Did Disney+ Censor Some Violent Scenes In The Falcon And The Winter Soldier?

Following up on the success of the first Marvel Studios outing on Disney+, "WandaVision," "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" kicked off its six-episode run in March of 2021. In the aftermath of "Avengers: Endgame," both Sam "Falcon" Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky "Winter Soldier" Barnes (Sebastian Stan) are in tough spots. The former is grappling with the fact that Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) handed him the mantle of Captain America, and the latter has no idea how to move beyond his dark past. Nevertheless, it's up to these reluctant friends to put aside their differences and personal struggles to stop multiple emerging threats.

On one hand, Sam and Bucky have to contend with John Walker (Wyatt Russell): the United States government's chosen candidate to become Captain America, who lacks virtually all of the qualities that made Steve so special. Simultaneously, they have to handle a Super Soldier Serum-fueled extremist group known as the Flag-Smashers that seeks to create a world without borders by any means necessary. With all of these combustible elements in play, "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" features some brutal fights and several deaths, but seeing as it's a Marvel Cinematic Universe entry, it's nothing too violent...right?

Apparently not. Now over a year past its premiere, Disney+ may have censored some moments in "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" for their violent imagery. Here's what we know about this so far.

As pointed out by Reddit user MooninMoulin, Disney+ may have scrubbed "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" of a particularly violent moment. They recall a sequence where Bucky throws a pipe at an armed attacker, and it goes through her shoulder, thus pinning her to a nearby shipping container. However, upon their rewatch, they've noticed that the bar simply bounces off of her, to which Redditor Arkham4321 mentions that a moment focused on the corpse of Dr. Wilfred Nagel (Olli Haaskivi) may have undergone some edits too.

So, what could've brought on these supposed changes? As others in the Reddit thread posited, perhaps such alterations have to do with the new TV-MA corner of Disney+. The arrival of the more graphic, violent Marvel shows from Netflix — "Daredevil," "Jessica Jones," "The Punisher," etc. — led the streaming service to implement stronger parental controls. Maybe the plan is to "clean up" certain scenes from past MCU entries to make them appropriate for TV-14 accounts, keeping the franchise accessible to younger viewers without concerning parents.

At the time of this writing, neither Marvel Studios nor Disney+ has addressed any form of censorship to "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," so at this point, this whole situation is up for speculation. Hopefully, if there's more to learn, it'll come to light in the near future.