Falcon Rises to Glory in the MCU — And on Ranker

As he takes on the mantle of “Captain America” in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, superhero Sam Wilson is getting the respect (and Ranker votes) he deserves.

In one of the biggest media franchises in history, chock-full of A-list movie stars and iconic comic book characters, it can be hard to stand out. Sam Wilson, AKA Falcon (played by Anthony Mackie), has often had to settle for supporting-character status in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, backing up more prominent superheroes like Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man. But now, thanks to a new Disney+ series, Falcon could soon become just as much of a household name as these other heroes.

To explore how The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is changing people’s opinions on this iconic Marvel hero, we took a look at the votes that have been cast for and against Falcon over the last few years, from his first appearance in the MCU in 2014 to today. Here’s what we found.

The graph above tracks both the quantity and ratio of upvotes and downvotes for Falcon across every list on Ranker from July 2012 to March 2021. The red and blue bars represent just how many upvotes and downvotes were cast for Falcon on a given month, while the yellow trend line indicates the percentage of those votes that are positive. If May sees 50 upvotes and 50 downvotes for Falcon and June sees 500 upvotes and 500 downvotes, the red and blue bars in June will be ten times the size of the ones in May, but the yellow trend line will hold steady at 50%. Get it? Got it? Good. Let’s look closely at the data and see how the release of each movie featuring Falcon — and the growth of both the MCU franchise and its fan base — affected opinion on the superhero over the last nine years.

2014: Falcon makes his MCU debut in Captain America: Winter Soldier

Falcon’s first MCU appearance is in Captain America’s second solo outing, which premiered in April 2014. Sentiment from Ranker voters around Falcon was higher than it is today at 87%, but in 2014 the MCU was still young, and most people who were familiar with the character knew him from the original Avengers comic books. Only 87 votes were cast for or against the character during the month of his debut movie’s premiere, mostly from our list of The Greatest Marvel Avengers Characters Of All Time, which suggests that those who knew of Falcon liked the character, but he lacked the name recognition of other MCU stars. 

2015: Age of Ultron Solidifies Falcon’s status as an Avenger with fans

By 2015, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s fan base had begun to pick up steam, generating a good deal more votes for Marvel superheroes like Falcon. The release of Avengers: Age of Ultron saw Falcon’s approval rating drop to 62%, but that rating comes from a much more statistically significant set of data: A total of 457 votes were cast for or against the superhero, more than five times the number cast after his previous movie appearance. Votes from lists like The Best Avengers: Age of Ultron Character demonstrate that the MCU was beginning to develop its own fan base distinct from that of the Avengers comic series.

2016: Falcon emerges victorious in Civil War

Captain America: Civil War is an interesting chapter in the MCU primarily because it pits members of the Avengers against one another. Falcon, it seems, benefitted from the contrast with his fellow superheroes: his approval rating jumped to 67% after Civil War’s release in May 2016. More than half of the votes cast for or against Falcon that month came from our list of Superheroes Who Started Out As Villains.

2018: MCU takes off with Infinity War, but Falcon is a casualty

The Marvel Cinematic Universe arguably hadn’t reached its peak as a pop culture phenomenon until 2018 and the release of Avengers: Infinity War. Votes cast for or against Falcon soared to 2,135 in May 2018, the month just after the film’s release. That increase didn’t break in the superhero’s favor: Of those votes, 49.7% were positive, marking the first time a new movie had brought Falcon’s approval below the 50% threshold. A plurality of these votes were cast on our The Best Characters In The Marvel Cinematic Universe list, showing just how large and influential the film franchise’s fans had become in our rankings at this point.

2019: Sam rises again in Avengers: Endgame

Falcon’s fortunes picked up again thanks to the release of Endgame on April 26, 2019. Mackie’s character was voted on 1,716 times in the month immediately following the movie’s release, and 59% of those votes were positive. Given the surge in votes to Marvel character lists, that 59% is nothing to sneeze at — especially after a movie in which characters like Thor and Iron Man ended up drawing much of the attention.

2021: Falcon could fly higher than ever as the new Captain America

As of the writing of this blog, it’s still too early to tell how the release of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will affect Falcon’s standing among his fellow MCU superheroes. But the release of a trailer for the show in December 2020 seems to have triggered an uptick in votes cast for or against Falcon, totaling 1,167. Those votes pushed his approval rating all the way up to 70% — his highest since January 2016, when he had a similar rating based on just a third of the votes. If this is any indication, we could see love for Falcon soar far higher as the series continues to pick up new fans.

These stories are crafted using Ranker Insights, which takes over one billion votes cast on Ranker.com and converts them into actionable psychographics about pop culture fans across the world. To learn more about how our Ranker Insights can be customized to serve your business needs, visit insights.ranker.com, or email us at insights@ranker.com.

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