One of the biggest talking points from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a blockbuster-sized Marvel Cinematic Universe series that dealt with a rogue terrorist organization and the legacy of Captain America while furthering the odd couple dynamic between the two leads, emanated from Sam Wilson sitting in a bank trying to get a loan for his family business.
It was one of those scenes that nobody had ever really thought about before, but raised a lot of questions when it was over. Naturally, some folks overreacted and launched a campaign to try and have fictional character Tony Stark canceled because he didn’t pay the Avengers even though he wasn’t their boss and funded their entire operation through other means, while star Anthony Mackie was also under the impression that Iron Man was putting his hands into his very deep pockets.
In a new interview, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s lead writer and executive producer Malcolm Spellman admitted that when he brought the scene to Marvel Studios, they’d never considered it, either. And so, he ended up opening a massive can of worms that he had to try and boil down into an explanation he could fit into the script without laboring on exposition for too long.
“That storyline was in the pitch, the bank scene probably was not because I couldn’t be that specific at the moment, but I knew their family business. I had done some research on black fishermen in Louisiana and I knew that their family was struggling because of what these banks were doing, driving people out of business. It is funny because that scene hit on two different levels.
On one level, it was Sam was black before he’s the Falcon and he can’t get a loan. But then the other level, one of the things that pulled in so many execs at Marvel is like, ‘Wait a minute, this is a huge deal, if we’re gonna start talking about how superheroes make a living’. Like the volume of notes that came in just on that, and the amount of meetings on like, ‘Well how do they?’. It seems hella simple to say he has military contracts but anyone who writes knows, we got all kinds of convoluted sh*t before you get down to something that simple. That sh*t was a trip, that really touched something for fans that surprised me. Whether they knew it or not, they’d been waiting to have that discussion.”
Based on the reaction it generated, and how much the MCU loves to appease its fanbase, thanks to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier there’s probably going to be an info dump made somewhere down the line that reveals how the Avengers get remunerated for their efforts in saving the world, but Sam clearly doesn’t mind now that his newfound status as Captain America should ensure the safety of his fishing operation for the foreseeable future.