Sam Wilson (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Samuel Wilson is a fictional character portrayed by Anthony Mackie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name and known commonly by his original alias, the Falcon. Wilson is initially depicted as a veteran United States Air Force Pararescueman who specializes in the use of an advanced jet pack with articulated wings. A skilled combatant and tactician, Wilson becomes a close friend of Steve Rogers after assisting him during the Hydra uprising, later being recruited by him to join the Avengers.

During the fallout related to the Sokovia Accords, Wilson sides with Rogers and becomes a fugitive as a result. He returns to the fold during the conflict against Thanos, falling victim to the Blip. After being restored to life, he is personally appointed by the now-retired Rogers to become the new Captain America, also receiving from him a specially made version of the iconic shield. However, believing he cannot live up to the mantle, Wilson decides to surrender the shield to the U.S. government, who in turn appoints John Walker as Captain America instead. During the ensuing conflict with Walker and the Flag Smashers, Wilson, with assistance from James Barnes, finally accepts the title.

Wilson is a central figure in the MCU, having appeared in six films. He is a primary protagonist of the miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021). The character is noted for being the first black Captain America in the MCU, and Mackie's portrayal of Wilson has been met with positive reception. He is set to reprise the role as the titular character in the film Captain America: Brave New World (2025).

Early life and military service
Wilson was born and raised in Delacroix, Louisiana, where his family operated a fishing business. He later became a United States Air Force (USAF) Pararescueman and served multiple tours in overseas military campaigns. He was selected to test a prototype military wingsuit alongside his friend Riley due to insurgents' use of RPGs preventing the use of helicopters. However, Riley was killed by an RPG and Wilson was unable to save him. After ending his Air Force service, Wilson became a trauma counselor aiding other returning veterans.

Helping Steve Rogers
In 2014, Wilson befriends Steve Rogers while jogging in Washington, D.C., and later agrees to help him and Natasha Romanoff defeat Hydra. After receiving help from Maria Hill and Nick Fury, the trio travel to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters, the Triskelion, where they engage Bucky Barnes, who Hydra brainwashed and turned into the Winter Soldier, and Brock Rumlow. In the aftermath, Wilson offers to accompany Rogers in his mission to track down Barnes.

New Avenger
In 2015, Wilson attends the Avengers' party at Avengers Tower in New York City to report back on his progress in finding Barnes to Rogers. Soon after, Wilson is recruited into the Avengers' new roster at the Avengers Compound alongside Wanda Maximoff, Vision, and James Rhodes.

A few months later, Wilson has a brief altercation with Scott Lang outside the Compound, where Lang takes a device necessary for his own mission. Wilson, impressed by Lang, starts looking for him.

Sokovia Accords
In 2016, Wilson accompanies Rogers, Romanoff, and Maximoff on a mission in Lagos to stop Rumlow from obtaining a biological weapon. While there, Wilson debuts a bird-shaped robotic drone he has nicknamed Redwing. Later, he becomes the first Avenger to oppose the Sokovia Accords, a new law requiring the Avengers to be supervised by the United Nations that Rogers opposes but Tony Stark supports. Wilson accompanies Rogers and attends Peggy Carter's funeral. Afterwards, he learns that Barnes is being framed for a bombing in Vienna and informs Rogers and Sharon Carter. Rogers and Wilson attempt to protect Barnes, only to be arrested alongside the Black Panther, T'Challa. When the true perpetrator of the bombing, Helmut Zemo, sets Barnes loose to protect his own escape, Wilson attempts to catch Zemo but is unsuccessful. Later, Barnes tells Rogers and Wilson about five other supersoldiers that he believes Zemo wants to unleash. At Wilson's suggestion, Rogers calls Clint Barton to recruit Lang and retrieve Maximoff. At an airport in Germany, they face off against Stark's faction of Avengers - Rhodes, Romanoff, T'Challa, Spider-Man, and Vision. As Rogers and Barnes escape in a Quinjet, Wilson, Barton, Maximoff, and Lang are incarcerated at the Raft prison, where they are met by Stark, who convinces Wilson to tell him where Rogers and Barnes went in exchange for Stark going alone. Sometime later, Wilson and the others are broken out of the Raft by Rogers and joined by Romanoff, go into hiding due to violating the accords.

Infinity War and resurrection
In 2018, Wilson, Rogers, and Romanoff arrive in Scotland to rescue Maximoff and Vision from Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive, two of the Children of Thanos. The Avengers return to the Compound and meet with Rhodes and Bruce Banner, before heading to Wakanda. There they try to protect Vision before facing off with the Outriders. The Avengers later try to stop Thanos upon his arrival from completing the Infinity Gauntlet, but are unable too, and Wilson falls victim to the Blip.

In 2023, Wilson is restored to life and is brought via portal by Masters of the Mystic Arts to the ruins of the Compound to join the battle against an alternate version of Thanos. A week later, Wilson attends Stark's funeral. The next day, with Barnes' approval, he receives Captain America's shield and mantle from an elderly Rogers.

Becoming Captain America
In 2024, Wilson has returned to work as a contractor with the USAF with support from his friend, USAF first lieutenant Joaquin Torres. He and Torres go on a mission to rescue a captive USAF captain from Georges Batroc in Tunisia. Wilson returns to Washington, D.C. and gives the shield to the U.S. government so it can be displayed in a Smithsonian exhibit dedicated to Captain America, believing that he is not worthy of taking up Captain America's mantle. While there, he reunites with Rhodes. He then returns to Delacroix to help his sister, Sarah, with the family business until Torres tells of him an attack carried out by the Flag Smashers, a terrorist group that believe life was better during the Blip. Wilson also learns that the U.S. government has named John Walker the new Captain America.

Partnering with Bucky Barnes
Wilson returns to the USAF base to meet with Torres, but he is approached by Barnes, who expresses disapproval that he surrendered the shield. Wilson and Barnes are taken to Munich by Torres to intercept the Flag Smashers and their leader Karli Morgenthau, only to discover they all have superhuman strength. Despite receiving aid from Walker and Lemar Hoskins, Wilson and Barnes are overpowered and the terrorists escape. Walker requests the pair join him in aiding the Global Repatriation Council (GRC) to quash the ongoing violent post-Blip revolutions, but they decline and head to Baltimore to meet Isaiah Bradley, a Korean War veteran and super-soldier whom Barnes encountered in battle decades prior, to find out how the Flag Smashers obtained super-solder serum. They approach Bradley's house and meet his grandson, Elijah Bradley, while Bradley refuses to help them, revealing he was imprisoned and experimented on by the government for thirty years. Barnes convinces Wilson to travel to Berlin and meet with the imprisoned Zemo in an effort to obtain information about the Flag Smashers, during which Barnes secretly orchestrates Zemo's escape. Despite his reluctance, Wilson joins Barnes and Zemo in traveling to Madripoor under assumed names to locate the source of the new super-soldier serum. They learn from high-ranking criminal, Selby, that the Power Broker hired former Hydra scientist Dr. Wilfred Nagel to recreate the serum before the trio is compromised and Selby is killed. The trio are saved by Carter, who agrees to help them after Wilson offers to get her pardoned. They travel to Nagel's lab and confront him, learning that he created twenty vials of the serum before the Flag Smashers stole them. After Zemo kills Nagel and bounty hunters destroy the latter's lab, Wilson, Barnes, and Carter fight the bounty hunters until Zemo acquires a getaway car to help them escape. While Carter stays behind, Wilson calls Torres for intel and tells Barnes and Zemo they need to travel to Latvia to find Morgenthau.

Stopping the Flag Smashers
Wilson attempts to persuade Morgenthau to end the violence, but an impatient unstable Walker interrupts and she escapes. After she threatens Sarah, Wilson meets with Morgenthau, during which she asks him to join her movement. Walker and Hoskins intervene, leading to a fight in which Morgenthau accidentally kills Hoskins. Enraged by his friend's death and having taken the serum, Walker uses Captain America's shield to kill one of the Flag Smashers in front of a group of horrified bystanders, who film his actions.

Following this, Wilson and Barnes demand the shield from Walker, starting a fight in which Walker destroys Wilson's wingsuit before Wilson and Barnes narrowly take the shield back. Wilson realizes he needs to be Captain America and passes on his Falcon wingsuit and mantle to Torres. He then revisits Isaiah, but the latter states his belief that a black man cannot, and should not, be Captain America. Wilson returns home to Louisiana and helps fix the family boat, with assistance from several locals as well as Barnes, who delivers a new Captain America suit he acquired from the Wakandans. While training with the shield, Wilson and Barnes agree to move on from their pasts and work together as friends.

After receiving a lead from Torres, Wilson flies to New York City to save the GRC from the Flag Smashers with help from Barnes, Carter, and Walker. Wilson attempts to reason with Morgenthau, but Carter kills her when she points a gun at him. After carrying out Morgenthau's body, Wilson convinces the GRC to postpone their impending vote to force the relocation of Blip-displaced individuals and make efforts to help them instead. Wilson then visits the Bradley's again, having convinced the government to create a statue honoring Bradley as part of the Smithsonian's Captain America exhibit. He then takes them to see it. Afterward, Wilson returns home and joins his family, Barnes, and his community for a cookout.

Alternate versions
Other versions of Wilson are depicted in the alternate realities of the MCU multiverse.

Zombie outbreak
In an alternate 2018, Wilson became infected by a quantum virus that turned him into a zombie. The zombified Wilson later attacks Bucky Barnes and Okoye at Grand Central Terminal before being killed by the latter.

Concept, creation, and characterization
Samuel Thomas Wilson, known as the Falcon, was the first African-American superhero in mainstream comic books. The character first appeared in Captain America #117 (Sept. 1969). Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Gene Colan, he came about, Colan recalled in 2008, "...in the late 1960s [when news of the] Vietnam War and civil rights protests were regular occurrences, and Stan, always wanting to be at the forefront of things, started bringing these headlines into the comics. ... One of the biggest steps we took in this direction came in Captain America. I enjoyed drawing people of every kind. I drew as many different types of people as I could into the scenes I illustrated, and I loved drawing black people. I always found their features interesting and so much of their strength, spirit and wisdom written on their faces. I approached Stan, as I remember, with the idea of introducing an African-American hero and he took to it right away. ... I looked at several African-American magazines, and used them as the basis of inspiration for bringing The Falcon to life."

He was introduced as an unnamed former resident of New York City's Harlem neighborhood, who had adopted a wild falcon he trained and named Redwing. (His own name, Sam Wilson, was not given until page five of the following issue.) After Wilson came into conflict with the supervillain the Red Skull, Steve Rogers inspired Wilson to take on the costumed identity of the Falcon, and Wilson underwent training with Rogers. Through most of the 1970s, the Falcon and Captain America were a team in New York City, and the series was cover-billed Captain America and the Falcon from issues #134–192 and 194–222 (February 1971 – June 1978).

The Falcon eventually became a member of the Avengers from issues #183–194 (May 1979 – April 1980), and had a solo issue. After regularly appearing in Captain America vol. 2 (November 1996 – November 1997), the Falcon rejoined the Avengers in The Avengers vol. 3, #1 (February 1998). This time, he remained with the team, becoming one of its most prominent members by issue #57 (Oct. 2002). In 2014, Marvel announced that Wilson would succeed Rogers as the new Captain America, a mantle which the character thereafter assumed in several additional runs.

In the mid-2000s, Kevin Feige realized that Marvel still owned the rights to the core members of the Avengers, which included Captain America and his associated characters, including Wilson. Feige, a self-professed "fanboy", envisioned creating a shared universe just as creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had done with their comic books in the early 1960s. In 2005, Marvel received a $525 million investment from Merrill Lynch, allowing them to independently produce ten films, including Captain America. Paramount Pictures agreed to distribute the film. In July 2012, Anthony Mackie entered negotiations to star as Wilson/Falcon alongside Chris Evans in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In November 2014, Mackie was confirmed to be returning in Captain America: Civil War. In early July 2015, an international teaser trailer revealed that Mackie would appear as Wilson/Falcon in Ant-Man. Mackie appears in the post-credit sequence as well, along with Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan as Steve Rogers / Captain America and Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier, respectively.

Characterization
Entering the role, Mackie said "[Wilson is] a really smart guy who went through major military training and becomes a tactical leader." He also remarked, "He's the first African-American superhero. It makes me feel all the work I've done has been paying off. I have a son, nephews and nieces, and I love the idea that they can dress up as the Falcon on Halloween. They now have someone they can idolize. That's a huge honor for me." Marvel, who cast Mackie because of his "energy and sense of fun", did not let him read a script before signing on. Mackie spent five months doing two-a-day workouts and eating an 11,000 calorie per day diet to get into shape for the role. Commenting on Rogers' relationship with Wilson, Evans said, "Meeting Mackie's character, he used to serve, now he works at the VA counseling guys who come home with PTSD—they connect on that level. I think they're both wounded warriors who don't bleed on other people. Cap has no one to bleed on. I think Mackie knows how to handle people like that. ... Sometimes when things are bad, trusting a stranger is the way to go".

On including Falcon in Ant-Man, director Peyton Reed said that it was not done just to include the character, rather "[i]t served a plot point; a purpose in our story" and allowed them to enhance Michael Peña's "tip montages", which were written by production writers Gabriel Ferrari and Andrew Barrer, also adding Falcon "seemed like the right character—not a marquee character like Iron Man or Thor, but the right level of hero". Rudd and McKay decided to include Falcon after watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Discussing the relationship between Wilson and Rogers in Captain America: Civil War, Mackie said, "With Falcon and Cap, what's so great is there's a mutual respect. There's a soldier respect. What's great about ... [Captain America: Civil War] is you get to see their relationship grow," adding, "He respects and admires Cap because Cap earned his rank as opposed to sitting in an office and just delegating orders." Feige said that it was decided to reshoot the final scene of the film to incorporate the new Falcon suit designed for Ant-Man, which was released after Age of Ultron, as Falcon was originally shot in his original suit from The Winter Soldier. Mackie stated he did not realize Wilson had become an Avenger until he watched the film at the premiere, as he was only given the script for the scenes he worked on.

Wilson uses a pair of submachine guns as his main weapons and flies using a jet pack with articulated wings. From Civil War on, he is aided by a robotic drone named Redwing. Joe Russo stated that the inclusion of Barnes to Rogers' side forces Wilson to question the dynamic and relationship he has with Rogers going forward. Mackie noted that in Infinity War, Wilson has a grudge with other heroes like Iron Man and Black Panther after the events of Civil War.

Differences from the comic books
A number of differences have been observed between the comic book version of the character and the MCU adaptation. The character's comic book backstory is dispensed with entirely, with Wilson instead being introduced with a military background, an aspect that originated from the Ultimate comics through which he is able to relate to Rogers. In the comic book, Wilson has the ability to communicate with birds and is assisted in his heroics by an actual falcon named Redwing. In the films, this is replaced by a drone nicknamed Redwing, which the character is able to control remotely. Wilson's costume is also dramatically different from the bare-chested skintight outfit worn by the character in the comics, instead wearing a utilitarian outfit inspired by the Ultimate Marvel version, though Mackie has indicated that he wanted to wear "red Spandex, head to toe" for the part.

In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he wears a red-and silver costume that is closer to the comics. While fighting the Flag Smashers and John Walker however, the former destroys his Redwing drone while the latter destroys his flight suit. Following these, Barnes convinces Ayo of Wakanda's Dora Milaje to arrange for the construction of a replacement flight suit made of vibranium and equipped with a pair of Redwing drones.

Critical response
The response to the character of Wilson was mixed, with Jacob Stolworthy of The Independent feeling he was "memorable solely due to the vibrancy the entertaining actor [Mackie] brings to the role." However, Mackie's portrayal of Wilson was widely praised, with Matt Donnelly of Variety noting his "winning tone" and "wry and collegial humour" in the role. Andy Welch of The Guardian praised Wilson's speech to the Global Repatriation Council as Wilson's "greatest moment" in the final episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, adding that there were "plenty of miles left" in Wilson's partnership with Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes.