Entertainment

Disney+'s 6-Episode Thriller Series Sets Up The Cinematic Event Of The Decade

Nairavoice · Nov 1, 2026 · 5 min read

A 6-episode thriller on Disney+ is the most important set-up for the cinematic event of the decade. Some of Disney+’s best TV shows come from the thriller genre, from the likes of The Americans and Paradise to superhero shows like Daredevil and The Punisher. Although Disney is renowned for being a highly family-friendly company, that has not stopped the House of Mouse from branching out in recent years, resulting in some grittier, more mature TV shows being housed on its own streaming service.

In specific cases, some of these TV shows have linked to Disney’s biggest franchises. For instance, Andor is a thriller TV show set in the Star Wars franchise and is tied to a big movie like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The aforementioned Daredevil also does this to an extent, by being set in the huge Marvel Cinematic Universe. In December 2026, the last several years of MCU storytelling will come to a head via Avengers: Doomsday, which is undoubtedly the biggest cinematic event of the 2020s.

Concerning how Avengers: Doomsday links to Disney+, a specific 6-episode thriller is invaluable to the setup of the film’s story. The thriller in question constructed a character arc that will be massively paid off in Avengers: Doomsday‘s story, making it an integral part of the build-up to what is almost certain to be one of the biggest movies of the 2020s. That story is The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, one of Marvel Studios’ first TV productions in the franchise. In the show, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson undergoes an arc that results in him embracing the mantle of Captain America after Avengers: Endgame teased as much.

In many ways, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier did this better than Captain America: Brave New World, the latter being Wilson’s first big-screen story as the main character. The former was seen as a better story due to the way it dug deeper into Sam’s morals, motivations, and hesitations about becoming Captain America. This made his eventual transformation into Cap and the Avengers’ new leader all the more satisfying, which Captain America: Brave New World neglected to do. In Avengers: Doomsday, Sam’s leadership role will be front and center, making The Falcon and the Winter Soldier more vital than ever.

Marvel Studios’ Initial TV Shows Are More Important Than Ever

If this was not proof of as much, the initial Disney+ shows in the MCU are more vital than ever to the franchise. The last Disney+ MCU show of 2026 is Vision Quest, a story that simply would not exist without 2021’s WandaVision, the first of Marvel Studios’ venture into TV. Then there was The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, whose themes and character arcs have already been established as vital to Avengers: Doomsday. After that came Loki.

Loki established the concept of the MCU multiverse, which will be integral to both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. In both movies, characters from other MCU universes will collide with those from the main timeline, which would not have been possible without Loki‘s setup of the multiverse. Evidently, Marvel Studios’ first Disney+ TV shows are more heavily connected to the core MCU storyline than ever.

Only Loki Is More Vital To The Current MCU Than The Falcon & The Winter Soldier

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What makes The Falcon and the Winter Soldier even more key to Avengers: Doomsday‘s setup is that, out of Marvel Studios’ 19 original TV shows created thus far, only Loki is more important than it is from a storytelling perspective. WandaVision and its sequels, Agatha All Along and Vision Quest, are mostly self-contained, despite how they may tie to future stories. The same can be said of Hawkeye, which was the last of the initial four MCU TV shows released in 2021. Daredevil: Born Again is yet another predominantly self-contained MCU TV story.

Beyond 2021, characters from shows like She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Ironheart, Echo, and Moon Knight have been absent from the MCU for a while now, with many unlikely to return in Avengers: Doomsday. Secret Invasion was a show that was essentially dead on arrival due to its poor quality, and its wider MCU impacts were all but forgotten almost immediately. Finally, there is Wonder Man, which was canceled after a self-contained first season.

Behind only Loki and its multiversal aspects, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is the most important MCU story going into Avengers: Doomsday. Of course, as already explored, Sam Wilson became Captain America and the leader of the Avengers in the show. Two other central characters included Bucky Barnes and John Walker, both of whom went on to be part of Thunderbolts* and became founding members of the New Avengers, one of the four teams included as an integral part of Avengers: Doomsday‘s cast.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier also introduced Jaoquin Torres to the MCU, who has now become the new Falcon, a member of Sam’s Avengers team for Doomsday, and Captain America’s right-hand man. All of this supports the claim that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is the most important MCU TV show to the current state of the franchise, after only Loki and its establishment of the multiverse.