All language subtitles for Marvel.Studios.Assembled.S01E02.WEBRip.x264-ION10

SAM: A few months ago, billions of people
reappeared after five years away.

We need new heroes.

Ones suited for the times we're in.

Symbols are nothing without
the women and men that give them meaning.

And this thing, I don't know
if there's ever been a greater symbol.

But it's more about the man
who propped it up,

and he's gone.

So, today we honor Steve's legacy.
But also, we look to the future...

and the fights that await us there.

When Disney Plus was announced,
we realized there was an opportunity

to interweave a cinematic universe
with the television universe,

which had never been done before.

We knew if we could nail it,
that's what would make this unique.

These characters can continue
to be developed

in a way that we oftentimes
don't have time to do in films

and then launch right back
into that feature universe,

so that it's truly connected
for the first time.

ZOIE NAGELHOUT: I think
for Nate and I, it was very obvious

that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
would be

the perfect thing for this kind of format.

FALCON: Look at you.
All stealthy. (CHUCKLES)

A little time in Wakanda
and you come out White Panther.

-It's actually White Wolf.
-Huh?

NAGELHOUT: With, quite frankly, not a ton
of screen time throughout the movies,

they have become beloved.

What the hell is that?

Everyone's got a gimmick now.

NAGELHOUT: And with the little bit of time
they've interacted,

have sort of created this
interesting buddy-cop tumultuous dynamic

that was so worth exploring.

Can you move your seat up?

No.

From the outset,
the goal was to be very grounded.

Endgame was the battle of the titans

in a universe that was
from a stellar place.

So, the swing of the bat here
was to bring all of that

into a very relatable,
very grounded character place,

so that really the super side of it
became embedded in character.

But it was also embedded
in a very real world.

This is a moment
where you really could drop it all.

And we should feel
like that's going through your mind.

-ERIN KELLYMAN: Mmm-hmm.
-And therefore he needs to tell her...

You know, you're feeling, like,
"I might have her now,"

and so you can relax your body.
And then boom.

So you kinda sucker punch him, right?

ANTHONY MACKIE: Kari's been great.
I think once you see this series,

you'll realize the emotional depth
of these characters.

It's more of a drama than anything else.

Kari was able to make us less macho

and put machismo in the series

with all the fighting and special effects

-and explosions and all that stuff.
-(SCREAMS)

Not exactly a badass.

-(MACKIE LAUGHS)
-What?

MACKIE: But also show
the emotional construct

that makes everyone an individual.

SKOGLAND: It was very important
to me, and I think to everybody

to explore what it means
to be a hero in today's world.

If in the past, in the MCU,

being a hero was very much related
to being a soldier and being a warrior,

the new hero is not that.

The new hero is really a first responder,

and so it was embedded
in our journey for both characters.

Walker! Help me!

SEBASTIAN STAN: I think she just saw this

as two regular guys
trying to find their way

and the main thing that stood out to me
was this new kind of way of shooting

where she would capture
the characters' inner thoughts and so on.

And I thought that was really interesting.

So, now that you've stopped fighting,
what do you want?

Peace.

That is utter bull...

MALCOLM SPELLMAN: As soon as you step into
the second floor of the Marvel building,

it really does make you feel like

you've stepped into something
that's bigger than you.

Kevin and the rest of the Marvel team's
mandate of, "This cannot be TV,"

it has to feel like a movie,

but the storytelling
is inherently spread out.

I felt particularly equipped to do that.

I always say,
"You break stories two ways."

You break 'em vertically,
which is by each episode,

then, horizontally.

And that horizontal break with
the characters and their relationships,

every iteration of show we did,
that maintained and actually got stronger.

Enjoy your ride, Buck.

No, no, no, no, you can't call me that.

-Why? That's what Steve called you.
-Steve knew me longer and he had a plan.

When we were talking
about the idea for the show,

Malcolm Spellman said the thing
that resonated for him the most

with the end of Endgame was Sam's line,

"It feels like it's someone else's,"
and the notion of legacy.

STEVE: How does it feel?

Like it's someone else's.

It isn't.

(SIGHS)

NAGELHOUT: That line became sort of
the backbone of Sam's arc.

And it was very clear to us that if we're
gonna tell a story over six hours,

we owe it to both that mantle
and that symbol and that character

to dissect it from every angle

before he can arc
to a place where he's evolved.

I'd felt like we would be dishonest
to the fans and dishonest to,

just on a human level,

if we had this Black man
just accept this symbol

without having real ambivalence about it.

And we knew that that was gonna be
crucial to Sam's burden.

As a Black man in America,

to take on the stars and stripes
and wear that proudly,

that's not something
that Sam Wilson would do out of the box.

The notion of exploring
what Blackness means in America

was kind of the hypothesis of the show,

and the notion of legacy was something

that both Sam and Bucky,
in the show, explore.

Maybe this is something
you or Steve will never understand.

But can you accept
that I did what I thought was right?

MACKIE: When you think Captain America,

you think of
a very specific brand of person.

There are so many different lines,
so many different avenues,

so many realities
that we have to live in every day

to be a successful Black man
in our society.

You know, you can't be the same person
every room you walk in.

It's a hard duality
that you have to live in

and sometimes specifically,
for somebody like Sam,

you have to ask yourself,
"Are you willing to deal with it?"

KID: Hey, it's Black Falcon. What's up?
SAM: It's just Falcon, kid.

I mean, I think 2020 and COVID,
if nothing else,

have proven how difficult it is
to be a Black man in America.

It's not a new understanding or experience
for anybody Black.

-Hey, is this guy bothering you?
-No, he's not bothering me.

Do you know who this is?

(WHISPERS) Hey, these guys are Avengers.

Oh, God, I am so sorry, Mr. Wilson.

(CHUCKLES NERVOUSLY) I didn't
recognize you without the goggles.

MACKIE: With Sam picking up the shield,

it's such a representation of
the country that we live in,

you know, there's a lot of trepidation

as far as, "How does a Black man represent
a country that does not represent him?"

SPELLMAN: We knew the journey
that Sam was gonna go on

was going to be particularly rough for him

just because of the fact
that he is a Black superhero, right?

Well, Anthony's backstory
is rooted in Louisiana,

and we merged some of that so that
it could become really, really personal.

Then they start telling you
what they've done with the characters,

and from that a whole life is born.

I told you specifically
that the water pump

was not the problem,
and yet, here you are.

In our defense, we were supposed to
have this done way before you woke up.

I don't come up to the sky to tell you
how to barrel roll or whatever,

so you don't come down here
and start messing around with things

-you clearly don't understand.
-Wow...

MACKIE: You know, Adepero came in and gave
an amazing performance as my sister

and really gave that character a backbone
that kind of defined the entire history

of what this character, Sam Wilson,
really is from Winter Soldier till now.

-I thought you said you're a pilot.
-I never said pilot.

MACKIE: You see how all of that became
this man from where he was from.

I've enjoyed learning
who Sam Wilson truly is.

What would be the point
of all the pain and sacrifice

if I wasn't willing to stand up
and keep fightin'?

NAGELHOUT: Sam's search for identity
is about his future

and Bucky's search for identity
is about his past.

And for Bucky, what we don't want to do

is abandon ten years of storytelling.

It was really important that we tackle
those ten years of storytelling

and allow Bucky to process
the events of his life

in a way that he hasn't had time to
in the two hour stories

that he's been a part of.

MOORE: When we were
making First Avenger,

there are always ideas
of what could happen one day

if we were so lucky to make a sequel.

You're trying
to get that movie right the first time.

You're not sure where this will lead.

Sergeant Barnes,
you are to be the new fist of HYDRA.

MOORE: We'd be lying to say we didn't talk
about where Bucky could go,

but we didn't know how far we could
take him and where he might end up.

When you see Sebastian
portraying the Winter Soldier,

which to us was even an extra level,

we knew there was
something to explore there.

-What did I do?
-Enough.

Oh, God. I knew this would happen.

Everything HYDRA
put inside me is still there.

MOORE: The relationship
between Bucky and Steve

is so dramatic and so filled with pathos,

if you think about it,

the only person who had believed in Bucky
in the MCU up to this point

was Steve Rogers.

Well, now Steve Rogers is gone.

Bucky feels unmoored in this series
and is looking for his purpose.

That shield's the closest thing
I've got left to a family.

So when you retired it,

it made me feel like I had nothing left.

What was challenging for me
was the balance between

introducing the characters in a new way,

and yet making you still be aware
of where they come from. You know?

I always think with these movies,
every time I come back,

I'm always thinking,

"Okay, what if a fan sits down and watches

Captain America: First Avenger,
Winter Soldier, Civil War,

The Avengers, now this,

are they gonna be able to see
that same character throughout,

and then see that character
evolve in new ways

but still be the same character?"

I am no longer the Winter Soldier.

I'm James Bucky Barnes.

And you're part of my efforts
to make amends.

How does this character
now function in the world?

What's his life going back to Brooklyn?

How is he meeting people?
How is he interacting at coffee shops?

Is he dating?
Is he thinking about another career?

Look, you've gotta nurture friendships.

I am the only person
you have called all week.

-That is so sad.
-(THUDS)

Bucky got this line in the show
where he tells the shrink...

I had a little...

calm in Wakanda.

And other than that, I just went
from one fight to another for 90 years.

SPELLMAN: So the series is now
his first chance to deal with that,

whether or not
he really is a killer in his DNA,

whether or not he can be a hero, right?

Like, "Am I even cut out?"

STAN: There's always gonna be
a dark side to this character

which I always loved,

and is, to me, what made him
more interesting and complex.

And, you know, like, life,
I feel like that doesn't go away.

It's still there in a way.

He's learning how to deal with that
a little more.

Bucky is very much trying to come to grips
with the things that he has done

that can't be undone.

And Sam Wilson becomes
a big part of his journey

towards figuring out who Bucky Barnes is
outside of the Winter Soldier moniker.

You up for a little tough love?

You want to climb out
of that hell you're in,

do the work.

Do it.

I've been making amends.

Nah. You weren't amending,
you were avenging.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

"Don't worry about me.
Just keep on doin' what you're doing."

That's not me, that's in the script.

(SNICKERS)

SKOGLAND: The Winter Soldier and Falcon
are incredibly watchable

as a reluctant team
who are out to save the world, frankly.

-Hey, John!
-(SNICKERS)

How'd you find us this time?

-I really wanted to do it like that.
-(LAUGHS)

STAN: You broke my thing.

SKOGLAND: It's been not just fun,

but also very emotionally charged at times
as we explore this.

Because it's one thing to see it on paper

and then, as you know,
Sebastian and Anthony

get a hold of the material,

they embrace it and embody it in a way

that we can't possibly have imagined.

So, every day a scene unfolds,

that is something I didn't anticipate
and it always gets better.

I gotta say,
this is a very Bad Boys II shot.

This was a two-hander.

Two-hander don't mean
just these two characters.

There's a spirit and an energy
that comes from a two-hander.

Like here's the spectrum, right?

Defiant Ones. 48 Hrs.

This... And comedy's over here, right?

48 Hrs., Lethal Weapon.

Then comes Rush Hour, Ride Along
and so on, right?

We knew we wanted to be
somewhere near Lethal Weapon.

It's time for the soul gazing exercise.

I like this one.

He's gonna love this.

-Yeah, I'm ready.
-Just face each other.

You should really enjoy this.

STAN: I really do genuinely love
working with Anthony.

I mean, like there are definitely days
where I feel like he's gonna kill me.

Um... Not physically. Just like
his presence. You know? (CHUCKLES)

MACKIE: We have to get it with the light.

All right, just wanna make sure we're...

It establishes the location.
This is his first movie.

(WIND BLOWING)

Yolo!

The two of them are so good
at bouncing off of each other

and going on a path of discovery.

(WHISPERS) Make sure
you record all of this.

MAN: Quiet!

SKOGLAND: And Daniel Brühl the same,
oh, my gosh.

The three of them together
are at times so hilarious,

I have to kind of pull them all back
and remind them, "Wait a sec.

"We can't be having
this much fun." (LAUGHS)

MOORE: In the
Falcon and Winter Soldier writers' room,

we were inspired by key art
done from Civil War of Zemo.

That was very much on the wall.

How do we get this

great iconography again
back into the show?

And Zemo, the character, in Civil War,

is a complicated
and interesting character,

'cause he's a villain,
but his point of view is very defensible.

I'm here because I made a promise.

You lost someone?

I lost everyone.

He was fighting
to avenge these people he loved.

It came from a place of love,

even if it manifested in this horrible,
tragic way,

it was important for us to maintain
that layered complexity of the character.

It took me two days
until I found their bodies.

My father...

still holding my wife and son in his arms.

(SIGHS)

And the Avengers?

They went home.

We would've
always have tried to figure out

how to get Zemo into the show,

but the truth is
as we started to build the story,

there was a very natural way
to slide him in.

You are assuming
HYDRA has something to do with this...

which is why you came to me,
which means you are desperate.

Luckily for you, I know where to begin.

I was very excited when I got the call
to come back and to read those scripts,

in which you have a lot of meaty scenes
and time to spend with Zemo.

He was a charismatic
and pivotal role

in Captain America: Civil War.

You know, back then I thought
I'd like to know more about him

and explore this character more.

I loved playing him,

but there was
that slight bittersweet feeling

at the very end when I finished,
thinking like,

"Oh, man, now I've played this guy,
but I never wore this mask."

(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING)

STAN: (CHUCKLES) He really
blows me away in this thing

because he found
a whole different side of Zemo

that you didn't even see coming.

So all this time you've been rich?

I'm a baron, Sam.

My family was royalty
until your friends destroyed my country.

STAN: And he's really made this character
so dynamic and funny and different.

And there's a very human side to Zemo
that's really cool.

NAGELHOUT: John Walker
was sort of an obvious choice

for us to include in the series,

not only because of his connection
to the publishing run,

but also because he feeds
directly into the conversation

about what the shield means today.

And he embodies a genuine desire
to be good and to do good,

but that's not enough to be Cap.

The serum never corrupted Steve.

Touché.

But there has never been
another Steve Rogers, has there?

MOORE: Wyatt was an interesting choice
because a lot of his work,

he plays, the stoner-slacker
with the long hair and the beard.

But what we found in reading him,
is there is an energy,

there's an edge to him

that neither Sam Wilson
nor Bucky Barnes has.

And we felt that was important

so that John Walker stood apart
from these two characters.

To some degree,
Walker is coming into the show

with a chip on his shoulder
to prove that he is worthy of this mantle.

Just 'cause you carry that shield,
it doesn't mean you're Captain America.

I've done the work.

I gravitate towards characters
who need to make difficult decisions

and they have to be one thing

while trying simultaneously
to toe the line over to the other.

You already have three Medals of Honor.

You consistently make the right decisions
in the heat of battle.

Yep.

Three badges of excellence to make sure
I never forget the worst day of my life.

I had no idea the character I was playing.

I was excited
to be a part of this Marvel thing.

So I had no idea that I was actually
going to be an integral character at all.

They were like
"Well, actually, you're Lemar Hoskins."

(LAUGHS) And I was like
"Shoot! I know Lemar Hoskins."

'Cause I literally have the comic books.
I have them.

I have the editions that he's in.

You know, that famous one,

the Captain America one,
him and they're on the cover, I have that.

All right, so I was just totally psyched.

And I was like, "I hope I get a suit.
I hope they make me a suit."

The costume puts you in,
like, that superhero posture.

That sort of feels weird
if you just do it on your own.

A word of advice then,

stay the hell out of my way.

MICHAEL CROW: There's a lot
of similarities, construction-wise,

with John Walker's costume and all the
previous Captain America costumes.

I wanted to keep continuity
of feeling and look.

So we used a lot of the same prints
and the fabrics

and colors that we've used before.

I think we did tweak the red a little bit

and made it a little brighter

and patriotic
than some of the previous costumes.

Definitely, definitely helped the attitude
of the character

'cause it was just
a little bit more arrogant

than I think that I would've been
if I hadn't had a little help.

SKOGLAND: It's really important, I think,
that when setting up a world,

you get into the characterization
as quickly as possible.

And they both explored
the conundrum of being a soldier,

and how difficult it is to walk the lines
of following orders

as well as doing the right thing.

I killed him because I had to.

He killed Lemar.

BENNETT: Lemar
is his voice of reason, right?

And then all of a sudden, he's gone.

First, there's a lot of vengeance
'cause you've killed my best friend,

but then there's a raging insecurity
that just takes over.

RUSSELL: He wants to represent the shield
the best way that he possibly can.

And the really interesting part is

in his mind, he kinda did
because that's what he was trained to do.

(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)

These boots are not made for walkin'.

MOORE: Typically, we go back to publishing
and look for characters

that thematically matched the things
we're trying to do in the show

and then put our own Marvel spin on them.

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

Actually, it's
Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

I know it's hard,
but I don't like to repeat myself,

so you can just call me Val.

We needed a character
to be this sort of "Nick Fury",

but shady type,
to sort of enter John's world.

First of all, the name alone,

Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine
is just...

I mean, they had me there,
just with the name, to be honest with you.

You did the right thing taking the serum.

Yeah, of course I know about that.
And I'll tell you something.

It has made you very,
very valuable to certain people.

LOUIS-DREYFUS: Whether she's a good guy
or a bad guy remains to be seen.

She's sort of living in a gray zone,
I think.

Couldn't have planned it better myself.

Maybe I did. No, I didn't.
I'm just kidding. Or am I?

LOUIS-DREYFUS:
I like the idea of a female mastermind.

I think it's about time.

She's about three steps ahead of everyone.
And that's gobs of fun to play.

Things are about to get very weird.

And, you know, when they do,
we're not gonna need a Captain America.

WALKER: No.

You know what we're gonna need?

A U.S. Agent.

How do you want the rest
of this conversation to go, Sam, huh?

Yeah. (CHUCKLES SOFTLY)

Should I put down the shield?

-Make it fair?
-(SCOFFS)

So, we're on Zemo's apartment set,

which we built specifically for Zemo,

also to accommodate a big fight sequence
that we do in here when the Dora show up.

(WALKER GRUNTING)

BRAD MARTIN: We started off
training our actors here.

They do as much as they can,
they learn as much as they can,

and perform as much
as they're able to on camera,

and that's what everybody wants to see,
our actors, our heroes doing the action.

All right, so that's where you stab.
And then I'll count you in.

And three, two, one, stab.

It's an organic hand-to-hand combat,
but they got those spears, man.

When you're choreographing the fight scene
with spears, you can't fake.

A spear is a spear. You're gonna...
(LAUGHS) You know what I'm sayin'?

MARTIN: Working with the Marvel actors

that have done these characters
makes things way easier.

They know the deal. They know
what their characters do in general.

MACKIE: (GROANS) Oh, God.

In terms of the ease and efficiency,

working on a set than working on a stage

is always easier, always faster,
always more controllable.

-That's what you need to do.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

You need to control all the elements
when you're making big action.

So we had three of the Dora,
we had all of our guys.

The room was filled with our characters.

And then everybody
is smashing everybody else.

(CHUCKLES) So it was a lot of fun.

(BOTH GRUNTING)

Bast damn you, James.

NAGELHOUT: It was, in my opinion,
a complete no-brainer

to include the Wakandans.

I mean, Florence Kasumba is just a force.

Any time I get to play Ayo,
it's always like a Christmas present.

Because it actually doesn't really matter
where I would have to work.

I'm always excited.

Most of the time,
when I get the phone call,

I don't even know the story.

I only know
that I will play the character,

but I don't really know what's happening.

And, like the audience, I'm excited
'cause I have no idea.

I will have to read the books and train.

I just got used to the fact that
when I get the phone call,

I will always be ready to function,

because I train the whole year,

and am in contact with the other women,
for example, who played the Dora Milaje.

And we exchange, and everybody
still continues doing other projects.

But at the end of the day, the minute
you put on the armor and the costume,

you become the character,

and that just feels like home.

I was wondering
when you were gonna show up.

(SPEAKING WAKANDAN)

NAGELHOUT: It was really important,
specifically to Kari

and to the rest of us as well,
that the actors have an opportunity

to feel the location
and to be there in real life.

We had planned to go to Puerto Rico
for part of the shoot,

to give the show a bit more scope
because we were based out of Atlanta.

And, unfortunately,
Puerto Rico went through

quite a sizeable earthquake
that really damaged their infrastructure.

Our plan was still to go to Puerto Rico
even after the first earthquake

because we had done a ton of research
as to the seismic activity in the area.

We knew we could get our crews
in and out quickly if we had to.

And, frankly, in talking with the experts,
even I was comfortable saying,

"Yeah, I'll go. I'll go with the crew."

Because, to me, if I'm willing to go,
that means something.

If I'm not willing to go,
but I'm gonna send other people,

that's not a choice we should be making.

We had prepped the crew
to go to Puerto Rico

in spite of the first earthquake,

and on the eve of going,
they had a second earthquake.

It came to the point where,
between all of us,

we weren't comfortable
sending anybody down there

and we wanted to bring our crew home
because we just didn't know.

So, we brought everybody back.

Right as we brought everybody back,

we regrouped, said "Where can we go now?"

We had planned Prague,

moved it to the end of the schedule

to replace the work
we were gonna do in Puerto Rico.

NAGELHOUT: We actually made it to Prague.

We pulled off
what seemed to be the impossible.

We were having a great shoot,

we were getting a lot of great locations
and performances.

And about a week into our time in Prague,

you know, the pandemic hit,

or became very real,

and caused us to shut down.

And, frankly, the bigger fear at that time
was that we would be stuck.

We called our line producer
at 2:00 in the morning for her, and said,

"We're getting everybody on flights
out of Prague at 5:00 a.m.

"You guys are leaving from 5:00 a.m.

"We're gonna start calling
every crew member

"to tell them to get their stuff together.

"We're gonna get everybody on flights.

"By 9:00 a.m.,
everybody's gonna be on these flights."

We had about 100 people there from the US
and we started flying people back.

Shutting down for COVID was a big part
of the struggle of the show.

We're glad we did, it was the right thing.

And it, weirdly,
gave us more time editorially

to really think about
what the show could be.

But it also was something
we'd never had to fight through before.

And it's a credit to our crew
that they stuck with us,

continued to make the show.

They were so invested.

Even when we came back

and COVID, obviously,
was still and is still an issue,

to figure out
how to mount the show safely,

and to travel internationally safely
was a challenge.

But it was a challenge worth doing

because I know
that it makes the show feel bigger.

SKOGLAND: I have to say,
it gave us a certain kind of energy,

which was bonding.

You know, it's a big crew
with lots of personalities.

And so, when we're all up against
such extraordinary circumstances,

it creates a brother and sisterhood
that is, I think, a bit extraordinary.

-(BOTH CHEERING)
-(ALL APPLAUDING)

Over the next, obviously, eight months,

all we were doing with Disney is trying
to come together with a task force

as to how we could restart things,
and when we'll be able to start.

We knew we had to go
back to Prague. Right?

(LAUGHS) We hadn't finished in Prague.

We had to figure out
how to make the Prague government,

the Czech government comfortable
with an American crew coming into Prague.

Because, frankly, Prague didn't have
the same incidents of COVID

that we did at the time.

Our scouting had to be virtual.

We couldn't have people
flying back and forth.

But our team rallied around

and figured out
how to mount this production.

You know, I will say,
a credit to the writers as well,

because as you're writing,
you're writing to a specific location,

which is gonna dictate a specific story

to get you into Puerto Rico
and then into Prague,

and you have to be nimble as storytellers.

And in Kari Skogland's case,
as a filmmaker,

to visually get your head
into this new place,

and to figure out how to make it work
with the stuff that we shot in Atlanta

that, frankly, was meant to match with
what we were gonna do in Puerto Rico.

There was a lot of thinking that went into

how to adjust our entire production plan

to fit the realities of the world,

but a credit to the crew
for figuring it out.

Do we want to live in a world
full of people like the Red Skull?

That is why we're going to Madripoor.

What's up with Madripoor?
You talk about it like it's Skull Island.

BRÜHL: We are in Madripoor.

Dangerous, dodgy, lawless place

where Zemo has arranged a meeting
with Selby,

who's gonna give us, hopefully,

precious information
about the super-soldier serum.

-Now that's the Zemo I remember.
-Hmm.

I'm glad I decided
not to kill you immediately.

We have to come here and it's not...

We didn't get a warm welcome.
Let's put it that way.

-And it's impressive to see...
-(THUDS)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

You see? That's what happens in Madripoor.

High Town's that way.

Not a bad place if you wanna visit,
but Low Town's the other way.

Let me guess.
We don't have any friends in High Town.

SKOGLAND: Ray Chan,
our production designer, is extraordinary,

and we looked for months,
I have to tell you.

And one day, we're standing
in a back alley of a series of crossroads,

and we looked at each other and I said,
"Do you think?"

And he said, "I think I could."

And I... "Okay. Oh, my goodness."

We started looking around
and mapping it out.

And he came up with Madripoor

in a series of back alleys
in a small town outside of Atlanta.

RAYMOND CHAN:
We want to feel the back street,

it needs to be more gritty.

Needs to feel more lawless.
It's a lawless society.

Soon as we walked into this street,
it clearly was empty,

it was just a two, three,
half a dozen buildings,

of just red brick buildings,

I thought, "This was tight.

"It felt claustrophobic.
What can I do with it?"

Several months of research,

and we found this back street in Hanoi,
in Vietnam,

where the homeowners
would step out of their back doors,

and there was this rail track

running literally two feet away
from their back door.

I thought that would be an interesting
concept to bring to this street.

And having traveled the world,
I thought this is quite iconic,

a bridge that I used to cross
in Mozambique,

this heavy industry bridge.

So I married part of Mozambique
and a bit of Vietnam.

ZEMO: Here we are.

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

CHAN: (IN ENGLISH)
This is called the Brass Monkey Bar.

It's an open bar.
You can see the stars through the ceiling.

We thought we would look at it
with the fixtures

being able to give enough light,

and, you know, not to light the set,

but to have a cool ceiling,
a geometric ceiling.

Here, to your left,
are these crazy monkey skulls.

My art director, Jennifer,

she scoured the Internet,
and we purchased three skulls,

I think from memory,

and we sent them to our staff shop,
which they cast,

I think, about 115 or 120 skulls.

And yeah, so that's a homage
to The Brass Monkey.

BARTENDER: Wasn't expecting you,
Smiling Tiger.

His plans changed.

CROW: Anthony's character, Sam,
is very straight-laced.

We play him as very, sort of,
conservative dressed.

His clothes are, sort of,
every day, every man.

I mean, we did do some crazy stuff
with him on this show,

the wild African suit,

and he was totally game to go for it.

MAN: Cut.
MACKIE: Whoo!

I'm on. Let's roll again. I'm on!

Sebastian is great to work with
'cause he gets into the character,

and wants to know
why are we picking these things.

And because he's
sort of newly in the modern world,

I tried to make it feel
as classic and vintage as we could.

Image-wise, it makes it very interesting

to see these three guys dressing up
in a very different way.

We have to do something about this.
I look like a pimp.

BRÜHL: It was fun to have these couple
of scenes with the full outfit, you know,

with that incredible coat.

We had a lot of fun developing it.

You know, it's kind of based
on a World War II Russian military,

Polish military overcoat,

and then we tried to make it a little
comic book-inspired on top of that.

Yesterday, I had a day off,
and I went to a comic shop

to see if I could find
some covers of Zemo.

So I got myself
a couple of comic books with Zemo.

And it's just great
to finally look like him in the comics.

Hello, guys. Do you like my style?

You can have it as well. Suitkovia.

We offer elegant clothes,
but also casual clothes.

Pajamas, sweaters, T-shirt,
socks, sneakers, everything.

(SPEAKS RUSSIAN)

(IN ENGLISH) Come and visit us in Sokovia.
Check out Suitkovia.

MAN: Cut.

(ALL LAUGHING)

We created this marvelous space
for our characters to be off-grid.

WOMAN: Well, this is too perfect.

Drop it, Zemo.

Sharon?

SKOGLAND: After a series of mishaps
with the S.H.I.E.L.D. and such,

she has had to go to a place
where you can live with impunity.

I also took the wings for your ass
so that you can save his ass from his ass.

Unlike you, I didn't have the Avengers
to back me up.

So I'm off the grid in Madripoor.

Bringing back Sharon Carter
was something that we explored

even in Avengers three and four.

And the truth was there were so many
characters in those films,

you couldn't really
do her character justice,

nor where we had left her in Civil War.

And interestingly enough, divorcing her
from her relationship with Steve Rogers

actually allowed us to explore
a different side of the character.

Because now, she doesn't have to be
the white hat who is only good.

Now, we can explore what happened to her
as a result of Civil War,

and some of the more morally gray choices

she's had to make
to survive in the universe.

SHARON: At some point,
I thought if I had to hustle,

might as well
enjoy the life of a real hustler.

You know how much I can get
for a real Monet?

Just a little bit tougher,
a little raw, you know,

rough around the edges.

A totally different version of Sharon
than we've seen in the films.

VANCAMP: There's so much about this
that I've loved.

I got to do, physically,
a lot of stuff in this one that...

It's always nice
to get back into your body and...

I used to be a dancer,
so doing fight training was a lot of fun.

There you go. Feel that angle?
Good. You got it.

WOMAN: There you go.
MAN: Good. There you go.

One thing we thought was interesting
was positioning Sharon Carter

as somebody who you think
is naturally altruistic,

but building the mythology
of this Power Broker

who also plays in Madripoor,

a new corner
of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The mystery of who the Power Broker is,

we hope is satisfyingly revealed
in episode six.

Drop your weapon, Karli.

SPELLMAN: I thought for sure

the Power Broker storyline
was not gonna work.

Sometimes, we would be too heavy-handed.

You're like, "Nah, we see it coming."

And sometimes, it would be too thin.

And then, the more we start to work on it,

you're like, "Oh, this is great."

Come back and work for me again.
All of you.

We can make a difference together.

You just want me
because you need your muscle back.

Without us Super Soldiers, how much power
does the Power Broker really have?

More than you.

MOORE: We knew we needed an antagonist
to challenge the notion of symbols

and ideology in the show.

And the Flag Smasher from the comics,
Karl Morgenthau,

is much different,
visually and in conceit,

than Karli Morgenthau is in the MCU.

But the root of that character
is the same.

You're becoming a bit of a legend.

I hear more and more people
talk about the freedom fighters

who are pushing back.

Nothing in this show works
without Erin Kellyman.

SKOGLAND: What we were looking for was
kind of that innocent face that she has.

I wanted her to be unexpected.

You okay?

It had to be someone who,
besides being instantly likable,

was someone who, in her eyes,
has the resolve

and the toughness of having had,
perhaps, a background

that is written in her face.

It doesn't have to be a war, Karli.

They started a war when they kicked us out
of our new homes and onto the street.

People all around the world need me.
Millions of them.

I can't speak for millions,
but I understand you.

Can't have a hero and a villain
in the room together,

having a conversation, and be honest

unless it is earned at every level.

And the first level is the actor.

I'm trying to figure out
if I need to kill your brother.

I thought I could trust him.

I'd had, like,
a few FaceTimes with Kari and Zoie.

But obviously,
you can't put anything on that.

So when I got told
that I got it, I was like,

(CHUCKLES) "This is gonna be wild."

Like, I think
it didn't sink in straightaway.

I don't even feel like
it's fully sunk in now.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Oh, it's very dramatic. (CHUCKLES)

KELLYMAN: I knew
that it was a comic character,

so I'd done like a bunch of research.

When I realized it was a guy,
I was like, okay,

this is pretty sick that, first of all,
they've turned him into a girl.

The movement is ready.

They're not going to stop.

Not unless we make them.

KELLYMAN: In the comics,
in the research that I did,

it was kind of
more pressing towards a villain.

And now that I've kind of got the scripts
and understand her a little more,

I know that it's all out of a good place.
You know?

Do you remember how scared we were
when we took the serum?

DOVICH: (SNIFFLES)
Yeah, don't think I'll forget that.

(BLOWS) Felt like my veins were on fire.

I prayed it'd kill me.

But it was worth it.

SPELLMAN: In constructing the character,
we were like, "Let's make her a kid."

And, "Let's make her tap into the spirit
of how people feel today."

And even though
the pandemic hadn't hit yet,

that all just exacerbated
a feeling folks were having.

And if you're Black,
you've been having it your whole life,

which is, the game is rigged,

the people who are at the top
are becoming irresponsible.

We accept that the game is rigged,

but now, they're getting irresponsible
in how much they're taking from us,

and people just have to push back.

And we wrote Karli as a hero.

She is a hero that goes bad.

I don't wanna hurt you.

You're just a tool in the regimes
I'm looking to destroy.

You're not hiding behind a shield.

MOORE: The legacy of Steve Rogers is

people have always tried
to recreate that serum

and it has never gone well.

You can ask Bruce Banner,
who, to some degree, became the Hulk

because General Thaddeus Ross

wanted to develop
his own super-soldier serum.

Steve has always been
the pinnacle of what should be.

We thought it was interesting, again,
in dealing with the legacy of the shield

to see what happens
if somebody successfully

did figure out how to break
the super-soldier serum code,

and who those Super Soldiers then become.

It doesn't even matter if we die.

The movement is strong enough
to continue without us.

MOORE: And I think that's what makes
the Flag Smashers so interesting.

Is you get to explore the different side
of what happens when people

who, frankly, sometimes
are downtrodden or overlooked

are given power
that they don't typically have.

-KARLI: You shouldn't have come here.
-(GRUNTS)

We're in episode 102.

And this is the first time
that Sam and Bucky

have fought beside each other,
and they're not doing terribly well.

Good of you to join the fight, Sam!

(GRUNTS)

-Punch, kick, punch, punch!
-(ALL LAUGHING)

And John Walker arrives
kind of out of the blue.

John Walker, Captain America.

-Lemar Hoskins.
-Looks like you guys could use some help.

SKOGLAND: First time
they see him in action.

And so it's his first action beat
as well as Captain America with Lemar.

And the whole thing is a complete cluster.

Then on top of it,
they're facing Super Soldiers

and they are completely overwhelmed
with what that is.

STAN: No!

SKOGLAND: We started
dreaming up this sequence,

I would say, about eight months ago.

And we had little toy cars
and little toy trucks,

and, we went through, I don't know,

probably 12 or 15 different versions
of this sequence,

because it was so difficult to achieve
on the one hand

to imagine on the other,
with this many people

dealing with all the various elements
that one has to deal with.

The truck sequence was always challenging.

Mostly because
they all need to stay on the trucks.

No one can fall off the truck.

No one can get back on the truck.

Falcon can fly around a bit,
but for the most part,

just the design of it,
it was a very challenging design.

We had fake trucks
that were four feet off the ground

and they could be moved around
on air a bit,

we had people fighting on those.

Then we got real trucks

and we had a couple of shots with people
fighting on real trucks, but not many.

We're shooting in Atlanta.

We shot plates
of a road that we thought

might be able to double
for some part of Germany.

Then it became clear that,
Atlanta does not look like Germany.

So, what was a bunch of guys
on a blue screen

that we're gonna replace the background,

now becomes
a complete digital environment.

So, digital mountains in the background,
all sorts of German trees.

Everything needed to be touched.

Bucky is hanging onto the side of a truck
with spinning wheels right by his head

that are completely digital.
The road is completely digital.

There's a shot where Walker falls off
the back of the truck in Atlanta

and then we cut to him
getting up in Prague.

We need to make both of those things match
and both look like Germany.

Adding digital cars and digital trees,
make everything match,

it was kind of amazing.

(BOTH GRUNTING)

-(GROANS)
-Could have used that shield.

SKOGLAND: When starting any series,
you wanna kick off

with as much promise of what the series
is going to be as possible.

WATERSON: We had to say,
"What don't we know that Falcon can do?

"What are some cool other things
that the Falcon we know he can do

"that we haven't seen before?"

NAGELHOUT: Part of the mandate is,
all right, well, if we're gonna do Falcon

as a titular character finally,
he's gotta have the best Falcon action.

SKOGLAND: I think the opening action
sequence, kind of, took us down that path

in the sense of a, just a, "Holy cow."

If we get to the border,
he's not gonna follow.

-(CLICKING)
-What's up?

We spent a long time on this sequence.
This sequence was always part of the show.

It moved around parts of the show

and it was supposed to be
this amazing thing.

Like any sequence we start with pre-vis

and we work through the blocking
based on storyboards that have been done.

And then we looked at the pre-vis,
like, "Okay, how are we gonna do this?"

NAGELHOUT: One of the things
that we did was actually,

we shot a group of skydivers.

And so, we had
all this great reference material.

LEVEN: We have, literally,
the world's best wingsuit fliers

who are ready to do this stuff for us

and get these shots
that no one has ever seen before.

Everyone was really excited about it.

We spent several days pushing people
out of planes

and getting all those suits...
(CHUCKLES) Those wingsuits are all real.

And we were inspired by a team
that does that, you know,

flies through canyons.

MOORE: They all had Blackmagic cameras
that we were able to mount on them,

and then had head-mounted cameras.

There are a few shots
from that skydiving shoot

that made it into the sequence.

So, you get those pops of real
that, I think,

help with the suspension of disbelief
for the audience.

And, you know, we had Mackie on wires.

I could do a Will Smith one.

-I can go for what, "Sweet Jesus!"
-(ALL LAUGHING)

NAGELHOUT: We had real Mackie, you know,
folded in wherever we could.

Most of the helicopters were CG.
We did have a buck,

like a helicopter buck,
for the interior work,

'cause obviously, the actors
have to interact with something

but we even replaced the buck

because it was a very specific
kind of helicopter

that we wanted to see in the sequence
that would fit

the storytelling of the villains
in that sequence.

And that's a huge testament
to our visual effects team,

to Victoria, to Eric Levin.
It's a pretty amazing thing.

For me the most impressive thing about it

was being able to mix
all the different techniques that we have.

You know, it's one thing to have
a fully animated CG landscape

and make it look
as photo-real as possible.

But making sure that we do have close-ups
of Anthony Mackie,

a couple shots of him flying on wires
and the stunt guys.

And the aerial guys
jumping out of airplanes.

Having enough sort of realistic stuff

so when you put it together,
you're not sure how we did anything.

We gotta find another way!

I just did.

(GRUNTS)

MOORE: The idea is to make it seamless.

The idea is that it is a shared universe
that you can never know what to expect.

So, characters may come in
and out of shows,

may come in and out of films
in a way that hopefully feels organic.

DON CHEADLE: We're shooting
a scene in the museum,

where, Falcon, Anthony's character, Sam,

is deciding whether or not
he's going to...

Well, I guess he's decided
that he's going to actually give

the shield to the museum to hold

as opposed to him taking it on
and becoming Captain America himself.

I think Rhodey both understands
why Sam doesn't wanna take it on.

He's been in a similar position
with Iron Patriot,

with a decision about Iron Man.

But I think he also wishes that he would,

because he thinks
it's very needed right now.

The world's broken.

Everybody's just looking for somebody
to fix it.

Don Cheadle and I discussed the role
a few times before he got here.

And he really wanted to bring
something to the character,

and we talked a lot about,
then, also, the one guy

who could really understand the complexity

of what it is for a Black man
to carry the shield.

He is the one guy
who Sam could connect with on that level,

and, so that became a really complex
dance between the two guys.

You know, for me, watching the two of them
go through this amazing history

we shot in our version of the Smithsonian,

which was the history
of the Howling Commandos

alongside Captain America,

and it was so poignant
to see them walking through the history

as we're putting that history to bed,
you know, it was giving us all chills.

NAGELHOUT: I think something
the comics do,

which works for that medium,

is they assume that a mantle has to exist.

Of course there's gonna be
a Captain America.

If something happens to Steve,
somebody's gotta pick up that shield.

That's a very, you know,
comic book-true statement

and it works for that format,
and it's great,

and it allows you to see that shield
pass through hands.

However, when you translate that
to a live-action sort of grounded story,

and to our real world,

it's really important
to ask the question of why.

Why does there have to be
a Captain America?

What does it mean today
versus what it meant

when it was created in the '40s?

And what does it mean to different people?

SAM: Feels weird...

Picking it up again.

The legacy of that shield is complicated,
to say the least.

MACKIE: Sam, you know,
being a soldier and being a veteran,

being a counselor, he realizes
that as a people, we're all Americans.

I'm not Black Captain America.

Steve wasn't white Captain America.

He was solely Captain America.

So as a society, as a country,
we need to realize

that all the people
who are citizens here on this soil,

no matter what their origins are,
they're Americans

and, you know, the old adage,
"I am my brother's keeper,"

comes into play, you know.

Sam realizes he deserves the right,

he's earned the right
to be Captain America

and that has nothing to do
with his race or his background.

I ain't gonna lie. You're special.

Thank you.

I mean, you ain't no Malcolm or Martin,
Mandela, but...

No argument there,
but I know what I've gotta do.

MOORE: Isaiah Bradley
is a character, I think,

comic fans have been clamoring for,

but most fans won't know.
he was a Black soldier who,

much like the Tuskegee Airmen,

was tested on to try and recreate
the super-soldier serum.

The secret of Isaiah Bradley
is that it worked,

but because of his race, he was sidelined

by the American government
and became a pariah.

You think you can wake up one day
and decide who you wanna be?

It doesn't work like that.

When you have two characters
like Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes,

who are so close to Steve,

to meet a Super Soldier
who had a completely different experience

than the one that Captain America had,
is gonna be eye-opening

and very much informs Sam's feelings
surrounding the shield.

Whether or not that's a legitimate thing
to wish for or to not.

ISAIAH: That what I think it is?

Mmm-mmm. Leave it covered.

Them stars and stripes
don't mean nothin' good to me.

When we first
started talking with Malcolm,

that was a character he asked about first

because, as a Black man reading comics,

that was a story that resonated with him

when you go back to
Truth: Red, White and Black.

So it was something
that he really brought to the project

and I think enriched the story-telling,

'cause it's a point of view
that is often lost,

and again, unfortunately, society
sometimes catches up with narrative.

It's something that we're talking about
very much in our everyday lives.

What is the journey of being Black
in America through time?

Not even just in the modern days,

but in the '40s, in the '50s.

It's always been
quite a different journey.

And this gets to be an interesting lens
into that time and that character,

which very much informs
how people feel about race today.

I used to be like you,

until I opened my eyes,

until I saw men in the Red Tails,

the famous 332 fight for this country,

only to come home to find
crosses burned on their lawn.

I'm from the south. I get that.

But you were a Super Soldier like Steve.
You could've been the next...

The next? What? Huh?

Blonde hair, blue eyes, stars and stripes?

He becomes the embodiment
of your hero's fears.

Isaiah is challenging Sam

just on whether or not
a Black man should be Captain America.

He has that line where, "They will never
let a Black man be Captain America,

"and even if they did, no self-respecting
Black man would ever wanna be."

We didn't want Isaiah
to be wrong about that.

That's gonna be
part of his ongoing struggle.

He says, "Man, I know every time
I pick the shield up,

"a portion of the world's
gonna hate me for it."

Sam gotta live with that as he goes off
and tries to make this work.

It's been an emotional experience,

especially in the time
in which we live in now.

For Marvel to give me the opportunity
as a Black man,

from the south, to become Captain America,

I think, says a lot, not only about
the work that I've put in

to get to this point
that they would entrust me with that,

but the way that they're hoping to change
the way society looks at itself.

Look, you people have just as much
power as an insane god

or a misguided teenager.

The question you have to ask yourself is,
"How are you gonna use it?"

That last speech that Sam has,

that's me and Anthony on the phone
for a few hours.

Anthony has a Black man's perspective
on the world.

And he's like,
"Mal, I gotta believe this, right?"

So the first thing we did was

we had Sam talking to somebody
in that scene

instead of giving a speech.

And then, the next thing was me
on the phone with him for hours

making sure he felt honest
at every single line in this thing.

You know what I'm saying?
So now we are super proud of that.

We finally have a common struggle now.

Think about that.

For once, all the people
who've been begging,

and I mean, literally begging for you

to feel how hard any given day is,
now you know.

SKOGLAND: The final costume
is very much drawn from the comics.

Drawing from the comics
was really important

because it had its own legacy
to start with.

So all the detail that goes into every...

And I can tell you,
months of thought went into every seam.

Not only in the building of it,
but in the design of it.

CROW: It's kind of a breath of fresh air.

Visually, it's almost the reverse
of the other costumes we've seen.

There's a lot of white

as opposed to all the navy and red
that we've seen before.

The upper torso and his face
are really kind of highlighted.

LEVEN: Captain America's new costume

had a very specific cowl design
that they wanted.

And it was very difficult
to build practically in real life,

so when Mackie would move his head around,
it would flex.

Because there is no magical material
that can have that shape

and that flexibility and not move around
in a way that they didn't want.

So, they knew when they built it.

"This is gonna be really tough,
you're gonna have to help us out."

And as it turned out, you know,
there were dozens and dozens,

probably hundreds of visual effects shots
just to make that cowl look better.

So that it looks heroic
and doesn't have weird gaps.

We don't want to see
any seams in the costume,

we don't want to know
that it was closed by Velcro.

It's just magically...

It's a magic costume
built by the Wakandans,

so we need to bring that to life.

MACKIE: All right, watch this!

SKOGLAND: I think it was
all to support a combination

of what the overall red, white
and blue look was going to be

and that it had to be bright and positive.

There had to be
an ultimately positive vibe to this,

you know, sparkling person... (CHUCKLES)

Which is, and really beautifully, shown,

I think, in the final speech.

It has a, you know, a bit of
a knight in shining armor quality to it.

STAN: It's a new
Captain America, you know,

it's a new angle, and it's a new vibe

and I think
he's got some really cool things

that are being explored in this
from the idea of family,

pursuit of happiness
versus this American Dream

that's bestowed on all of us,

but certainly how
a Black man deals with that.

I mean, there's all kinds of
actually complex,

very specific issues dealt in this

that are very applicable
to the times that we're in.

This isn't about easy decisions, Senator.

You just don't understand.

(SCOFFS) I'm a Black man
carrying the stars and stripes.

What don't I understand?

I know what it is
to deal with something bigger than me.

With everything that's been going on
with COVID

and the murders of Breonna

and the murder of George Floyd

and, you know, the riots and the activism

going on with the young generation now
and, you know,

the Black Lives Matter movement,

it's been jarring to me and surprising
how timely this series is.

My truth has changed and evolved so much.

As far as me being a father,

as far as me being a man,
and as far as me being an American.

And a lot of that
has come out of this role and this series.

So, it's been humbling in a real sense,

but also inspiring to think

that my sons will be able
to turn on the TV and see,

a Black Captain America.

ISAIAH: Ain't gonna be easy, Sam.

SAM: Yeah, I might fail. I might die.

But we built this country.

Bled for it.

I'm not gonna let anybody tell me
I can't fight for it.

(MUSIC PLAYING)