OPINION: 11 Reasons Why 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Season 2' Should Include X-23

Hey everyone! This is gonna be a new thing I'm trying out here on the YHMH Blog, where I talk about some thoughts about comics and comics-related things, such as comic book movies and shows. For now, this will probably be limited to thoughts on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (I'm not much of a DC Comics fan, tbh) — mostly theories, cool ideas, and "what-ifs" about things in future projects. However if I have a thought about something else in the realm of comics, be it comic books or cartoons, that I'd like to share on here, I will. Just gonna keep things pretty casual and loose.

However, one thing I do take very seriously is spoilers, so if you also care about spoilers and haven't watched The Falcon and the Winter Soldier or Black Widow, then this is your SPOILER WARNING and you should back out now if you want to view the episodes fresh. With that out of the way, let's begin.

Okay, so just a brief note of clarification: we don't know if The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will be getting a second season. In all likelihood, if it does, it will be called something along the lines of Captain America and the Winter Soldier, as was revealed as the credits rolled on episode six. Also, just to let you know, this is not an article or speculative piece based on any kind of leak or rumor. This is purely my own idea of something that I think would be cool and possibly plausible considering where The Falcon and the Winter left off, and the ground it covered in terms of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. Either way, this is unlikely to end up being true, but if it is, you heard it here first!

So, my thesis: I propose that a second season of Falcon and the Winter Soldier or the reported Malcom Spellman Captain America 4 should introduce the character of X-23 (Laura Kinney) to the MCU, and involve Sam and Bucky having to track her down following a number of grizzly assassinations attributed to her, after which, they will discover the whole story and not only let her go, but end up teaming up with her. Who are they trying to stop? I'm not entirely sure, but Thunderbolt Ross and Sharon Carter's Power Broker both have the potential to be involved. Here are the reasons why I think this could work:

1. Continued Interest in Super Soldiers

So, it's no secret (at least if you've seen The Incredible Hulk) that Thunderbolt Ross is obsessed with Super Soldiers and Super Soldier Serum. In The Incredible Hulk, he gives Emil Blonsky a dose of a version of Super Soldier Serum, which — when combined with Bruce Banner's blood — ultimate turned him into the Abomination. We also see that this was not his first experiment with Super Soldier serum. The storage tanks reference the Weapons Plus Program from the comics, an evolution of Project Rebirth, which created the original Captain America. Weapons Plus was a series of attempts to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum from Project Rebirth, though it was never successful.

There is some conflicting continuity here, but depending on who you ask, Weapons Plus is originally responsible for Wolverine's enhancements (adamantium skeleton). Wolverine was designated Weapon X, in this case being the Roman numeral for ten, as opposed to representing the X-Gene. Of course, there was also the Weapon X Program in the comics, which I believe was a Canadian Super Soldier program, and is also credited with giving Wolverine his adamantium skeleton (and generally leaving him a wreck of a human being). It was also responsible for enhancements made to Sabertooth and Deadpool.

If this is to be brought into the MCU, then most likely, by the time The Incredible Hulk takes place, Wolverine has long come and gone through the Weapons Plus/Weapon X program, meaning that Wolverine, Sabertooth, Deadpool, and others are already out there somewhere. This also means that attempts to repeat and/or correct research at the Weapon X lab may have already been happening, including the cloning research that lead to X-23. Such a project as the one that created X-23 would be extremely illegal unless otherwise authorized (the credits of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier show a news headline referring to an "Enhanced Humans Act," which is apparently highly classified according to Thunderbolt Ross).

Old Uncle Thaddeus would have to be extremely corrupt to have approved something as shady as the Facility, and the jury's still out on if that's a level he'd go to. As well, if he's forming a team like the Thunderbolts and has John Walker's US Agent at his disposal, he may not find cloning a previous test subject to be of high priority. However, somebody who has their hands in a lot of shady pies and also has an interest in Super Soldiers might be willing to fund such a project — somebody like Sharon Carter's Power Broker might fit this description. She'd also be in a perfect position to keep the government off the Facility's scent while they attempt to create a different, arguably more dangerous type of Super Soldier.

2. Hydra and Red Room Connections

One of the things important to Laura's story in the comics that was not featured in Logan is the trigger scent. This was a chemical agent that the Facility conditioned her to that would send her into a blind killing rage whenever she smelled it. In her own words:

"I smell it, and everything goes black. And when I wake up, everyone is dead."

This grim method of control was often used for targets she couldn't be counted on to kill of her own volition, but also for targets that were exceptional, such as the mobster Fade, who could turn invisible at will. It also has some functional similarities to the method used in Black Widow to mind control the Widows, and that film also gives some potential context to where the trigger scent may have come from: HYDRA.

In Black Widow, Melina Vostokoff explains how she developed the mind control chemical that was used in the Red Room to control the Widows, based on information stolen from the North Institute. This was a SHIELD facility that was actually a secret HYDRA facility, where they were conducting cognitive tests for use in their Winter Soldier Program. General Dreykov sent Vostokoff and Alexei Shostakov to infiltrate and steal information from the North Institute to benefit the Red Room, and they were able to base the mind control agent from the research they stole. It would be a reasonable guess to assume that HYDRA's own mind control research continued, even if it was possibly delayed, and that could have eventually lead to a variation on a mind control chemical activated by smell: the trigger scent. If this were to be the case, the research setbacks from Shostakov's theft would also explain why the trigger scent is so much cruder than the Red Room formula, because all the crucial information now belonged to the Russians. Either that, or the HYDRA scientists just never arrived on quite the same idea, and never abandoned the approach of psychological conditioning.

This could relate to X-23 because of an interesting quirk in Laura's backstory. In the comics, she was created by the Facility, a shady scientific organization whose owners and investors were entirely mysterious, and they sold Laura as an assassin to such charming characters as the Kingpin, and a scumbag we later find out was a Neo-Nazi who wanted to kill an anti-corruption Senator (read Target X for this one). However, X-23 didn't originate in the comics: she originated on television, on the show X-Men: Evolution. In this original version of her backstory, she was actually created by HYDRA, and I can imagine the MCU might chose to go with this version instead to fit her into their existing history. If we assume that actors in the MCU are roughly the same age as their characters, and Dafne Keen does in fact reprise her role as Laura Kinney in the MCU present day (2024-25), then a roughly sixteen-year-old Laura would have been born around the time of Iron Man, a good six years before HYDRA's infiltration of SHIELD was discovered. What would have happened after that is a mystery, as Natasha Romanov dumped all of HYDRA's secrets onto the internet, and I have a hard time imagining a human cloning project wouldn't be noticed. However, it is still possible that HYDRA still has some secrets that they managed to keep under wraps following Natasha's data leak. Considering they were trying to create what is essentially an un-killable Winter Soldier (more on this later), these hypothetical heightened security measures are quite likely justified.

3. Mutants and Wolverine

Depending on who you ask, we have already seen three mutants in the MCU: Ursa Major in Black Widow, as well as Wanda and Pietro Maximoff (but the jury's still out on this one). However, we still haven't seen any specific X-Men characters, so I think a good candidate in that regard would be someone who's powers aren't necessarily obvious unless they're being used, and if they are being used, you'll be lucky to live to tell the tale. Of course, Wolverine comes to mind, though he's a very iconic character and really requires more buildup. But his children..?

While it may seem counterintuitive, a cool way of building up towards Wolverine — and mutants in general — may be appearances by Daken and X-23 in other projects. Either one of them would easily be mistaken for a regular human, especially in a population that doesn't know mutants exist. Even if someone were to see them use their claws, the average person would probably assume they were some kind of technological implant, and that their healing ability was due to some sort of Super Soldier enhancement — both things the average person in the MCU would have learned to expect by now. With their introduction, the word mutant probably wouldn't be used at all until people like Charles Xavier and Moira MacTaggert do the genetics research and start talking about it publicly.

As the very existence of this blog post suggests, Laura could easily be involved with plots involving the types of people interested in Super Soldier serum (namely Thunderbolt Ross and the Power Broker), and the people who stop those people (namely Sam and Bucky). Daken likes to hang about in Madripoor, which we've already seen in the MCU, so he could easily show up as one of the contestants in the tournament in Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings. However, interestingly, Daken also has connections to Sam and Bucky. More on this later.

3. Steve Rogers, Word War II, and the Korean War

One of the things we learned in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is that HYDRA used Bucky during the Korean War. During this time, Bucky met Isaiah Bradley, who ripped half his arm off and generally kicked his butt. This period of time would have been Bucky's second opportunity to have met Wolverine throughout history.

Wolverine, as is widely known, is very old. While his exact birth date isn't known in Marvel Comics, it's accepted to be some time in the 1800s, early enough for him to have fought in the Civil War. Following that, Wolverine fought in pretty much every other major war, including both World War II and the Korean War, and possibly Vietnam as well. While we don't know if Bucky was ever in Vietnam as the Winter Soldier, we do know that he was in Word War II and the Korean War, so he could possibly have met Logan at that time. There was even a plan at one point for a Hugh Jackman Wolverine cameo in Captain America: The First Avenger, fighting alongside Captain America and the Howling Commandos. There was also going to be a cameo from a young Magneto. Rights issues with 20th Century Fox meant that it was not to be, but there's no reason not to still acknowledge that history. If Bucky were to see Laura in action, he would possibly remember interactions with Logan back in the day, and this could help to establish and build up towards Logan's history in the MCU. Whether Bucky would ever suspect that Logan could still be alive is another question that I won't go into here.

4. Bucky's Character Development

As of the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Bucky is on a full road to recovery, and he's checked off all the names on his list of amends. However, as the final title of the series suggests, he hasn't quite left the Winter Soldier behind (otherwise, I believe we would have had the title change to Captain America and the White Wolf). If we view Bucky's recovery as similar to a twelve step program, then there's one crucial thing he still has to do, which is help someone like him.

X-23's involvement in Bucky's next chapter fills this square for him. The two of them actually have extremely similar experiences: both highly trained assassins, engineered against their will to be weapons, and controlled by some sort of brainwashing device (Bucky's Winter Soldier code words and Laura's trigger scent). Laura is more than another attempt at creating a Super Soldier: for all intents and purposes, she is a recreation of the Winter Soldier. Because someone helped Bucky get out of his situation and leave the Winter Soldier behind, he would probably want to pay that forward, and do for Laura what Steve and Sam did for him. Just like with Bucky, people would want to seek justice against Laura for her crimes as an assassin under the Facility's control, and just like Steve, Bucky would defend her, completing the final step to fully becoming the White Wolf. Speaking of which...

5. Target X Interrogation Sequence (With a Twist)

During X-23's original comics run during the storyline Target X, not long after Laura escapes the Facility, she is apprehended by Captain America and interrogated by him and Daredevil (who has yet to appear in the MCU as of this writing). During this sequence, she recounts everything that happened to her after she escaped (as well as some things that happened before that), including specific events that had gotten her on SHIELD's and Cap's radar. Adapting this sequence would not only fit perfectly for the vibe and aesthetic of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the previous Captain America films (directly mirroring the scene where Steve and Sam question Bucky in the warehouse), but would also provide crucial information that would expose certain shady government figures and organizations, as well as providing for the first time in the MCU a full backstory of the Weapons Plus and Weapon X programs. This could even be how Sam and Bucky find out the true identity of the Power Broker. I mean, let's be honest — using X-23 as an assassin or operative for whatever she was trying to do would be precisely in Sharon Carter's wheelhouse as the Power Broker (that is, if she's not bankrolling the program herself). If Thunderbolt Ross is involved, it may expose him as well, though if he were involved I think he might not be directly, so Laura may not have met him or even know who he is.

The personnel in this scene, if it were adapted, would be different, as would the situation. Steve Rogers isn't around anymore in the MCU, and Daredevil hasn't shown up yet. Instead, Sam and Bucky would probably do the interrogation themselves after what I imagine would be an amazing fight scene that they would only barely win. I'm not sure exactly how the good-cop/bad-cop dynamic would start out, but once Laura divulges her history, they'd both realize that she's just like Bucky. In fact, Bucky is probably the only person alive at that point in the MCU who could know what Laura has been through. He would probably offer Laura his help, perhaps getting in touch with the Wakandans to reverse her trigger scent conditioning in the same way that they reversed Bucky's Winter Soldier conditioning. Of course, whatever happens next in the story would likely cause her to team up with them to fight whatever villain they're facing, which would also be cool to see.

6. Unfinished Business

Laura Kinney was brought to the big screen for the first time in 2017's Logan in what was a career-making performance from Dafne Keen. After that movie's success, there were plans to make a solo film directed by James Mangold and starring Keen in the title role, continuing her story after she and the other mutant kids escaped into Canada at the end of the film. The acquisition of 20th Century Fox by Disney has meant that this project is on hold indefinitely (though it doesn't currently seem to be officially dead). Fans of Logan were excited for the prospect of an X-23 solo film, especially during a time when the X-Men films under Fox had started to wain in quality, with the bright spots being Logan and the two Deadpool films. Logan was even nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars, the first and so far only superhero movie to be nominated in this category despite many of them (*cough* Black Panther) being worthy of the award. Hugh Jackman's Wolverine had his curtain call at the end of the film, but Keen's X-23 had a lot more story to tell. The film ended with the question "What's next for Laura? Where does she go and what does she do now?" with one possible answer being that she takes up the mantle of Wolverine like she does after Logan dies in the comics. Hugh Jackman himself advocated for Keen to take on the mantle in the future, during several interviews where he was asked who he would want to replace him in future Wolverine projects.

Picking up this thread, even in the form of a soft reboot, is something that the MCU should do. Dafne Keen not only played the character flawlessly, but also proved she can carry a series with His Dark Materials. Not having her reprise the role would be a mistake, in my opinion, and a good way to introduce her would be in another project before moving her on to her own solo series. It would also be a good way to carry on the Hugh Jackman legacy, even if Hugh Jackman doesn't reprise his role. While some people might heavily object to this, I would even be open to the MCU skipping Logan's Wolverine entirely, and setting up Dafne Keen's Laura Kinney as Wolverine in this universe. Not only would Hugh Jackman's pick for a successor get the part, but the audience would get a new Wolverine for a new generation, much like Marvel has been doing in the comics (with Laura and Logan both currently using the title). The MCU can loosely pick up Laura's story where it left off in Logan while fitting it into current events, and Dafne Keen can tend to unfinished business as the character — something she has expressed excitement for in recent interviews for His Dark Materials.

Also, there's already a precedent established in Loki for variants of the same character being played by the same actor (as we saw multiple versions of Loki that were Tom Hiddleston, as well as several that weren't), giving further reasons not to recast Laura.

7. The Young Avengers

Wolverine in the comics is just as often a member of the Avengers as he is a member of the X-Men, but what if the MCU applied that to Laura? If Laura appears in a Captain America and the Winter Soldier project before the X-Men are really a big part of the MCU, then there may be another team available for her to join: the Young Avengers.

While Laura's never been on the Young Avengers in the comics (to my knowledge anyway), if Dafne Keen reprised her role, she'd be right in the same age group as the other actors who are playing or are set to play Young Avengers characters in the MCU (though this is admittedly a pretty wide age range of nine to twenty-five at the moment). Laura could easily join up with the Young Avengers in the MCU, mirroring Logan's classic involvement with the Avengers in the comics. Especially if they also adapt...

8. All-New Wolverine/Wolverine and the Honey Badger

One of the best parts of Laura's story in the comics is after the Death of Wolverine event, where Logan dies and she takes up the mantle of Wolverine. She finds out that Alchemax Genetics has been secretly creating an army of clones using her DNA, and shopping them out for use on security teams and task forces. Though initially tasked with tracking down and stopping the three remaining clones, she soon learns that Alchemax are the bad guys, and helps the sisters bring them down. Without spoiling what happens to the other two clones (cause really, this is a must-read comics run), Laura eventually befriends the youngest clone Gabby, and takes her in. The two of them become partners, and Gabby not only takes the name Kinney as Laura's sister, but takes the superhero codename Honey Badger.

All-New Wolverine had a tone that struck a perfect balance between action, heart, edginess, and humor — in other words, perfect MCU material. In fact, it has a similar buddy-cop vibe to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and often times treads along similar territory, meaning that it would be a fitting follow-up for a character first introduced in a Sam and Bucky story. In addition, All-New Wolverine has six separate collected volumes, meaning it has plenty of material to mine from for multiple seasons.

As a fun aside, this was a recent Twitter interaction started by a theoretical MCU prompt, that ended up making its way to Tom Taylor, the brilliant writer behind All-New Wolverine and X-Men Red:

So at least we know: if this happens, Tom Taylor gives his seal of approval!

9. Daken

Yes, I did promise to get back to this.

As well as setting up the X-Men and Logan's Wolverine, Laura Kinney appearing in a sequel to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has the potential to connect to another character who has ties to many things going on in the MCU currently: Daken.

Daken (real name Akihiro) is the son of Logan and his wife Itsu, at a time when Logan was living in Japan in the 1946. Itsu is murdered on the orders of the villain Romulus, and Logan assumes that Akihiro died as well. However, this was not the case: Akihiro survived due to the healing factor he inherited from his father, and he is left with a wealthy Japanese family. From there on in, Akihiro blames Wolverine for his mother's death, and swears revenge. What does this have to do with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier? I'll tell you:

The assassin Romulus sent to kill Itsu was...

Drum roll please...

The Winter Soldier.

Yeah.

Bucky thinks he's crossed all the names off his list, but what about people he doesn't know are still alive? He probably assumes Daken is dead too. Laura's introduction in a Falcon and the Winter Soldier sequel could open the door to possible future conflicts between Daken and Bucky. This may actually happen the other way around too: Daken could appear first in a project like Shang-Chi (which would of course set him up for the Dark Avengers, which the MCU appears to be building up to), and then an appearance by Laura would eventually tie back to Daken.

Daken is also important to Laura's story, as both have held the title of Wolverine in the comics, and they have often been at odds with each other. The relationship between them starts off being pretty similar to the rivalry between Wolverine and Sabertooth, though they often have more willingness to work together. This would be a very interesting dynamic to explore onscreen. I'm gonna go ahead and submit my fan-casting of Booboo Stewart in the role for everyone's consideration.

10. Gabby Kinney: The Honey Badger

We now comes full circle in our exploration of Laura, her connection to Bucky Barnes, and both of their connections to other characters and setting those characters up in the MCU. If everything that I talked about were to happen, and Bucky pays forward his healing process to Laura as his final amends, where does that leave Laura? She will obviously have some things to work through as well; she'll need to make her own amends in her journey of healing to finally leave behind X-23 as Bucky left behind the Winter Soldier. The logical progression of this story is for Laura to pay this forward, and she would do this with her clone sister, Gabby.

Gabby Kinney was the youngest of the four clones of Laura that escaped the Alchemax Genetics facilities that were training them to be assassins, soldiers, security guards, you name it. As I mentioned before, Laura ends up helping them, and ends up taking young Gabby under her wing. This could end up being incredibly important for Laura's character development, because it would not only result in Laura paying forward the help given to her by Bucky, but it would also give Laura the opportunity to break the cycle.

The older X-23 clones at Alchemax had largely shielded Gabby from the worst of what they had to endure — experiences much like those both Bucky and Laura went through. Also, most crucially, they shield Gabby from having to become a killer like X-23 and the Winter Soldier. When Laura gets Gabby out of that situation, she gets the opportunity to give Gabby something that neither her, nor Logan, nor Bucky ever got to have: a (fairly) normal childhood.

I say fairly normal because Gabby is still a mutant with claws who goes on adventures, beats up bad guys, eradicates a deadly alien virus, and fights off a horde of parasitic alien bugs. But still, normal as much as super-heroes can be normal.

And that is the whole point here. Laura gives Gabby the opportunity to spend most of her life knowing she was the hero and not the villain. She breaks the Winter Soldier cycle.

Gabby is an all-around awesome character who would fit in very well with the MCU. She would also add to the MCU's LGBT+ diversity, as she's twice hinted at a possible lesbian future (once in X-Men Red, when she references feelings for a girl on the bus in India, and also in the possible future of Old Woman Laura, when Gabby's spouse Taylor is mentioned, and hinted to be a woman).

Gabby could also join the Young Avengers with Laura, or perhaps show up in a future Deadpool installment. Alternatively, Deadpool could show up in a Wolverine and the Honey Badger Disney+ series, perhaps bringing the hilarious zombie sloth scene from All-New Wolverine to life onscreen.

As you saw in the screenshot of my tweet pitching a Wolverine and the Honey Badger series on Disney+, my personal fan-casting for Gabby (provided Dafne Keen reprises her role as Laura) is Eloise Little: Dafne Keen's double on the first two seasons of His Dark Materials (as well as the voice of the daemon Salcillia in season 1). Little is currently set to star in HBO Max's Theodosia (based on a series of popular books by Robin L. LaFevers). Keen and Little are known for being good friends in real life, and for bearing a remarkable resemblance to each other even by body-double standards.

Conclusion

If you've made it this far, I hope you enjoyed my exploration into this over-thought hypothetical situation for the future of the MCU. Again, this probably won't happen like this, but who knows? Maybe I hit the nail on the head. It'll be a good while before any of this stuff could possibly come to fruition, so we'll just have to wait and see. What do you think the likelihood of this is? Do you have an alternative introduction idea for Laura and friends? Or just a theory of your own you'd like to share? Let me know in the comments, and I'll be back in the next one.

Bye!

—Cooper