On your left! Empire’s new issue is an exclusive dive into Marvel Studios’ all-action superhero epic The Falcon And The Winter Soldier – chatting to Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Kevin Feige, Emily VanCamp, Daniel Brühl and more. On sale Thursday, March 18th.
You can Pre-order now!
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EW.com — Waking up naked and hungover on the beach next to a stranger after a booze-soaked one-night stand doesn’t exactly sound like the beginning of a beautiful love story — especially when it leads to getting arrested for indecent exposure. But when it comes to Monday, the steamy new movie starring Sebastian Stan and Denise Gough, it’s time to throw out any assumptions of what a traditional romance looks like. Relationships can start in the back of a cop car!
This is the first trailer for director Argyris Papadimitropoulos’ film that subverts expectations of what a movie love story looks like. Stan sheds his hard-edged, scowling MCU assassin persona Bucky Barnes — next seen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — to become the laidback and fun-loving Mickey, who meets the older and intriguing Chloe (Gough) at a wild party one night on a Greek island. Their magical weekend of drinking, dancing, and sex in public places plays out like a realistic and exciting fairytale. But when Monday morning rolls around, reality starts to outweigh the fantasy as Mickey and Chloe are reminded there’s not always a “happily ever after” in life.
“I was always excited and interested in love stories but I always wanted to explore when things go wrong in relationships,” Papadimitropoulos previously told EW of his fourth feature film, which he wrote with Rob Hayes. “Why do people become so different at some point when everything started like a dream?”
Papadimitropoulos knows moviegoers have seen the candy-coated, happy ending love stories in films many times before, so he wanted to take an honest look at what really happens with relationships — the good, the bad, and the ugly.
“The rom-com genre gave us some amazing films in the past but then again, you watch them, they’re entertaining, but it’s not true,” he said. “You don’t really believe what’s going on at the end. So we start the film like a romantic comedy but then let the characters develop the way they would in real life and have problems, bottled up feelings, things they hide from each other, skeletons in their closet, and see what happens when the reality of everyday life settles in. It’s great having an amazing weekend but then Monday comes with a reality check.”
Monday premieres in select theaters and on-demand on April 16.
The Captain America films are renowned for holding a mirror up to society, acting as parables for the modern world. Sure enough, as soon as Steve Rogers retired the shield and hung up his star-spangled boots, the world moved into uncharted, uncertain territory. Now, Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan face the task of continuing a legacy that’s been built on values of courage and responsibility. Add mateship to that equation and you have a pair of comic book heroes uniquely equipped to meet the challenges of our times.
MensHealth.com.au — Over the past decade I’ve felt a difference within myself. A change, a pull, a stirring. And as the Zoom call connects and my face pops up between Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, my suspicions are confirmed: I’m a nerd.
Of course, I’m not alone. The slope to Marvel fandom is not only slippery, it’s one that’s claimed millions around the world in the last decade-and-a-half. It’s the original pandemic, a wave of nerd culture sweeping up millennial males, driven for the most part by the creative forces behind Marvel Studios.
Over the course of 23 films, the Disney-owned studio has brought the comic book heroes of our childhood to the big screen, intricately weaving together a saga that culminated in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, the highest grossing film of all time. Beyond their box office clout, these films have had a profound impact on popular culture. They’ve created superstars of their casts, spawned a new generation of fitness idols and provided a great deal of fodder for this very magazine.
Here and now, I find myself positioned between two of the linchpins of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (what us nerds call the MCU), trying my very best not to geek out. Maintain professionalism, don’t be a dork, do your job.
“How are you, boys?” I say, intentionally lowering my voice to mask my delight at the situation.
“Chillin’, ” says Mackie, stirring a tea in his mid-century-fitted living room. “Very, very excited,” adds Stan, juxtaposed in a cabin-style living room.
My inner geek stirs. So well cast are Mackie and Stan, that even their homes are reflective of their onscreen alter egos – Sam ‘Falcon’ Wilson and Bucky ‘The Winter Soldier’ Barnes respectively. To my relief, they’re both equally excited to be here, clearly relishing the opportunity to once again be back saving the world, and many others, in the process.
“They brought me back! I’m not fired!” says a jubilant Mackie. “Just don’t get fired, bro,” he urges Stan, as if immediately realizing the fragility of their future. “Just don’t get fired.”
“I just wanted to keep going,” reassures Stan. “I always want to keep going. I’m happy we got another round at it, however we got it.”
Mackie and Stan have once again joined forces as the titular characters in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, taking on villains in their very own Disney + limited series. This time around the stakes are higher, for both the characters and the real-world players backing the project.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is an ambitious move for Marvel, a studio renowned for taking large, and often extremely profitable risks within the comic-book genre.
The show extends the MCU beyond the big screen, a moved planned well before COVID-19 shut cinemas worldwide, although the current appetite for on-demand, short-form content has only built excitement for the delayed release of the series.
If the early buzz and the popularity of its first limited series, WandaVision, are anything to go by, success for Mackie, Stan and the entire MCU seems all but assured. The critically acclaimed follow-up to Avengers: Endgame has even provided an opportunity for more work for the two leading men, with the possible introduction of a ‘multiverse’ (an equally exciting prospect for MH, with the promise of infinite cover men).
“They keep me so in the dark about what possibly happens with these dudes,” says Mackie, on what he hopes for Falcon’s future beyond this particular project. “I would just be happy to be in another movie.” That should be easy enough. Just don’t get fired. Continue reading
‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ starts streaming March 19th on Disney+.
