Marvel Confirms The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Takes Place Months After WandaVision

The next chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is now in full swing, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will look to continue the momentum after the early success of WandaVision. Created by Malcolm Spellman, the series will be much more grounded than the first Phase 4 entry since it will revolve around Steve Rogers' two best friends, Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes. 

From the get-go, it was established that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will be an action-packed affair, and this was further amplified by the slew of trailers that were released in recent weeks. In addition, the upcoming Marvel show will tackle a world without Captain America while also doing a deep dive into the legacy of the Star-Spangled Avenger. 

Now, a new report has revealed another major plot point that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will explore.  

THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER'S TIMELINE REVEALED

Collider shared in a report that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier takes place at least six months after the game-changing events of Avengers: Endgame. For context, WandaVision took place about a month after Endgame, meaning that there is a wide gap in-between the Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan led-project and the first Phase 4 entry. 

To talk about this reveal, the show's director Kari Skogland sat down with the outlet, explaining that this gap was “absolutely critical” because “everything narratively was informed by [The Blip]:” 

“Everything narratively was informed by that event for us. It meant that we're just past the shock of it. We're just past the joy of it — because we're imagining that there would be a lot of joy, in people returning. Now we're into the reality of it, which is complicated.”

On top of that, Skogland also broke down the in-universe ramifications that Thanos' snap introduced to the world while also admitting that “some of it's good and some of it's not so good:”

“With half the population Blipped away, you've got different economic circumstances, different border circumstances. Different countries were cooperative, that weren't before. Neighbors are cooperating, who weren't necessarily getting along before. People moved into houses that they didn't own before. Everything changed. Now we're into that moment. We're past the surprise of it, and now we're into the realities of it. I think that makes for a very different place in the story, because we can get not only grounded about it, but we can drill into how people respond to that. Some of it's good and some of it's not so good.”

SAM AND BUCKY'S LIFE AFTER ENDGAME 

On the surface, it makes narrative sense for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to explore the Blip, considering its place in the timeline. Given that Sam and Bucky were both victims of the Snap, it will be interesting to find out how the pair recovered from that traumatic experience, considering that Endgame didn't address this subplot. 

Since WandaVision was mostly self-contained, the series only provided glimpses of the in-universe effects of Thanos' snap, mainly shown through the perspective of Monica Rambeau. Based on Skogland's comments, it seems that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will look to outright show how the world is still reeling from the effects of the life-changing Blip. 

If anything, this is mainly due to the global scale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The series is poised to show the complicated nature of the world through the eyes of Sam and Bucky, and it should help answer some of the MCU's lingering questions such as the real state of the Sokovia Accords and the mystery surrounding the Avengers. 

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen if Sam and Bucky were aware of Wanda's Hex-pansion in Westview. Given that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier also takes place months after WandaVision, the anomaly that happened in New Jersey should've been featured in different reports from media outlets by then. 

On the flip side, there's a chance that Jimmy Woo and the FBI decided to keep the sitcom world shenanigans as a classified event, meaning that the two heroes were not aware of Wanda's transformation into the Scarlet Witch. 

Whatever the case, Sam and Bucky will have their own problems to deal with in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but the interconnected nature of the MCU also means that the pair will learn about Wanda's fate down the road eventually.