Captain America: Brave New World ends with President Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross transforming into the out-of-control Red Hulk. Unlike Smart Hulk, She-Hulk, and Abomination, the villain never speaks and, as a result, is more akin to a "classic" angry Hulk.
Collider recently caught up with filmmaker Julius Onah and asked why Red Hulk doesn't talk in the Marvel Studios blockbuster.
"Whether or not Red Hulk should talk, that was something that came up quite a bit," he acknowledged. "My feeling was that he shouldn't, which is what is the case in the movie." According to the Captain America: Brave New World director, it came down to "the transformation that Ross is dealing with and the struggle that Ross is dealing with emotionally."
Onah added, "The moment you gave him language as a Hulk, then people can talk to each other, and you're moving away from pure id to a more rational being. It was the same way Harrison felt.”
"That speaks to a guy and how great of collaborators everybody at Marvel is. They respected that, and that's what we got in the movie."
It makes sense and the Captain America vs. Red Hulk battle has been widely praised for portraying Ross' angry other half in the same way as the transformed Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers, and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Onah was quizzed on Sebastian Stan's cameo role as Bucky Barnes. He shows up to give Sam Wilson a pep talk after The Falcon is injured and it's revealed he's mounting a campaign to become a Congressman.
While we've heard the scene was filmed during reshoots, Onah said, "Bucky was always a part of it...from the very beginning, we knew that Bucky would feature in some way in the story."
"There were versions where he was at the beginning of the movie, there were versions where he was at the very end of the movie, but it became clear that putting him at a point where Sam is dealing with one of his emotional lows would be very, very potent, and also offer a surprise."
"I don't think the audience is ever expecting that that's the moment he's going to show up in the movie, and I love that kind of surprise," the director concluded.
Thunderbolts* is expected to pick up with the former Winter Soldier now an acting Congressman, something that's likely to put him in conflict with whatever Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is plotting.
Finally, Onah confirmed what we've long suspected; despite the importance of Celestial Island to Captain America: Brave New World's Adamantium subplot, the Eternals were never lined up to appear. "That was never on the table. No," he told the site.
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 playing in theaters.