Warning: This post contains spoilers for Captain America: Brave New World.
Captain America: Brave New World is nominally a political thriller in which the new Captain America (Anthony Mackie, taking over the role from a retired Chris Evans) must uncover a conspiracy to mind-control soldiers and embarrass the newly named President of the United States, Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford, filling in for the late William Hurt).
But the fourth Captain America movie is also filled with subplots. It drops a lot of nuggets of information on an audience primed to make connections across all of the many Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and shows. A gang called Serpent led by some guy we’ve never heard of called Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito) has emerged, and is, apparently, a major antagonist to Captain America. A barely-onscreen character from The Incredible Hulk named Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) has been nursing a grudge against Ross for the better part of two decades. The giant Celestial that emerged from the ocean in The Eternals is full of a precious metal. Oh, and also Bucky (Sebastian Stan) is running for Congress now.
Read More: Breaking Down the Captain America: Brave New World End-Credits Scene
That’s a lot of information to unpack, and these Brave New World revelations could have major implications on the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward. The movie is trying to set a foundation for what’s to come: specifically two new Avengers movies that could return the MCU to its former glory.
Marvel Studios has been in a slump for the last few years thanks to a flooded superhero market, the decreasing quality of its movies, and a slew of mediocre TV shows that not even the most devoted fans could keep up with. The success of Deadpool & Wolverine was a bright spot in 2024, but that movie soared to success in part by poking fun at Marvel’s failings. Critics have not been kind to Brave New World, but it may still serve an important role in rethinking how…
