A tease for Marvel Studios’ upcoming TV show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was shown during the Hall H Comic-Con panel, which revealed the return of Captain America: Civil War villain Baron Helmut Zemo - this time with his classic purple mask from the comics! Underneath the mask, Daniel Brühl will be returning to the role, where he’ll presumably be causing trouble for our two titular heroes once again.
The villain reveal happened partway through the panel for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, with Zemo suddenly hacking into the Hall H display and appearing in a video - first without the mask, and sporting a beard. “I simply wanted to say hello to some old friends,” Zemo says in the teaser, before ominously adding: “Gentlemen, I’ll be seeing you very soon.” The teaser ends with Zemo putting on the purple mask.
Falcon actor Anthony Mackie was unphased by the return of the Avengers’ old enemy, retorting, “Beat you once, we can beat you twice.” Helmut Zemo mainly worked behind the scenes in Captain America: Civil War, framing Bucky for the attack on the United Nations and leading Tony Stark to Siberia so that he could discover the truth about the Winter Soldier assassinating his parents. Once his plan to drive the Avengers apart was successfully completed, Zemo tried to kill himself - but was stopped by Black Panther. The last time we saw him, he was being held in a containment cell at the Joint Counter Terrorist Center, apparently satisfied with having achieved his goal.
In Marvel Cinematic Universe canon, Zemo is a former member of a Sokovian death squad, whose family was killed during the final battle of Avengers: Age of Ultron. He sought revenge by splitting the Avengers up rather than destroying them directly, and was ultimately successful. In fact, Thanos’ defeat of the Avengers and the snap that killed half the people in the universe can be traced back to Zemo’s actions, since he weakened the Avengers right before the most important battle of their lives.
In the comics, Zemo wears the purple mask because his face was horribly disfigured after falling into a vat of a chemical called Adhesive X. It remains to be seen how Zemo will come to wear the mask in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and what his renewed purpose in life is. Since Iron Man is dead and Captain America is an old man, perhaps Zemo has decided to turn his attention to Steve Rogers’ two surviving best friends. Or perhaps he has an entirely new plan in mind, and it’s Bucky and Sam who decide to step in and stop him. We’ll find out when The Falcon and The Winter Soldier arrives on Disney+ in fall 2020.
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