The Star-Spangled Man

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For the song from Captain America: The First Avenger, see
Star Spangled Man
.

"The Star-Spangled Man"
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode
Artwork of Sam Wilson / Falcon running right in front of Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier running left, with the logo for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier above them.
The second of several art posters released for the series, with art by Salvador Anguiano
Episode no.Episode 2
Directed byKari Skogland
Written byMichael Kastelein
Produced byMalcolm Spellman
Cinematography byP.J. Dillon
Editing by
Original release dateMarch 26, 2021 (2021-03-26)
Running time50 minutes
Cast
  • Lemar Hoskins / Battlestar
  • Isaiah Bradley
  • Desmond Chiam as Dovich
  • Dani Deetee as Gigi
  • Indya Bussey as DeeDee
  • Renes Rivera as Lennox
  • Tyler Dean Flores as Diego
  • Ness Bautista as Matias
  • Amy Aquino as Dr. Christina Raynor
  • Elijah Richardson as
    Eli Bradley
  • Noah Mills as Nico
  • Gabrielle Byndloss as Olivia Walker
  • Mike Ray as Alonso Barber
  • Neal Kodinsky as Rudy
  • Sara Haines as herself
Episode chronology
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"New World Order" 		Next →
"Power Broker"
List of episodes

"The Star-Spangled Man" is the second episode of the American television

Flag Smashers. The episode is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. It was written by Michael Kastelein and directed by Kari Skogland
.

Atlanta metropolitan area and in Prague
.

"The Star-Spangled Man" was released on the streaming service Disney+ on March 26, 2021. Viewership for the series was estimated to have been higher than the previous week, and the episode was well-received by critics who praised its racial commentary and dialogue, the chemistry between Mackie and Stan, and the introduction of Bradley.

Plot

Flag Smashers
terrorist group.

Wilson and Barnes travel to

Lemar Hoskins come to their aid. The Flag Smashers escape. Walker and Hoskins request Barnes and Wilson join them in aiding the Global Repatriation Council (GRC) to quash the ongoing violent post-Blip revolutions, but they refuse. Meanwhile, Morgenthau receives a threatening text from the mysterious Power Broker
.

Traveling to

Hydra
for 30 years. As the two argue over Barnes keeping the existence of an African-American super-soldier a secret, Wilson is harassed by police and Barnes is arrested for missing a therapy appointment. Barnes is released on bail after Walker and Hoskins intervene. Barnes and Wilson are forced into a therapy session with Barnes's therapist Dr. Raynor.

Barnes and Wilson again refuse to work with Walker and Hoskins, and Walker warns the duo to stay out of their way. In

Helmut Zemo in Berlin
to gather intelligence on the Flag Smashers.

Production

Development

By October 2018,

Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Nate Moore.[6]: 15  The second episode was written by Michael Kastelein and is titled "The Star-Spangled Man".[7]

Writing

The opening scene features the new government-chosen

John Walker, going on a press tour. This was suggested by Feige as a way to humanize the character.[8] Actor Wyatt Russell described Walker as a soldier from a different time period than the first Captain America, Steve Rogers, comparing him to those who served in the Iraq War and War in Afghanistan. He noted that there is a "grey area now" and a different way of fighting due to the influence of technology. He also felt Walker was a company man for the United States military and someone who is willing to do things he is not comfortable doing. He also paralleled Wilson's imposter syndrome regarding the Captain America mantle with Walker's, stating that Walker was a "little bit more of a [jump in] head first type guy" than Wilson. Russell did not read the comics for inspiration.[9][10]

Actor Carl Lumbly during an interview
The episode received praise for introducing guest star Carl Lumbly as the character Isaiah Bradley from the comic book Truth: Red, White & Black (2003)

Spellman took inspiration for the series from the comic book Truth: Red, White & Black (2003),[11] which Feige was nervous about adapting because he felt they would not be able to do justice to it and its main character, Isaiah Bradley, if they were only a small part of the series. He changed his mind when he saw how central Bradley was to the series' themes.[12] The character is introduced in this episode and Spellman described him as the soul of the series. He said Bradley's interactions with Wilson would be formative for Wilson's eventual tenure as Captain America.[13]

Casting

The episode stars Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes,

Felix Blake in the Marvel One-Shots short films and the series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.[17][18]

Filming

Filming for the series officially began in November 2019,

Atlanta metropolitan area and in Prague.[22][23] Scenes in Isaiah Bradley's house were filmed in 66 Hogue Street NE in Atlanta, which was a block away from Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthplace.[24][25] The series was shot like a film, with Skogland and Dillon filming all of the content at once based on available locations.[26][27] Most of the second episode's footage was filmed before production was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.[28][29]
: 40:05–40:55 

For the series' first episode, "New World Order", Dillon differentiated the cinematography for Barnes ("cold and austere") and Wilson ("warm and inviting").[30] For the second episode, Skogland wanted to merge the two cinematography styles now that the characters come together.[8] A comedic scene with the pair early in the episode sees them discuss wizards and the novel The Hobbit (1937). Stan credited this scene to the script and said the committed delivery from him and Mackie made it funny. However, Skogland credited Mackie and Stan's improvisation skills. Another example of this which Skogland gave was a subsequent scene where the pair walk to a plane in silence, staring at each other. She felt this experimental approach had allowed them to develop a "genuine, authentic relationship" between the characters and include ad-libs and humor naturally.[31]

Skogland said the therapy scene between Barnes and Wilson allowed the characters to show their vulnerabilities, convey how Barnes's mind is "this type of jail cell he's in", and explore their shared grief over losing Rogers.[32][31] Aquino added that Dr. Raynor's "soldier to soldier" conversations with the pair allowed them to explore themes about acknowledging and resolving trauma.[33] She took inspiration from therapists she had both met with and portrayed throughout her career, and cited detective Mitzi Roberts as her biggest influence in portraying Dr. Raynor.[17] Aquino said the therapy scene was largely improvised by Mackie and Stan,[34] and it took around 4 to 5 takes to film the humorous moment in which Wilson and Barnes's legs are interlocked.[33] For a central action sequence that takes place on moving trucks, Skogland wanted to contrast Wilson and Barnes's incompatibility with Walker and Hoskins being a "well-oiled machine". She also emphasized Wilson's attempts to get through to Morgenthau.[8] Action and stunts for the sequence were filmed practically, primarily by the second unit.[35]

Visual effects

Eric Leven served as the visual effects supervisor for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, with the episode's visual effects created by

Munich, Germany, the team augmented the plate footage with German trees and mountains, using Google Maps and Google Earth for reference.[38] Rodeo also created a five-mile-long (eight-kilometer-long) highway that the trucks could drive on. This allowed them to easily change positions during filming or use different plate shots, as the team wanted to show different areas in successive shots of the sequence. They rendered the highway moving at 120 kilometers per second, rather than the trucks moving, as it was easier for the camera to align all the elements and ensure details like stones, dirt, and smoke could be inserted.[39] Rodeo computer-generated imagery (CGI) supervisor Loïc Beguel created a method for the team to track the position of the trucks across the digital highway during edits, making editorial updates easier.[40] In some shots they used digital doubles of the trucks,[38] and a fully digital interior of one of the trucks was created for the moment where Barnes confronts Morgenthau, with digital vaccine crates replacing cardboard boxes from the original reference footage.[41] Shots in the sequence also featured digital doubles of the actors, particularly during close-ups of Falcon and when modifying footage of stunt doubles became difficult. Rodeo visual effects supervisor Sébastien Francoeur said a digital double was present for around 95 percent of shots featuring Barnes's Winter Soldier arm.[38]

Music

The episode opens with a

Marvel Music and Hollywood Records on April 9, 2021.[43][44]

Marketing

On March 19, 2021, Marvel announced a series of posters that were created by various artists to correspond with the episodes of the series. The posters were released weekly ahead of each episode,

Funko Pop and Marvel Legends figure of Walker and a Hot Toys Winter Soldier figure.[49]

Release

"The Star-Spangled Man" was released on Disney+ on March 26, 2021.[50] The episode, along with the rest of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, will be released on Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray on April 30, 2024.[51]

Reception

Audience viewership

Nielsen Media Research, which measures the number of minutes watched by United States audiences on television sets, listed The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as the most-watched original series across streaming services for the week of March 22 to 28, 2021. Between the first two episodes, which were available at the time, the series had 628 million minutes viewed, which was a 27% gain over the previous week.[52]

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average score of 8.1/10 based on 37 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "New political intrigue and a healthy dose of emotional stakes are great, but what really makes 'The Star-Spangled Man' sing is the return of Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan's delightfully antagonistic chemistry."[53]

Sulagna Misra of The A.V. Club was amazed how the series was "leading us to how Sam can become Captain America. It's clear that it's not a problem of nerve or intelligence or compassion. It's that Sam feels there is no easy way to go into the role without feeling like an imposter—or even worse, being treated as one." She was relieved that Wilson was an emotionally intelligent main character, and enjoyed the banter between him and Barnes. Misra also felt Lumbly was able to convey a lot in his short scene, and gave the episode an "A".[54] Den of Geek's Gavin Jasper felt the series found its footing in this episode and was "walking into an interesting conflict. As our heroes reluctantly work together, they're sandwiched between a country that mistreats them and a group of terrorists who want to do away with the systems that mistreat our heroes." Jasper called the scene with Isaiah Bradley a memorable, though somber, moment of the episode. He gave the episode 4.5 out of 5 stars.[55] Giving the episode a "B", Christian Holub of Entertainment Weekly believed it was a good choice to explore Walker in the opening of the episode and praised the scene with Isaiah Bradley. Holub enjoyed seeing the Flag Smashers expand upon the idea that there were some benefits to the Blip and compared the group to the Red Lotus from the animated series The Legend of Korra. Speaking to the episode's main set piece, Holub said it was less impressive that the first episode's opening action sequence, but made up for its smaller scale by adding more characters to the fight. He was also excited by the continued teasing of the Young Avengers forming in the MCU, as seen in other MCU films and television series, with the appearance of Eli Bradley who becomes Patriot in the comics.[56]

Feeling "The Star-Spangled Man" dove "headfirst into its story" with the episode giving more time to the Flag Smashers and John Walker after the first episode was "highly character-focused", IGN's Matt Purslow said the episode was "another dense, chewy episode, marred only by an odd approach to Sam and Bucky's antagonistic [quippy] dialogue" which he found irritating rather than funny. Purslow said the main action sequence's focus on super soldiers tied it into the Captain America mythology that that rest of the series is centered on, and he spoke highly of the scene with Isaiah Bradley. He felt that scene was a huge moment for Wilson and said it was "a good sign that the writing team intends to continue exploring the issue in a serious way that is smartly woven into the larger-than-life world of superheroes". He gave the episode an 8 out of 10.[57] Alan Sepinwall at Rolling Stone said the episode was "even busier" than the previous one, but found it to be more satisfying given Wilson and Barnes share scenes which "significantly boosts the energy level of the show and injects some badly-needed humor". Wilson and Barnes's counseling session was one of the highlights for Sepinwall along with the various running gags throughout, though he did criticize the episode's set piece which he felt was repetitive and had questionable visual effects.[7]

References

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External links

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