Recently, Marvel Cinematic Universe fans noticed that the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had been edited on the platform, with certain scenes featuring blood and violence being scrubbed clean. However, sources say that these changes were made in error and that the original version of the show is being restored."Eagle-eyed fans were right, an episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had been altered on Disney+," The Hollywood Reporter's Ryan Parker wrote on Twitter. "I hear from a reliable source it was a software control issue and the wrong file was recently published accidentally. It's being corrected immediately." Additionally, THR's Aaron Couch wrote, "The original version of Falcon and the Winter Soldier is going back up on Disney+."
Entertainment Weekly corroborates these reports, writing, "EW has learned that an alternate version of the show had been uploaded by mistake. Disney is currently working to fix the issue... This alternate cut of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was accidentally uploaded in an attempt to correct a credit, a source tells EW. We're told Disney hopes to have the issue remedied as soon as possible."
The outlet speculates that the existence of the edited scenes has something to do with Disney+'s new parental controls, which were implemented to coincide with the arrival of Netflix's adult-oriented Marvel dramas: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders and The Punisher, all of which have maintained their TV-MA ratings on the platform. Notably, some believe that Disney+ could be playing with the idea of keeping more violent scenes behind the parental lock, with the family-friendly edits of these scenes being available to those without TV-MA-level access.
The Falcon and Winter Soldier edits appear to have only affected one episode, "The Power Broker," with the blood being removed from the scene in which Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl) shoots and kills Dr. Nagel (Olli Haaskivi). A sequence in which Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) throws a pipe at an adversary was also altered. Meanwhile, the following episode, "The Whole World Is Watching," remains completely unedited, despite featuring arguably the most violent moment in the show, in which John Walker/Captain America/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russel) kills the Flag-Smasher known as Nico (Noah Mills) with his shield.
Interestingly, this incident is not the first of its kind. Back in November, fans of the DC Extended Universe noticed that the R-rated version of Birds of Prey had been replaced with the TV-14-rated television edit on HBO Max. WarnerMedia then issued a statement, claiming that the TV version had been uploaded in error. The R-rated cut was soon restored to the platform.
Source: Twitter (1, 2); Entertainment Weekly