Marvel Studios Black Panther/T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) in "Black Panther."
The fourth episode of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” ended in stunning fashion, and the fifth episode could reportedly carry even more emotional weight. After seeing John Walker (Wyatt Russell), the new suped-up Captain America, take his frustrations over Lemar Hoskins’ death out by killing a Flag Smasher in full view of the public, people are sure to be looking at the new Cap in a whole new light.
That’s the background heading into the unnamed fifth episode, which will serve as the season’s penultimate. There are reasons to believe that not only will the forthcoming episode feature a notable cameo – or perhaps a brand-new character introduction – but it will be the season’s most moving.
A New Face Introduced to the MCU?
While doing the press rounds when “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” was just kicking off, showrunner Malcolm Spellman began to build big anticipation for the fifth episode of the season. There were two particular quotes that fans have been pointing to ever since for why the episode could be truly special. The first came during a video interview with Rotten Tomatoes when Spellman gave a small morsel of information about what he called the “episode five character.”
“There are characters in our series who I would love to see partnered with like — it’s a very, very grounded character — one of the big world-shakers like Thor or someone like that who hasn’t moved on,” Spellman said. “Because the personality is so strong; it’s the episode 5 character. I’d love to see that character with Thor.”
The term grounded can be interpreted in a lot of different ways. Does it refer to someone Earth-bound? Does it refer to someone without superpowers? Is it a reference to the character’s personality?
Characters like Steve Rogers/Captain America or Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow might come to mind, but that’s not expected to be the case. According to a report by SlashFilm, the new character is not one that has been seen previously in the MCU. That would rule out any hero fans saw during the Infinity Sage. SlashFilm also reports that it’s not a character with an upcoming movie role, but that it is someone who exists in Marvel comics and will be played by a notable actor.
Similar hype was built for a big cameo in “WandaVision,” but – outside of an alternate version of Quicksilver played by Evan Peters, who portrayed the character in the Twentieth Century Fox produced X-Men movies – that never really came to fruition. Perhaps Marvel will continue to trickle in X-Men character cameos now that the studio once again owns the rights to those characters, but that is pure speculation.
It’s possible Spellman could have been referring to the mysterious Power Broker, who has been alluded to in the series but not yet shown on-screen. Fans have wondered whether Sharon Carter (Emily Van Camp) may in fact be the shadowy figure, which would be a change from the comics, but perhaps the Power Broker will appear as a new character in the upcoming episode.
Whatever the case, this cameo will occur in what Spellman believes will be an incredibly emotional episode.
“Hands down, five, it just gets real,” Spellman told Comicbook when asked which episode he was excited for people to see. “And five, you’re going to cry.”
There’s One Cameo Fans Shouldn’t Expect
As tends to happen when rumor mills are concerned, people started heading in a dangerous direction that those involved wanted to get in front of. Given the appearance of the Dora Milaje, the all-female unit of elite Wakandan warriors, in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” fans have speculated that the late Chadwick Boseman filmed a cameo as the Black Panther for the series before his tragic passing in August of 2020.
This speculation apparently reached the level where Marvel producer Nate Moore, who has worked on both “Black Panther” and “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” had to firmly shoot it down.
“No. I can say. That is not going to happen,” Moore told Vanity Fair prior to the fifth episode. “I would be honest if it was. Chad’s passing is a whole life thing, and I loved the guy as much as the character. I think we have to be very careful and thoughtful about when he appears because he meant so much to a lot of people as much as he meant to us. But yeah, we wouldn’t use that as a ‘Come next week; maybe you’ll see Panther!’ We wouldn’t, and he’s not.”
This also tracks with SlashFilm’s report that the cameo wouldn’t be made by someone fans had seen previously in the MCU. While fans would undoubtedly love to see King T’Challa back on their screen one last time, that doesn’t appear to be happening in what should be an action-packed fifth episode.
Fans can stream the fifth episode of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” on Friday, exclusively on Disney Plus.
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