John Wick creator Derek Kolstad was brought on to help develop the scripts for Marvel’s series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. During a recent interview on the podcast Script Apart (spotted by Empire), Derek seemed to reveal that multiple characters from the earliest Marvel movies making a return for the show.
We already know that Zemo and Batroc The Leaper are confirmed to return for the series, but this sounds like some Phase 1 characters are back as well.
KOLSTAD: “What I will say is that there are characters from the earliest Marvel movies that are coming back. We’re layering them in and reinventing them in a way that’s gonna shift the storytelling structure. It’s fucking awesome.”
I think we’ve all assumed that William Hurt’s Thunderbolt Ross from The Incredible Hulk and Captain America: Civil War is most likely going to show up since he appeared in Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and is expected to also appear in the upcoming Black Widow film as he was featured in the trailers.
Ross could be part of the effort to make John Walker aka U.S. Agent the next Captain America along with past super-soldier experiments that are expected to be in the series as he had access to the serum in The Incredible Hulk. There have also been rumblings that the Thunderbolts are going to be introduced or at least teased in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, given Ross could be their namesake and operate from The Raft would make a lot of sense. Ross’ alter ego Red Hulk just happens to be one of the more modern members of a recent incarnation of the Thunderbolts as well.
One character that is likely a strong contender to return is the digital version of Dr. Arnim Zola, who appeared as a regular human scientist played by Toby Jones in Captain America: The First Avenger only to be brought to the United States and eventually part of the secret HYDRA cell within S.H.I.E.L.D. as revealed in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Zola himself was digitized in an underground bunker and seemingly was destroyed in that film.
However, concept art from artist Josh Nizzi revealed that there seemed to have been plans at Marvel Studios to bring Zola back a year later in Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man along with the idea of giving him a robotic body. Nizzi attempted to design multiple robot bodies for Zola but the character sadly didn’t appear in the final version of the film.
This new body established in the comic books was teased in Captain America: The First Avenger with the Easter Egg of Zola’s blueprints for that new robotic body.
While Zola didn’t appear in Ant-Man, Sam Wilson aka Falcon had a cameo in the solo installment tussling with Scott Lang on the Avengers campus and then Sam called him in for the airport battle in Captain America: Civil War.
The show’s cast includes Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson aka The Falcon, Sebastian Stan as James “Bucky” Barnes aka The Winter Soldier, Daniel Bruhl as Zemo, Wyatt Russell as John Walker aka U.S Agent, Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carton aka Agent 13, Georges St-Peirre as Batroc The Leaper, Desmond Chiam, Erin Kellyman, Danny Ramirez, Adepero Oduye, Veronica Falcon (confirmed by The Ronin) and Carl Lumbly.
The Ronin first reported back in mid-August that The Falcon & The Winter Soldier would be delayed to sometime in 2021 and not debut in 2020 as originally expected. Disney and Marvel have yet to make an official announcement concerning the show’s new release date.
SOURCE: SCRIPT APART
THE RONIN 