'The Falcon And The Winter Soldier' Episode 5 Will Have A Big Marvel Cameo – But It's Not Who You Think It Is

It's the fate of every Marvel Disney+ series so far to be flooded by theories and speculation each week. Who will the next character reveal be? What will be the latest twist? When will Mephisto appear? But the folks behind The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are getting ahead of the curve and teasing a major Marvel cameo that will appear in the upcoming fifth episode.

However, this is the part where we kindly ask everyone to adjust their expectations.

When The Falcon and the Winter Soldier first began airing in mid-March, showrunner and writer Malcolm Spellman teased a special cameo in episode 5, which he's building up to be quite a doozy.

"Hands down, [episode] five, it just gets real," Spellman had said in an interview with ComicBook.com in March. "And five, you're going to cry."

So what of this cameo? Fans have already begun speculating that this Marvel character will be one of the beloved heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, come to reunite with their fellow Avengers. But in an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Spellman had shut down the possibility that it would be an Avenger that we had previously met in the MCU (so you can toss aside your hopes of a Black Panther or a Black Widow character popping up). Instead Spellman described this episode 5 cameo as a "grounded character" who would make a nice contrast to "world-shakers" like Thor or Captain America. Spellman said:

"There are characters in our series who I would love to see partnered with like — it's a very, very grounded character — partnered with one of the big world-shakers like Thor or someone like that. The personality is so strong, it's the episode five character. I'd love to see that character with Thor."

/Film can confirm that this surprise character is not one that we've seen in the MCU before. However, we have learned it is an existing Marvel Comics character who is played by a well-known performer. And this guest star must have knocked it out of the park for Spellman to hype up this upcoming episode so much.

Episode 5 of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier debuts on Disney+ on Friday, April 16.

All eyes are on the shield, as Sam Wilson aka The Falcon, and Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier decide to team up—or rather, work together—when a new global threat launches them into an unexpected mission that may hit too close to home.

Correction, 4/16/21: A previous version of this story stated that /Film could confirm that the surprise character was not primed to appear in an upcoming film. But there are conflicting whispers about whether or not this character might actually appear in Black Widow.