As expected, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s finale didn’t exactly wrap up all the loose ends, with a few threads left dangling ahead of a rumoured second season.

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And chief among those threads? The future of Emily VanCamp’s ex-SHIELD agent Sharon Carter, who stars in episode six’s post-credits scene and looks set to have a slightly darker future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe than many would have expected.

*Warning: spoilers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode six will be mentioned from hereon out.*

The post-credits scene opens with Sharon in a special hearing, where her long hoped-for pardon appears about to be granted, at least partially thanks to her and her family’s (thanks, Hayley Atwell!) years of service.

“Thank you Senator – I’ve been waiting to hear those words for a long time,” she says. And then, she looks set to get a job back working for the CIA, which she joined after the fall of SHIELD in 2014.

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“There may be an opening in your old division,” the Senator in charge tells her. “Is that something you’d be interested in?”

“It would be my honour,” she replies.

However, as we learned in this week’s episode Sharon has changed in her years off the grid. Specifically, she became the super soldier-creating arms dealer The Power Broker, with agents and interests all around the globe. And it seems like she’s not quite ready to give up her villainous side hustle just yet, especially with her newly-regained SHIELD access…

Emily VanCamp plays Sharon Carter in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Emily VanCamp plays Sharon Carter in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Disney

“Start lining up our buyers,” Sharon tells an unknown contact as she leaves the hearing. ‘Super Soldiers might be off the menu, but we’re about to have full access to government secrets, prototype weapons, you name it.

“Should be something for everyone,” she concludes as she walks away.

Clearly, this looks set to be a storyline that’ll play out in a potential season two – or rather, season one of the newly-titled Captain America and the Winter Soldier – and we can’t help but wonder if Sam and Bucky (Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan) will have to take Sharon down in future episodes.

As it stands, neither knows that Sharon was the Power Broker all along – but if she really does start leaking secrets to bad people, it’s not hard to imagine her ex-allies having to team up to stop her. And given how unlikely it is that this post-credits scene is setting up another film or project (Secret Invasion, possibly, but it’s unlikely) we have to assume that’s what this sting is hinting at.

So will the Power Broker be the big villain of Captain America and the Winter Soldier? Only time will tell – but we do know that Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter would be very disappointed in Sharon. Tut tut.

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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier streams exclusively on Disney Plus. You can sign up to Disney Plus for £7.99 a month or £79.90 a year now. Check out the rest of our Sci-fi and Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.

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