Reshoots completely reshaped Captain America: Brave New World, and the Serpent Society in its original form ended up on the cutting room floor.
Rosa Salazar and Seth Rollins were cast as Diamondback and Cobra, and were in the movie long enough for the former to receive her own Happy Meal toy last year. When all was said and done, the Serpent Society became Sidewinder's grounded (some might say "generic") group of mercenaries, the Serpents.
Thanks to The Artbook Collector, we now have a new look at Cobra and Asp, along with a first look at Red Hulk's mustache and beard, neither of which made it into the movie. Rather than follow the comics by having President Thaddeus Ross' facial hair vanish when he transforms—which was largely done to hide Red Hulk's identity—it was explained that he shaved it off during his Presidential campaign.
There's also a shot of smoke coming from Red Hulk's skin, an indication perhaps that Marvel Studios considered exploring more of his fiery powers. With such limited screen time, there ultimately wasn't much room for that.
Earlier this year, filmmaker Julius Onah said the movie's reshoots took Captain America: Brave New World from being "heightened" to "more grounded" and cited the Serpent Society removal as an example.
"I think it gets a little deceptive in ‘a whole new character was added,’ because Serpent Society was always a part of the story, so the story function that Serpent Society serves in the film has never changed...we were deviating probably a bit too much from the grounded tone that we wanted the movie to have with how we had created Serpent Society at first."
"You know, they are people dressed like snakes in comic books, and they have snake-adjacent powers and stuff that’s really, really heightened, and you wanted an actor who could really help us lean, or gesture towards the fantastic, but without losing that sense of grounding. So it’s not like Serpent Society or the character changed. It was just, let’s really introduce a version of them that fits into the tone of the movie."
Had the Serpent Society been included in Captain America: Brave New World (and Ironheart hadn't been so significantly delayed), we'd have learned that Ezekiel Stane was responsible for giving the group their bionic enhancements.
You can check out this latest concept art from Captain America: Brave New World below (more can be found by visiting The Artbook Collector).
In Captain America: Brave New World, after meeting with newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross, played by Harrison Ford in his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, Sam Wilson finds himself in the middle of an international incident. He must discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot before the true mastermind has the entire world seeing red.
The movie stars Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Xosha Roquemore, Carl Lumbly, with Giancarlo Esposito, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson, and Harrison Ford. The movie is directed by Julius Onah and produced by Kevin Feige and Nate Moore. Louis D’Esposito and Charles Newirth serve as executive producers.
"Flawed but functional, Captain America: Brave New World's many problems are largely forgotten any time Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford electrify the screen," we said in our review. "And when Red Hulk shows up, the movie reaches new heights of awesome."
Captain America: Brave New World is now streaming on Disney+.