The Falcon and The Winter Soldier has finally dropped its first episode on Disney Plus, and after the success of WandaVision, there's a lot of hype for this newest entry into the MCU's foray into the world of television. Because this show is releasing after WandaVision, the comparisons between the two shows are inevitable, despite the fact that they deal with different characters and issues, and are very tonally distinct.
The fact that these shows are so obviously different means that The Falcon and The Winter Soldier might be able to avoid one of the biggest problems that plagued the weekly release of its predecessor. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is much more focused on the action, and has a much more straightforward plot structure than WandaVision. Because of this, it might be safe to assume that the extensive amounts of fan theorizing that happened during WandaVision's run won't run quite as rampant in the era of this new show.
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The structure of WandaVision really lent itself to fan speculation, as people constantly tried to figure out what was really going on, or what possible cameos could be made in future episodes of the show. This in turn led to a lot of fans being disappointed with certain choices the show made, because it didn't fit into their particular fan theory, or they were expecting something much grander. This particularly became a problem when some fans focused too much on these theories and seemed to forget about the story that the show was actually trying to tell, which was one of grief, loss, and love.
From the trailers and from what has happened in the first episode so far, it seems that The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is much more of a return to typical MCU fare, particularly mirroring the tone and style of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The show doesn't seem to be structured as a mystery in the same way that WandaVision was, and seems like a much more straightforward spy-thriller-meets-character-exploration story. This leaves less room for fan theories, other than perhaps a little bit of speculation about possible cameos in the series (which is already a hot topic for fans).
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier seems to be very character-focused, finally giving Sam and Bucky the spotlight that they've so desperately needed after all of their years in the MCU and the minimal amounts of character building they've been given. Because this story is so focused on them and on building their backstories and their relationship, it would be a shame for those character-driven moments to get ignored by fans in favor of speculation about a future cameo or a theory about what crazy comic storyline the show is going to bring in next. That distraction is exactly what happened during the release of WandaVision, and it led to a very heartfelt story often being overshadowed by fan expectations.
That's not to say that there won't be any fan theorizing; this is a Marvel property after all, and there will undoubtedly be plenty of cameos and Easter eggs for fans to speculate about over the show's release. And Marvel isn't innocent in this problem either - they often spend a lot of time in their movies and TV shows teasing plans for the future and basically setting fans up to have these lofty expectations. It's really no surprise that fans latched onto WandaVision in this way because the MCU formula was begging them to do it. Recent MCU entries have been very focused on setting up future films or series, sometimes to the detriment of the movie or show itself.
Marvel might need to take a step back from worrying so much about setting up for the future that they forget about their present stories, and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is just the place to do that. The show is obviously about setting up Sam and Bucky to be more major players in the future of the MCU, and possibly setting Sam Wilson up to be the next Captain America, so they will naturally have to be concerned about those elements. However, the focus needs to stay on these characters that the audience is already familiar with, and not on who the next big bad that they can bring into the MCU is.
As long as The Falcon and The Winter Soldier manages to stay as grounded as it seems it's going to be, it should mean that Marvel is trying to focus on their current stories rather than whatever else is supposed to happen in the future and in their next few phases. If anything, it seems that this show will have a focus on the past and present of the MCU, as it deals with the world during a time when everyone has returned from the blip and half of the population - Sam and Bucky included - are trying to find their place and their purpose in this new world.
Perhaps some fans have also come to realize that the constant speculation about WandaVision can sometimes taint the viewing experience in certain ways, especially if the viewer comes to expect something that doesn't happen and it leads to a sense of disappointment. If fans have realized this over the course of watching WandaVision, they might be less willing to engage in that same level of theorizing over this new show. Of course, that amount of obsession over WandaVision undoubtedly helped its popularity, so it will be interesting to see if The Falcon and The Winter Soldier can reach the same kind of following when it more closely follows the typical Marvel structure.
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