**SPOILER ALERT – Spoilers for episode 5, “Truth” of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier lie within.**
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has featured plenty of jaw-dropping moments and reveals over the last 5 episodes, but one A-list cameo has everyone talking. That cameo, of course, is comedy icon Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who appeared as Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, or Val for short. Val offers disgraced and dishonorably discharged John Walker her card, advising him to pick up the phone when she calls. The card is blank, in my new favorite power move of all time.
Valentina has a long history in Marvel comics, as a former Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and a Russian double agent, often referred to as Madame Hydra. She was also a love interest of Nick Fury’s, so I’m excited to see the two trade barbs at some point in the future. But what role will the character play in the MCU going forward?
Executive producer Nate Moore and co-executive producer Zoie Nagelhout discussed Dreyfus’s casting with Marvel.com. “What a gift for us to have her,” said Nagelhout. “She is just incredible. In the initial conversations between her and Kevin [Feige], she was just excited by the idea of joining this world and what it could mean to play a new quirky, weird, mysterious character. And she loved that there was this comedy to it as well because that’s, of course, one of her great strengths. She was the perfect character to bring into John Walker’s world to complicate what he’s going through and give him a weird almost ominous light at the end of the tunnel.”
“Julia has such range,” added Moore. “She’s only ever been great. There’s something so likable about her that when she does show those darker tendencies to her character, it’s a little bit more surprising and entertaining because you don’t expect it to come from her.”
Moore continued, “Whenever we talked about Valentina, even in the writer’s room, she was sort of a more acerbic, funnier, but darker Nick Fury, … Someone who knows her secrets, who’s not afraid to operate in the moral gray area, but maybe who isn’t as inherently altruistic. Having a character like Valentina in the show, and actually in the MCU, is really interesting because I think she’ll be making more waves sooner rather than later,” teased Moore.
Dreyfus was originally supposed to make her MCU debut in Black Widow, which got delayed due to the pandemic. Dreyfus’s entry into the MCU is exciting for a variety of reasons, but chief among them is her potential to be a grounded, real-world villain. Much like the late great Gary Shandling’s turn as Senator/Hydra supporter Stern in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Dreyfus is another comic legend brought in to play a baddie.
Will Valentina assemble her own Dark Avengers/Thunderbolts, starting with John Walker? Or will she use her relationship with Nick Fury to sabotage the remaining Avengers? I love the idea of an unpowered human wreaking havoc with their wits and machinations as opposed to another extraterrestrial CGI monster going after the Avengers. Humans always make the best villains, as history has shown us.
After all, we just saw the Avengers defeat the ultimate CGI villain in Thanos. I can’t think of a better palate cleanser than Julia Louis-Dreyfus, armed with quips and killer boots.
(via Marvel.com, image: Marvel Studios/Disney+)
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