New-ish Cap, same old shield.
Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson steps into his own as the star-spangled Avenger in the first look at “Captain America: Brave New World” that Disney shared during its CinemaCon presentation on Thursday. It sees the newly-minted Captain America saving Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, the president of the United States, from a group of brain-washed assassins. The action-packed scene finds Wilson engaged in hand-to-hand combat, while dodging bullets as he desperately tries to rescue the leader of the free world from a daring attack on the White House.
The first look at the Marvel movie also showed Wilson getting an offer from Ross that he might not be able to refuse. “I want Captain America to help me rebuild the Avengers,” the President tells the patriotic superhero.
The sequel picks up after the events of the Disney+ streaming series, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” For the two readers who may not have caught “Avengers: Endgame,” Steve Rogers, Wilson’s predecessor as Captain America, went back in time and gave up his superhero role in favor of aging gracefully.
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“Captain America: Brave New World” co-stars Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres, the U.S. Air Force lieutenant who has become the new Falcon with Wilson’s promotion, along with Tim Blake Nelson, Shira Haasand Liv Tyler. Julius onah (“The Cloverfield Paradox”) directs the movie.
Kevin Feige, who took the stage at CinemaCon, likened the film to 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” a comic book movie that seemed to be partially inspired by the paranoid cinema of the 1970s. He described the new movie as “another fast-paced, relatively grounded action thriller” and noted that “there’s no aliens.” Instead of touching down from outer space (or Asgard), the villains seem to come from within the political establishment. “Our inner circle has been compromised,” Wilson tells Ross.
At other moments, however, the President and the super soldier seem to be in conflict.
“You’re not Steve Rogers,” Ross says cuttingly. “You’re right, I’m not,” Wilson retorts.
The film hits theaters on Feb. 14, 2025. There’s a lot riding on its success. Marvel, once an indestructible box office force, has struggled theatrically. Recent releases like “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” “Eternals” and “The Marvels” divided critics and failed to draw the same type of crowds.
At CinemaCon, Disney also shared footage from “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which opens this summer and finds Hugh Jackman’s adamantium-bedecked mutant teaming up with Ryan Reynolds’ merc with a mouth. That film, directed by Shawn Levy, is expected to be a major blockbuster in part because of fan excitement over the pairing of the two colorful stars.
“Captain America: Brave New World” was originally supposed to open this year, but its release was pushed back partly due to the actors and writers strikes that shut down production throughout the film industry.
