The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is the second ever television series by Marvel Studios on Disney+ . However, it is not the second-ever Marvel television show.
As many fans already know, shows like ABC's Agents of Shield and Netflix's Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones all are previous Marvel television shows. The key difference between these shows and WandaVision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is that they weren't produced directly by Marvel CCO Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios.
Despite the separate production groups, all of the aforementioned series made reference to the Marvel Cinematic Universe . Agents of SHIELD in particular had the most connections, with appearances by Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Jamie Alexander’s Lady Sif.
There is a lot of confusion and disagreement on what is and is not MCU canon , but it's clear some Marvel Studios creators don't want to rehash previous television characters.
A NEW DEATHLOK
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier showrunner Malcolm Spellman recently revealed to Heroic Hollywood that the character he would "most love to do next" is Deathlok. Unfortunately for Agents of SHIELD fans, Spellman would only be interested in "a different Deathlok" than the one previously portrayed by J. August Richards.
Spellman continued by calling Deathlok his "favorite character."
“My favorite character, the character I would most love to do next, would be Deathlok. But it would have to be right.”
Spellman confirmed to he'd want to start fresh with a new iteration of the character.
“Yeah. Yeah. Not that Deathlok. A different Deathlok.”
MORE MCU CANON CONFUSION
In WandaVision the inclusion of the mystical book The Darkhold put into question whether it was the same one that appears in Agents of SHIED and Runaways . WandaVision director Matt Shakman recently said he "would imagine it's the same book," but didn't know how it had been previously used in the shows.
For some fans, this is enough to continue defending that Agents of SHIELD and others are entirely a part of the MCU, but not everyone agrees or cares.
The MCU canon conversation is one of the most controversial among Marvel film/television fans. Kevin Feige has always bounced around the topic, despite never acknowledging the events of those shows in his Marvel Studios projects. Typically, the Marvel television shows are influenced by the MCU films, but not the other way around. Does that make it canon? That remains debatable.
However, if Spellman ever gets his wish to reboot Deathlok and make it an entirely new character, that would not help a fan's argument that Agents of SHIELD is canon. The idea of reintroducing a Marvel television character isn't unheard of. Comicbook.com's Brandon Davis reported that Daredevil 's Charlie Cox had filmed scenes for Spider-Man: No Way Home, but didn't know "if he's Daredevil yet or a fresh Daredevil, nobody knows if he's a fresh Daredevil, if he's a fresh Matt Murdock.”
This is a little different because Cox would be returning to the role, but a Marvel television character being reintroduced in an MCU film may become a trend in the future.
