MCU: 10 Fascinating Facts About Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
6. Those Ties To Community
Marvel Studios
Joe and Anthony Russo may have presided over the three most pivotal Marvel films to date in Civil War, Infinity War and Endgame, but they weren't always so synonymous with big screen blockbusters. In actual fact, before Winter Soldier, the pair were arguably most famous for their contributions towards NBC's Community, a vastly under-appreciated TV series created by Dan Harmon.
Apparently it was the Russos' involvement in the show's famous paintball finales that convinced Kevin Feige they'd be a good fit for Marvel Studios. The duo had previous credentials on You, Me and Dupree, but it was on Community where their talent really shone through.
The directors actually managed to work in a cameo from one of the show's leads into Winter Soldier too. Danny Pudi, who plays Abed on the show, gets a quick scene where he plays a S.H.I.EL.D. agent aboard one of the Helicarriers. Jim Rash, who portrayed Dean Pelton too, managed to work in a cameo on Civil War, but the trend seemingly came to a close with Infinity War.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
