Falcon & Winter Soldier Season 2 Should Focus On Bucky

If Marvel greenlights it, The Falcon and the Winter Soldierseason 2 should focus on Bucky Barnes. The second Marvel Disney+ series was an action-adventure pitting Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes against the Flag-Smashers, a global anarchist group bent on tearing down the current world order. Throughout production and the promotional campaign in the lead-up to release, the show was framed as being a true two-hander, with the series devoting equal time to the development of the character arcs of Bucky and Sam, two great sidekicks who had been underserved to date in the MCU.

When the series finally aired, though, it became clear a few episodes in that it was more of a lead character and supporting character dynamic. Though both got fairly equal screen time, Sam Wilson’s arc – grappling with accepting the legacy Steve Rogers had passed to him and picking up Captain America’s shield – eventually took center stage while Bucky’s stepped back. What had started off as a promising story of Bucky really digging into his PTSD and the horrors done to him was quickly dropped in favor of the globe-trotting action and the heavy themes of racism in America the show was not afraid to tackle. The imbalance after such a promising opening episode left plenty of viewers feeling as though Bucky had gotten shortchanged.

However, that could be rectified by flipping the dynamic in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier season 2. Sam Wilson’s story as the first Black man to become Captain America is important, and he’ll undoubtedly face further challenges now that he’s publicly taken up the mantle. But the story of his internal struggle has been told and put to bed; Bucky’s hasn’t. He’s certainly made some strides in his progress, but 90 years of PTSD and trauma don’t go away overnight. Even if the Wakandans truly extricated the last bit of Winter Soldier brainwashing from Bucky’s mind, the psychological effects of him having been a brainwashed Hydra assassin and tortured for 70 years are still there. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier can become the true buddy series it professed to be and atone for dropping the ball on Bucky’s story by making his personal arc the focus of season 2 as Sam’s was in season 1.

Marvel has never quite seemed to know what to do with Bucky Barnes as a character in the MCU. While he’s driven a great deal of the plot in the Captain America movies, it hasn’t been his own character growth driving it. Instead, he’s merely served as the human McGuffin or catalyst for Steve Rogers’s stories. Along the way, a number of his own stories from the comics have been sacrificed in the process, such as the missed opportunity of Winter Soldier’s romance with Black Widow. While Falcon and the Winter Soldier gave him markedly more agency, he still took a backseat to Sam. It’s a shame, because James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes is a far more interesting character than the MCU has allowed him to be so far.

There are a number of ways one of Bucky’s personal stories could be brought into the MCU. He may no longer be the Winter Soldier, but a convoluted past like that doesn’t just go away. There are likely plenty of enemies Bucky has made, and now that he’s no longer the boogeyman he once was, any number of villains could be gunning for him. Or his story from the comics where he’s framed for the murder of Russian civilians and extradited by the U.S. to be thrown into a Russian gulag, where he’s forced to fight other super-soldiers and face another part of his past. There are countless gripping stories to tell. By putting Bucky front and center in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier season 2, the MCU might finally make sure his story matters.

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