured here, we may earn a small commission from the retailer. Thank you for your support.