Cap is back! Well, sort of. It’s a whole new Captain America, with Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, the Artist Formerly Known as The Falcon, having been bequeathed the star-spangled mantle at the tail end of Avengers: Endgame by a rather doddery Steve Rogers. And this new version will be making his big screen debut when Captain America: Brave New World hits cinemas on February 13, 2025.
Captain America: Brave New World
Directed by Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox, which is dreadful, and Luce, which is brilliant) and following on from the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Captain America: Brave New World sees our man Sam once again struggling with the weight of his superheroic identity, but presumably managing to suppress his self-doubt long enough to pound the hell out of a few bad guys.
Those bad guys this time out include top notch character actor Tim Blake Nelson as The Leader, a gamma-irradiated super-genius whose origin we saw all the way back in The Incredible Hulk. Another promising punch-recipient is Harrison Ford’s General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, with Ford replacing the late William Hurt. When we catch up with him here he’s the President of the United States (which is the second time Ford has played a president—third if you count future Oval Office occupier Jack Ryan), but in the source comics Ross becomes the rampaging Red Hulk, and it seems that might be the case here, too.
Speaking of The Incredible Hulk, Liv Tyler is back playing Bruce Banner’s former main squeeze, Betty Ross. Carl Lumbly reprises his The Falcon and the Winter Soldier role as rightfully embittered super soldier, Isaiah Bradley, while newcomers include Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres, the new Falcon, Shira Haas as Israeli hero Sabra, plus Xosha Roquemore, Seth Rollins, and Rosa Salazar in undisclosed roles.
With all this gamma-related action going on we’re just hopeful Mark Ruffalo will show up at some point, but in the meantime we’re cautiously optimistic about how this one is shaping up.
