Original subtitles

[Music]

a few months ago billions of people

reappeared after 5 years

away we need new

Heroes one 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

[Music]

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 a

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 often times 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 I think for Nate and I it was very

obvious VI that the Falcon and the

Winter Soldier would be you know the

perfect thing for this kind of format

look at you all stealthy little time in

wakand and you come out white panther

it's actually white wolf huh 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 and with a 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 Cena

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 at the bat

here was to bring all of that into a

very relatable very grounded character

place so that really the 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 MH

and and therefore things Tel you know

you're feeling like oh I might have it

well and so you can relax your body and

then boom you kind of sacrif pun it

right K's been great I mean I think once

you see this series you'll realize the

emotional depth of these characters it's

it's more of a drama than anything else

Ki was able to to make us less Macho and

you know put machismo in the series with

all the fighting and special effects and

explosions and all that stuff not

exactly a badass what but also show the

emotional construct that makes everyone

an individual it was very important to

me and I think to everybody to explore

what it means to be a hero in today's

world uh 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 help me 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

character's kind of inner thoughts and

so want and and I thought that was

really interesting so now that youve

stopped fighting what do you

want peace that is utter

bull 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 this you break stories two

ways you break them vertically which is

by each episode and then you break them

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

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

Spelman 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

how do it

feel like it's someone else's it

isn't that line became sort of the

backbone of Sam's Arc and it was very

clear to us that if we're going to tell

a story over 6 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' felt like we would be

dishonest to the fans and dishonest to

just on a human level if we had as black

man just accept the symbol without

having real ambivalence about it and we

knew that that was going to 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

when you think Captain America you think

of a very specific brand of person

there's so many different lines so many

different Avenues so many uh realities

that we have to live in every day to be

a successful black man in our society

you know you 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 the

question if that's something you're

willing to deal with hey Black Falcon

just Falcon kid I mean I think 2020 and

Co of 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 hey

look is this guy bothering no he's not

bothering me do you know who this

is he's

me oh God I am so sorry Mr Wilson I

didn't recognize you without the

with Sam picking up the shield such a

representation of uh the country that we

live in you know there's a lot of um

trepidation as far as how does a black

man represent a country that does not

represent him we knew the journey that

Sam was going to go on was going to be

particularly rough for him just because

of the fact that he is a black superhero

right well anon'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 water is not

the problem and yet here you are in our

defense we were supposed to have this

done way before you woke up well I don't

come up to the sky to tell you how to

bar roll or whatever so you don't come

down here and start messing around with

things you clearly don't understand wow

you know ad of pero 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 thought

you said you were a pilot I never said

pilot 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 fighting

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 10 years of

Storytelling it was really important

that we tackle those 10 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 in the

past when we were making First Avenger

there are always ideas of what could

happen one day if we were so lucky to

make a a sequel but the truth is you're

trying to get that movie right the first

time that you're not sure where any of

this is going to lead Sergeant P you are

to be the new Feast of Hydra 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 and when you're seeing

Sebastian's portrayal Winter Soldier

which to us was even an extra level we

knew there was something to explore

there what did I do enough God I knew

this would happen everything Hydra put

inside me still there the relationship

between Bucky and Steve is so dramatic

and so filled with posos 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 unored in the

series and is looking for his purpose

that

Shield's closest thing I've got left to

a

family so when you're 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 I always think with

these movies every time I come back I'm

always like thinking okay what if a fan

sits down and watches Captain America

first avenger winnesota Civil War The

Avengers now this like are they going to

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 winner

Soldier I'm James Bucky Barnes and

you're part of my efforts to make

amend how does this character Now

function in the world what's his life

going back to Brooklyn you know how is

he meeting people how is he interacting

at coffee shops is he dating is he like

thinking about another career look

you've got to nurture friendships I am

the only person you have called all week

that is so

sad 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

so this 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 there's always going to be

a darker side of this character which I

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 it's still there in a

way he's just learning how to deal with

it a little bit

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 you weren't

amending you were

Avenger don't worry about me just keep

on doing what you doing that's not me

that's

mystical the Winter Soldier and Falcon

are incredibly watchable as a reluctant

team who are out to save the world

frankly hey

John how'd you find us this time time I

really wanted to do it like that broke

my thing 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 the 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 you can't possibly have

imagined so every day a scene unfolds

that is something I didn't anticipate

and it always gets better I got to say

this is very bad Bo too

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-handers like here's the Spectrum

right defiant ones 48 hours this is and

comedy's over here right 48 Hours 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 God love this oh I

mean you should really enjoy this I

really do genuinely love working with

Anthony I mean like there are definitely

days where I feel like he's going to

kill me um not physically just like his

presence you know we have to get it with

the light all right just want to make

sure it establishes the location he's

never this his first

movie YOLO two of them are so good at um

bouncing off of each other and going on

a path of Discovery make sure you're

record quiet and Daniel bro the say oh

my gosh the 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 in the Falcon and Winter Soldier

riters room we were inspired by key art

done from Civil War of Zemo that was

very much on the wall how do we figure

out how to get this great iconography

again back into the show

and Zemo the character in Civil War he's

such a complicated and interesting

character cuz 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 Lov 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 took

me two days until I found their bodies

my

father still holding my wife and son in

his

arms and the

Avengers they went

home I think we would have 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 yeah you you have uh a

lot of meaty scenes and time to spend

with Zemo he was a a charismatic and 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

uh thinking like oh man now I've played

this guy but I I was I I never wore this

this

mask he really blows me away in this

thing because he found a 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 s my family was

royalty until your friends destroyed my

country 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 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 you know a genuine desire to be

good and to do good but that's not

enough to be ca the serum never

corrupted Steve

tou but there has never been another

Steve Rogers has there we thought whyatt

was an interesting choice because a lot

of his work beforehand he sort of 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

and to some degree John Walker is coming

coming into the show with a chip on his

shoulder to prove that he is worthy of

this mantle just cuz you carry that

Shield it doesn't mean you're Captain

America look 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 tow the line of 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 just excited just 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're like

well actually you're you're Lamar

Hoskins and I was like oh shoot and I

know Lamar Hoskins cuz I I literally

have the comic books I have them I have

the the additions that he's in you know

that that famous one where he's the

Captain America one human and thr the

cover I have that right so I was just

totally psyched I was like I just hope I

get I hope I get a suit man 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 there's

a lot of similarities constructionwise

with John Walker's costume and all the

previous Captain America costumes you

know I wanted to keep uh continuity of

feeling and look so we used a lot of the

same prints in 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 definitely helped the

attitude of the character cuz it was

just a little bit more arrogant than I

think that I would have been if I hadn't

had a little help it's really important

I think that when setting up a war 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 Lamar Lamar is his voice of

reason right and then all of a sudden

he's gone first of all there's a lot of

Vengeance cuz now you just killed my

best friend but then the there's like a

raging insecurity that just takes over

he wants to represent the shield the

best way that he possibly can and the

really interesting part is in his mind

he kind of did because that's what he

was trained to

do well these boots are not made for

walking typically we go back to

publishing and look for characters that

thematically match the things we're

trying to do do in the show and then put

our own Marvel spin on them Valentina

algra de Fontaine actually it's Contessa

Valentina alra de Fontaine I know it's

hard but I don't like to repeat myself

so you can just call me Val we needed

the 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 algra 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 of course I know

about that I'll T it has made you very

very valuable to certain people 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 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 a fun to

play Things are about to get very weird

and you know when they do we're not

going to need a Captain

America you know what we're going to

need a US

agent how do you want the rest of this

conversation to go Sam

huh yeah should I put down a shield make

it

fair so we're on zemo's apartment Set uh

which we uh built specifically for Zemo

also to accommodate a big fight sequence

that we do in here when the Dora show

up we started off training our actors

are our actors here so they do as much

as they can do they learn as much as

they can and they'll 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 step so and then I'll

count you into and three two one stab

it's an organic hand toand combat but

they got those Spears man and you can't

like when you're choreographing the the

fight scene with Spears like you can't

fake like a spear is a spear you going

to you know what I'm saying 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 oh oh God in

terms of the ease and efficiency working

on a set and working on a stage is

always easier always faster always more

controllable and at the end of the day

that's what you need to do is 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 um our characters and then pretty

much everybody is smashing everybody

else so it was a lot of fun

bust Dum you

James it was in my opinion a complete

no-brainer to include the wakandans I

mean Florence Kumba is just a

force anytime I get to play IO it's

always like a Christmas present

because it actually doesn't really

matter where I would have to work I'm

always excited so most of the time when

I get the phone call I don't even know

the story you know 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 cuz I have no

idea I will have to read the books and

train of course I just got used to the

fact that when I get the phone call I

will always be ready to function just

because I trained the whole year through

and I'm also in contact with the other

women for example who played the

daughter miles and we exchange and

everybody still continues doing other

projects but at the end of the day the

minute you put on the the armor and the

the costume you are the character you

become the character and that just feels

like home I was wondering when you were

going to show

up go it was really important

specifically to KI 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 originally we had

planed 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 a quite sizable 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 going to send other people

that's not a choice we should be

make 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 just came to

the point where between Disney and all

of us we just weren't comfortable uh

sending anybody down there and we wanted

to bring our crew home that was down

there because we just said know so we

brought everybody back right as we

brought um everybody back we regrouped

said

where can we go now we had planned

Prague right and we were going to move

Prague to the end of the schedule to

replace the work we were going to do in

in Puerto Rico 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 you

know locations and performances and

about a week into our time in Prague uh

you know the pandemic hit or became very

real and uh caused us to shut down and

frankly the bigger fear at that time

time was that we would be stuck called

our line producer at 2:00 in the morning

for her and said uh we're getting

everybody on flights out of Prague at

5:00 a.m. you guys are leaving from 5:00

a.m. can you we're going to start

calling every crew member waking them up

to tell them to get their stuff together

we're we're getting you know we're going

to get everybody on flights between 5:00

a.m. and 9:00 a.m. everybody's going to

be on these flights we had about 100

people there from the us and we just

started flying people back shutting down

for covid was a big part of the struggle

of the show we're glad we did it it was

the right thing to do 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 that

they wanted to continue to make the show

they were so invested even when we came

back and Co 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 know that it makes the show feel

[Music]

bigger I have to say it gave us a a 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 uh such extraordinary

circumstances it creates a brother and

Sisterhood that is um I think a bit

extraordinary over the next obviously 8

months um all we were doing with Disney

is is is trying to come together with

task force as to how we could restart

things and when we were going to be able

to start things and we knew we had to go

back to Prague right like 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

instance of Co that we did at the time a

lot of our scouting had to be virtual we

couldn't have people flying back and

forth in the way that we typically would

but again ultimately our team ried

around it figured out how to mount this

production you know I will say a credit

to the writers as well because as you're

riding you're riding to a specific

location which is going to dictate a

specific story to get you into Puerto

Rico and then into Prague and you have

to be nimble as storytellers and in K

goin's case as a filmmaker to visually

get your head into this new place and to

figure out how to make it work

seamlessly with the stuff that we'd shot

in Atlanta that frankly was meant to

match with what we were going to do in

Puerto Rico so there was a lot of

thinking that went into how to adjust

our entire produ C 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 Mador

what's up with Mador you guys talk about

it like a Skull

Island we are in Mador dangerous dodgy

Lawless place where Zemo has arranged a

meeting with Selby who's going to give

us hopefully precious information about

the super soldiers here and that's the

Zemo I remember 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 we don't have you see

that's what happens in M High Town's

that way not a bad place if you want to

visit but low Town's the other way

and let me guess we don't have any

friends in high

toown 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 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 and we started sort of looking

around and mapping out and he came up

with madore in a a series of back alleys

in a small town outside of

Atlanta we want to fill the back street

it needs to be more gritty needs to more

Lawless it's a lawless Society down here

and as soon as we walked into this empty

Street and it clearly was empty it was

just two three half 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 the homeowners would

step out their back doors and there was

this rail track running literally 2 ft

away from their back door and I thought

that would be an interesting concept to

bring to this street and having traveled

the world I thought this was quite

iconic of a bridge that I used to cross

in Mozan Beque called umuzi this heavy

industry Bridge So I Married part of

Mozambique and a bit of Vietnam here we

are

got

a this is called The Brass Monkey Bar

it's an open bar it's an open bar you

can see the stars through the ceiling

and we thought we would look at with the

fixtures being able to give enough light

and be not to like the set but have a

cool ceiling a geometric ceiling here to

your to your left are these crazy monkey

schools my art director Jennifer she

scared the internet and we 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 schools

and yeah so that's the that's a homage

to the to the Brass

Monkey wasn't expecting you smiling

tiger his plans changed Anthony's

character Sam is very straight laced we

play him as very sort of conservative

dress his clothes are sort of everyday

every man I mean we did do some crazy

stuff with him on on this show the wild

African suit and he was totally game to

go for

it I'm on let's roll again I'm

on Sebastian is great to work with cuz

he really gets into the character and

wants to know like why are we picking

these things and because he's sort of

newly in the modern world I try 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'm the only one

who looks like a pimp it was fun to have

these couple of scenes with the full

outfit you know with that incredible

code we had a lot of fun developing it

you know it was 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 to to to see and

if I could find some covers of Zemo so I

got myself a couple of comic books with

with zmo and it's it's just great to to

finally look like him in the comics

hello guys do you like my style you can

have it as well

suia we offer elegant clothes but also

casual clothes pajamas sweaters t-shirt

socks sneakers everything no come and

visit us in

sovia check out

sovia we created this marvelous space

for our characters to sort of be off

grid well this is too

perfect drop it

Zemo Sharon after a series of mishaps

with the shield 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 could save his ass from

his ass I'm like you I didn't have the

Avengers to back me up so I'm off the

grid in mport bringing back Shar Carter

was something that we explored even in

Avengers 3 and 4 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 a relationship with

Steve

actually allowed us to explore a

different side of the character because

now she doesn't have to be sort of 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 gr choices she's had to make to

survive in the universe well at some

point I thought if I had to hustle I

might as well enjoy the life of a real

Hustler you know how much I can get for

a real

Monet it's a little bit tough for a

little raw you know Rough Around the

Edges a totally different version of

Sharon than we've seen in the films

there's so much about this that I've

Loved I got to do you know physically a

lot of stuff in this one that you know

it's always nice to get back into your

body and I used to be a dancer so doing

fight training and all of that stuff was

a lot of fun there you go feel that

angle good there you go one thing we

thought was really 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 madrepore a new

corner of the marvelous catic universe

and the Mystery of who the power broker

is we hope is satisfyingly revealed in

episode 6 drop your weapon

Carly I thought for sure the power

broker story line was not going to work

sometimes we would be too heavy-handed

and you're like no we see it coming and

then sometimes it would be too thin and

then the more we start to work on it the

more you start to work on it you're like

a 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 our super soldiers how much

power does a power broker really

have more than you we knew we needed an

antagonist to challenge the notion of

symbols and ideology in the show and the

flag Smasher from the comics Carl Morgan

Thal is much different visually and in

conceit than Carly Morgan Thal 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 push push him

back nothing in the show Works without

Aaron

kellyman 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 carlot they started a

war as soon as 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

is the actor I'm trying to figure figure

out if I need to kill your

brother I thought I could trust him I'd

had like a few facetimes with um Ki and

Zoe but obviously you can't put anything

on that you know so when I got told that

I'd got it I was like this is going to

be wild like it I think it it didn't

sink in straight away I don't even feel

like it's fully sunk in

now very dramatic I knew that it was a

comic character so I'd done like a bunch

of research and when I realized it was a

guy I I was like okay this is 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 in the comics and 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 yeah don't think I'll

forget that F like my veins were

fire I proba did kill

me but it was worth

it in constructing the character we 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 wrot Carly

as a hero she is a hero that goes bad I

don't want to hurt you you're just a

tool in the regimes I'm looking to

destroy you're not hiding behind a

shield 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

Thaddius Ross wanted to develop his own

Super Soldier serum Steve has always

been the Pinnacle of what should be and

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 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 you shouldn't have come

here 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 punch kick punch punch

and John Walker arrives kind of out of

the blue John Walker Captain America

Lamar Hoskins looks like you guys can

use some help first time they see him in

action and so it's his first action beat

as well as Captain America with Lamar

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

no we started dreaming up this sequence

I would say about 8 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 uh 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 uh falcon can fly around a little

bit but for the most part just the

design of it is very it was a very

challenging design we had fake trucks

that were 4T off the ground and they

could be moved around on air a little

bit and you would have people fighting

on those then we got real trucks um 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 and

then it became very clear that you know

Atlanta does not look like Germany so

what was a bunch of guys on a blue

screen that we're going to 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 they're completely digital the

road is completely

digital there's a shot where Walker

falls off the back of the the truck in

Atlanta and then we cut to him getting

up in Prague and we need to make both of

those things match and both look like

Germany adding digital cars digital

trees make everything match it was kind

of

amazing could to use that

Shield when starting any series you want

to kick off with as much promise of what

the series is going to be as possible we

had to say what don't we know that

falcon can do what are some cool other

things that that the Falcon we know he

can do that we haven't seen

before part of the Mandate is all right

well if we're going to do Falcon as a

titular character finally he's got to

have the best Falcon

action I think the opening action

sequence kind of took us down that path

in the sense of a a just a holy cow if

we get to the Border he's not going to

follow what's up

we spent a long time on the sequence the

sequence was it was always part of the

show it moved around different parts of

the show and it was always supposed to

be like this big amazing

thing like any any sequence we start

with previs and we you know work through

the blocking based on storyboards that

had been done and then we started looked

at the previs and like okay how are we

going to do this one of the things that

we did was actually we shot a group of

skydivers and so we had all this great

reference material

we have literally the world's best wing

suit Flyers who are ready to do this

stuff for us and you know get these

shots that no one has ever seen before

everyone was really really excited about

it we spent several days pushing people

out of planes and getting all those

those suits those Wing suits are all

real and we were inspired by a team that

does that you know flies through

Canyons they all had black magic 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 this the suspension of disbelief

for the

audience and you know we had Mackie on

wires oh I could do a Will Smith one I

can go for what sweet Jesus so we had

real Mackie you know folded in wherever

we

could most of the helicopters receed we

did have a buck like a helicopter Buck

for the interior work cuz 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 you know the storytelling

of the villains in that

sequence and that's a huge Testament to

our visual effects team to Victoria to

Eric L 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 as

possible but making sure that we do have

close-ups of Anthony Mackey a couple

shots of him flying on wires and the

stunt guys and the the aerial guys

jumping out of

airplanes having enough sort of

realistic stuff so that when you put it

all together you're not sure how we did

anything we got to find another way I

just did

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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 we're

shooting a scene in the museum where uh

Falcon Anthony's character Sam is uh

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

uh to hold as opposed to him taking it

on and becoming Captain America himself

I I think roie both understands why Sam

doesn't want to take it on he's been in

a similar position with Iron Patriot

with the 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 chel and I

discussed the role uh a few times before

he got here and he really wanted to

bring something to it um to the

character and uh 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 uh 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

we shot in um 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 old

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chills you know I think something the

comics do which works for that Medium is

they assume that a mantle has to exist

you know of course there's going to be

Captain America if something happens to

Steve somebody's got to pick up that

Shield that's a very you know comic book

true statement and it works for that

format and it's and it's great and it

allows you to see that Shield pass

through hands however when you translate

that to a liveaction 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 feels

weird picking it up

again the legacy of that Shield

is complicated to say the least Sam you

know being a soldier and being a a

veteran being a a counselor he realizes

that as 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 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 the old adage I'm 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 going to

lie you're

special thank

you I mean you ain't on Malcolm Martin

Mandela but no argument there but I know

what I've got to

do 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

Airman 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 want to be it doesn't

work like that and when you have two

characters like Sam Wilson and Bucky

Barnes who were so close to Steve to

meet a super soldier who had a

completely different experience than the

one that Captain America had is going to

be eye openening and very much informs

Sam's feeling surrounding the shield

whether or not that's a legitimate thing

to to wish for or to not now what I

think it

is M leave it

covered those Stars and Stripes don't

mean nothing good than me when we first

started talking with Malcolm that was

actually a character he asked about

first because as a black man reading

comics that was a story that really

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 really enrich the

storytelling because it's a point of

view that is often lost and again

unfortunately Society sometimes catches

up with narrative it's something now

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 tals the

famous

332 fight for this country only to come

home to find crosses burn on their lawn

I'm from the south I get that but you

were a super soldier like Steve you

could have been the next the next what

huh BL on here 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

would no self-respecting black man would

ever want to be we didn't want Isaiah to

be wrong about that that's going to be

part of his ongoing struggle he says man

I know every time I pick the shield up a

portion of the world is going to hate me

for it Sam got to 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 uh 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 question you have to ask

yourself

is how are you going to 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 he's like

M I got to believe this right the 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 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 of 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 it's kind of

a breath of fresh air visually it's

almost the reverse of the 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 are really kind of

highlighted 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 Macky would move his head

around it would Flex because there's 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 they knew when they when they built

it like this is going to be really

really tough you're going to have to

help us out and as it turned out you

know there were dozens and dozens

probably hundreds of visual effect shots

just to make that cowl look better so

that it looks heroic and doesn't have

weird gaps and 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 W condens so we need to

bring that to life all right watch

this 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 sparkling person which is in

really beautifully shown um I think in

the final speech has a you know a bit of

a night and shining armor quality to

it 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 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 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 h Co and uh the the murders of uh

Rihanna and the murder of uh George

Floyd and you know the the the riots and

the the the 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

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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 um a black Captain America ain't

going to be easy Sam yeah I might fail I

might die but we built this country bled

for

it I'm not going to let anybody tell me

I can't fight for it

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