“You may be Captain America, but you’re not Steve Rogers.”
“You’re right, I’m not.”
After finally taking up the iconic shield in the finale episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel wants to make sure you know that Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is a new Captain America unlike any we’ve seen in the past. And that is fully evident in the first trailer for Captain America: Brave New World released on Friday.
Mackie’s Wilson isn’t the only person filling some big shoes. We get our first official look at Harrison Ford as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, now the President of the United States. Ford is taking over the role from the late William Hurt, who had played the role beginning in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk until his death in 2022, and the trailer winks at the audience with Sam saying he’s still getting used to Ross’ new look. He’s talking about the lack of a mustache, of course.
In the trailer, Ross calls Wilson to Washington and while acknowledging that the pair haven’t always seen eye-to-eye in the past (notably Ross incarcerating Wilson following the events of Captain America: Civil War and the fallout of the Sokovia Accords), Ross wants to make another go of making Captain America an official military position. Wilson isn’t Steve and perhaps is less inclined to follow orders than the WWII super soldier. So what happens if he disagrees with Ross? Just work with him and they’ll show the world a better way forward, the president says. And that non-answer says volumes while cementing a potential future adversarial relationship between POTUS and the modern-day Star-Spangled Man.
A key takeaway from the trailer is the tension felt throughout, starting with the music and the tick-tock heard underneath. Adding to the intrigue is Carl Lumbly’s post-Steve Rogers super solider Isaiah Bradley, who had been wrongly jailed by his government. He seemingly attacks a secret service agent and attempts to assassinate the president, although there may be more to that story than meets the eye. In the aftermath, Wilson tells Ross that his inner circle has been compromised, whether he wants to believe it or not, followed by Wilson and Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres investigating a creepy-looking building that includes a crude-looking medical suite, evoking memories of the Winter Soldier.
Further complicating matters is a shadowy figure who says, “Global power is shifting, you’re just a pawn.” It’s hard to make out any characteristics in the scene, but the closed captioning attributed to comments to Samuel Sterns, aka Leader, who was last seen in the aforementioned The Incredible Hulk in 2008 having the blood of Bruce Banner seep into a cut on his head. We then get to see Giancarlo Esposito’s baddie as “Enter A Brave New World” is seen on the screen between action sequences. Brave New World is clearly looking to return to the political thriller tone of Captain America: Winter Soldier, the consensus most popular film in the series. There was already a hint of this in Falcon and the Winter Soldier with the Flag Smashers storyline, so it makes sense to continue along those lines in Brave New World.
Following typical superhero destruction, including to the White House (!), and mid-air chase sequences we close out the trailer with a Hulk roar and get introduced for the first time in the MCU to Red Hulk, who was introduced in the 2008 Hulk comic series as the alter-ego of … Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. Marvel Studios further leaned into the Red Hulk of it all with the official teaser poster it released on X.
Marvel Studios’ #CaptainAmericaBraveNewWorld. Only in theaters February 14, 2025. pic.twitter.com/YSzK93zVtH
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) July 12, 2024
So perhaps go back and re-watch The Incredible Hulk (pay no mind to Edward Norton) and Falcon and the Winter Soldier and then buckle up for a Brave New World!
Captain America: Brave New World — directed by Julius Onah and written by Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson and Matthew Orton — hits theaters on February 14, 2025, as part of the MCU’s Phase Five.
