Captain America: Brave New World releases in just over two weeks. This Valentine’s Day, Sam Wilson will make his big screen debut as Captain America, having already made his screen debut as Captain America in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
A lot of details have emerged in the previous weeks about the newest Captain America movie. Its run time is just under two hours, clocking in at one hour and fifty eight minutes making it the shortest of the four Captain America movies. We also know that Sam Wilson has received some Wakandan assistance which allows him to take on a threat as powerful as Red Hulk and perform superhuman like actions. We’ve known for a while now that adamantium, Marvel’s most famous metal, will make its debut and will almost certainly come from the body of the Celestial Tiamut.
Now, a new detail has come forward: Harrison Ford's Red Hulk will have significantly less screen time than the most recent trailers would have us all believe.
Marvel is no stranger to misleading trailers. I'm sure we all remember the trailers for Avengers: Infinity War that featured the Hulk, a character that never ended up being in the movie passed the opening scene. However, I think this is less of a direct mislead and more of a simple and intentional disclude of information.
Red Hulk is not the villain of the movie. The villain of Captain America: Brave New World is The Leader.
In Marvel Comics, Red Hulk made his debut in 2008 Hulk comics, but it wasn't until the widely popular World War Hulk storyline that Red Hulk's identity was revealed to be Thaddeus Ross. In that comic, a supervillain group that included MODOK called Intelligencia had convinced Ross to undergo a procedure similar to the accident that turned Bruce Banner into the Hulk so he could take on his nemesis if he were to return to Earth. Interestingly, The Leader was a key member of Intelligencia. In one of the earliest stories The Leader is in, his goal is to overthrow the US government and take control of it.
It seems as if Captain America: Brave New World is adapting both Red Hulk and The Leader's origins into one story.
To create Red Hulk, The Leader and Intelligencia take gamma radiation from Hulk and use it to create Red Hulk. I think there's a chance Bruce Banner will have more of a presence in Brave New World than we think and The Leader, who is a genius scientist, may have helped him created the inhibitor device that he uses to turn back into Bruce Banner in She-Hulk.
Ultimately, Red Hulk's marketing focus is a bait and switch executed very well. Red Hulk is not the villain; he's a tool of the true villain, The Leader. It's smart to use Red Hulk as the main motivator to get audiences, especially the general audience that knows nothing of The Leader, into theaters. The Hulk is a very recognizable character. Marvel and Disney are banking on that recognizability. Red Hulk and Hulk look almost exactly the same and anyone that sees Red Hulk will immediately be intrigued by the character even if they have no idea who it is. Most of the plot of the movie seems to have not been revealed in trailers, which is nice considering how often trailers spoil entire movies.
It makes perfect sense that Red Hulk actually has a relatively small presence in the movie and a small screen time to match it. Red Hulk is not the main villain and, therefore, is unlikely to have a lot of time on screen.
Captain America: Brave New World is projected to make just shy of one hundred million dollars in its opening weekend. That would be a close tie for second for Captain America movies putting it next to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Reviews should release fairly soon, so it will be exciting to see what critics think of the movie.
Are you excited for Sam Wilson's first movie? What about Red Hulk and The Leader's presence? Let me know!