Anna Daniels
While plot details remain sparse for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it’s worth noting that if Carl Lumbly is indeed playing Isaiah Bradley, his presence on the series will likely have a dramatic impact on the overarching narrative.
Isiah Bradley made his first appearance in the pages Marvel back in 2003 via the limited series Truth: Red, White, and Black. The plot found U.S. agencies attempting to duplicate the super-soldier serum that made Steve Rogers nearly invincible via clandestine experiments that are meant to mirror the abhorrent Tuskegee Syphilis Studies conducted by the U.S. Government between 1932 and 1972.
In the course of the Truth experiments, Bradley becomes one of the lucky few “enhanced” soldiers, and eventually the lone survivor of the tests. From there, Bradley’s story only gets more complicated. Should Marvel choose to tell it, the studio will be bringing a political powder keg of a narrative into the MCU — one that will obviously affect how Falcon feels about taking on the Captain America persona.
It’s worth noting as well that the character’s possible presence in the MCU would also draw another direct line to the theory that Marvel is building toward a Young Avengers movie, as one of the team’s key members, Elijah Bradley (a.k.a. Patriot), is Isaiah’s grandson.
As for the man who may or may not be playing Isaiah Bradley, Lumbly is a first-rate character actor who just wrapped a memorable stint on The CW’s Supergirl, and appeared last year in Mike Flanagan’s sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep. As such, his casting is reason enough to get be more stoked about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, no matter who he’s playing.
Written by: Looper
