Following The Falcon and the Winter Soldier finale, series director Kari Skogland has talked about her thoughts on Bucky Barnes' future.
"I would like to think that that is a happier place," Skogland told The Direct. "I think he'll always be troubled, because you can't go through what he's gone through and who he's had to be without having residual effects. So, I think he will always be coping with what that is, but he certainly is in a better place."
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier saw Bucky dealing with his time as the titular brainwashed assassin, including attending therapy, attempting to make amends with the help of a list of names, and at one point getting some "tough love" advice from Sam Wilson.
"I can say as a result of his time with Sam, and as Sam says to him, 'You've been avenging. What you really need to do is you need to make them feel good.' You need to serve them," Skogland explained. "You've been talking about you, now go out and make them feel okay. And so as a result, he starts on that path. And, of course, we suggest he's gone through the book, and so he's on the path to heal."
Head writer Malcolm Spellman recently shared similar thoughts on Bucky's development across the series, revealing an alternate cut of the finale included a title card that named Bucky the White Wolf, while the final version read 'Captain America and the Winter Soldier.' "I got to see that moniker [White Wolf] in watching one of the cuts, and man, it really affected me emotionally," he said. "The reason [the closing title card] still says The Winter Soldier is solely based on Marvel feeling like they needed to keep some of the original title in there to land that feeling. I don't think it had anything to do with where Bucky is going or how Bucky evolved as a character. I think that they felt like if they went too far away from the original title, you wouldn't feel the impact of those words. But I'm speculating here."
