‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’: Sharon Carter’s Phone Might Give Away Her Motives, a Theory Suggests
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier brought back two familiar faces in Episode 3: one was an old villain and one an old ally. However, a new theory suggests that looks and old alliances might not mean anything anymore. And a Knives Out phone hint could reveal who the real Big Bad is. [Spoiler alert: Spoilers ahead for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier].
A new TikTok theory pointed out Sharon Carter’s choice of cell phone
After Episode 3, “Power Broker,” a TikTok user posted an interesting theory pointing out the use of cell phones in the show so far by the different characters.
In the episode, Bucky helps Zemo break out of jail so that he can aid them in finding more information about the Super Soldier serum as well as where to find the person recreating it. They also meet back up with Sharon Carter, who went on the run after Captain America: Civil War because of the way she helped out Team Cap.
This TikTok user pointed out Sam Wilson and Torres are using Apple phones in the first few episodes and Sharon Carter is using a non-Apple phone. Why does this matter? Apple doesn’t let the bad guys in films use their products, so the theory stands that maybe Sharon isn’t on the good side anymore. Bucky uses a flip phone later, but he’s also over 100-years-old, so it doesn’t really count.
Rian Johnson shared that Apple doesn’t let villains use their phones
This information about Apple comes from an interview Rian Johnson, director and writer for Knives Out, did with Vanity Fair in 2020.
“I don’t know if I should say this or not,” Johnson said. “Not ’cause it’s lascivious or something, but because it’s gonna screw me on the next mystery movie that I write…. Apple, they let you use iPhones in movies, but, and this is very pivotal, if you’re ever watching a mystery movie, bad guys cannot have iPhones on camera.”
He went on to say that “every single filmmaker who has a bad guy in their movie” probably wants him dead, and if this Sharon Carter theory is true, then that might ring true for Marvel’s showrunners too.
Some commenters on TikTok pointed out that it looks like she’s using an iPhone at the party she hosts later on. You know, the one where Zemo is getting his groove on. So that could be a hole in this theory. And another person commented that the Android or non-Apple phone Sharon used is similar to something Nick Furry used and is supposed to be because it keeps them off the grid. So there could just be a narrative reason behind it as well.
But, put this theory on top of the “Sharon Carter might be the Power Broker theory” and it’s quite delicious.
This version of Sharon Carter is much different than who fans saw in ‘Captain America: Winter Soldier’
What makes this theory a tad more believable is the fact that Sharon Carter is so much different from the Sharon that fans knew in Captain America Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War.
Due to the fact that she helped out Captain America and his team, essentially betraying the CIA and her country, she had to go on the run. In the years that followed, she was one of the countless people who disappeared in the Blip. When she came back, she wasn’t one of the lucky few Avengers to be pardoned like Sam, Bucky, and Wanda.
But because of her character development and the swift change from who the audience knew before, showrunner Malcolm Spellman had the most fun with her.
“The character that turned into the most fun was Sharon Carter because Emily [VanCamp] has such a baby face and looks very, very sweet and innocent,” he said on The A.V. Club’s podcast Push The Envelope on March 24. “But Sharon Carter is gonna emerge as a bad*ss. I’d have to use far more inappropriate language to describe how awesome she is. Let’s just say this: Sharon Carter is all grown up now.”
