The Falcon And The Winter Soldier showrunner teases Sharon Carter's evolution and Zemo's motives
After an action-packed premiere, Marvel’s latest Disney+ series, The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, will continue to expand its world when it returns with a new episode on Friday. Ahead of the series’ second outing, we chatted with showrunner Malcolm Spellman and director Kari Skogland about what fans can expect for the rest of the six-episode season.
Those conversations are now available as part of the latest episode of The A.V. Club’s podcast Push The Envelope. You can hear the full conversation on the episode below—which also includes our thoughts on who will win the TV categories at the upcoming SAG Awards—or read a few excerpts from our chat with Spellman below.
The A.V. Club: Beyond just Falcon and Winter Soldier, the show also features some characters from previous Marvel projects, like Sharon Carter and Zemo and a few unnamed others. As a writer, who were you most excited to have come back, and to be able to investigate?
Malcom Spellman: The character that turned into the most fun was Sharon Carter, because Emily [VanCamp] has such a baby face. She looks very sweet and innocent, but Sharon Carter is going to emerge as a badass. I’d have to use far more inappropriate language to describe how awesome she is. Let’s just say this: Sharon Carter is all grown up now. I guess what made it so fun was we started getting to know Sharon in Captain America: Civil War, and you just factor in what would have naturally happened between Civil War and now and you get a whole different Sharon Carter showing up.
AVC: In some ways, the Avengers are “law enforcement.” They are, in the purest sense of the word, enforcing laws. That being said, they’re sort of the best version of law enforcement. As we’ve seen in the movies, often when too many hands get involved, the mission gets mucked up, and power corrupts. How do you view where superheroes are in terms of being the protectors of what’s right and what’s wrong?
MS:It’s funny. The Zemo character is going to lend a lot of voice to that. You can see what he thinks of it. Obviously, all of us are channeled through him a little bit in that Zemo sees all of them as supremacists, and he thinks that people who are endowed with abilities that are extraordinary—like law enforcement or in this case, heroes—are inherently going to abuse their power, and he has a damn good reason to think that. They destroyed his country by using his city as a bomb and killed his entire family along with everyone he knew.
Listen to our full conversations with Spellman and Skogland on Push The Envelope. If you’re a fan, don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe wherever you get you podcasts. Thus ends our shameless plug.