Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie reprise their respective roles as Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson from the film series, with Emily VanCamp, Wyatt Russell, Erin Kellyman, Florence Kasumba, Danny Ramirez, Adepero Oduye, and Daniel Brühl (Zemo) also starring.

Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson travel to Berlin to talk to an imprisoned Helmut Zemo about the emergence of a terrorist group of Super Soldiers, the Flag Smashers.

After Zemo uses Barnes to get the attention of high-ranking criminal Selby, the group meet with her and learn that Hydra scientist Dr. Wilfred Nagel was hired by the Power Broker to recreate the Super Soldier Serum.

The Flag Smashers raid a Global Repatriation Council (GRC) storage facility in Lithuania for supplies, and Morgenthau blows up the building with people still inside to send a message.

[4] Kari Skogland was hired to direct the miniseries a month later,[5] and executive produced alongside Spellman and Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Nate Moore.

[13] Carter's personality has changed following the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016), with actress Emily VanCamp describing her as having "quite a bit more edge" than was previously seen.

She said there are subtle indications throughout the episode of how Carter has survived in Madripoor since Civil War, and said the character's primary goal was using Wilson and Barnes to gain a pardon for her alleged crimes so her life can return to normal.

[15] The episode stars Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter, Wyatt Russell as John Walker / Captain America, Erin Kellyman as Karli Morgenthau, Florence Kasumba as Ayo, Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres, Adepero Oduye as Sarah Wilson, and Daniel Brühl as Helmut Zemo.

[16]: 47:36–48:10  Also appearing are Clé Bennett as Lemar Hoskins / Battlestar, Desmond Chiam, Dani Deetté, and Indya Bussey as the Flag Smashers Dovich, Gigi, and DeeDee, respectively, Renes Rivera as Lennox, Tyler Dean Flores as Diego, Noah Mills as Nico, Veronica Falcón as Donya Madani, Neal Kodinsky as Rudy, Nicholas Pryor as Oeznik, Imelda Corcoran as Selby, and Olli Haaskivi as Wilfred Nagel.

[18] Skogland wanted to create a signature look for Madripoor, something that she hoped would be "exotic and a bit familiar but off-grid; to have a real street feel but be quite colorful and eye-popping".

[26][27] Dillon's approach to filming Madripoor was based on the design work already done by Chan and Marvel Studios,[26] as well as reference photographs compiled by Skogland;[28] his goal was to execute the concepts they provided.

They wanted to reflect the character's comic book depiction of being a competent special agent through the choreography, and the sequence shows Carter making use of any weapons she can find which VanCamp felt "made it a little bit more brutal and gritty and interesting".

This was improvised by Brühl during filming, who felt Zemo needed to "let off some steam and show his moves" after years in prison, and he thought it would be cut from the final episode.

[39] Approximately 30 seconds of footage existed of Brühl dancing, more than what was included in the episode, and Marvel released the full sequence on social media on April 8, 2021, along with a looping hour-long version.

They sought to distinguish the Hightown and Lowtown locales, and had to adjust establishing shots filmed in Prague to make the appearance of Madripoor consistent throughout the episode.

[49] Marvel also created a viral marketing tourism site for Madripoor, featuring Easter eggs such as wanted posters, clips of CCTV footage showing different angles of the episode's action scenes, and downloadable phone and computer wallpapers.

[53] Nielsen Media Research, which measures the number of minutes watched by United States audiences on television sets, listed The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as the second most-watched original series across streaming services for the week of March 29 to April 4, 2021.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Falcon and the Winter Soldier is still spreading its wings when it should be soaring during this transitionary installment, but 'Power Broker' is still a lot of fun thanks to the return of Daniel Brühl and Emily VanCamp to the MCU.

Club was critical of the episode, giving it a "C" grade, saying it was more interested in using existing action movie tropes than developing its story and characters and left her "thinking of the times I've seen better versions of each of these scenes".

since it felt "pretty utilitarian" and was "cobbled together from ideas that have been done to death elsewhere, in the hopes that the mere presence of familiar (or, in some cases, semi-familiar) faces from the MCU will make it seem brand new and thrilling".

His colleague Christian Holub added, "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is definitely playing with some interesting ideas, but I don't yet have the sense that the show knows exactly what it wants to do or say with them", feeling confused by the various story elements but intrigued about how they would conclude.

[57] Matt Purslow's review for IGN was positive, saying the episode "efficiently unpacks many of the story's main plot threads" while also not sacrificing character development.

[58] Den of Geek's Gavin Jasper gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars and felt it was a "breath of fresh air" and a true sequel to the MCU film Captain America: Civil War (2016), putting a "new spin on the same general concept".

Jasper said Brühl's performance made Zemo likeable and charismatic, likening it to Tom Hiddleston's Loki in the film Thor: The Dark World (2013), and was hopeful that Marvel Studios was teasing the introduction of the Thunderbolts team from the comics.