CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD Featurette Spotlights Tim Blake Nelson's Return As The Leader

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD Featurette Spotlights Tim Blake Nelson's Return As The Leader

A couple of new BTS featurettes from the upcoming home media release of Captain America: Brave New World have been shared online, one of which spotlights Tim Blake Nelson's return as Samuel Sterns...

By MarkCassidy - Apr 09, 2025 10:04 AM EST

Yesterday, we got word that Marvel Studios' Captain America: Brave New World will be available to buy and rent on digital platforms (Apple TV, Fandango at Home, Amazon and more) from April 15, before releasing on 4K Blu-ray/DVD on May 13, and a pair of BTS featurettes from the bonus features have now been shared online.

The first highlights the early assassination attempt on President Ross (Harrison Ford), and we also have an interview with Tim Blake Nelson, who made his MCU return as Dr. Samuel Sterns after debuting in The Incredible Hulk back in 2008.

We caught a few shadowy glimpses of Sterns, aka the Leader, in the buildup to Brave New World's release, but he wasn't fully unveiled until the movie was in theaters, and the character's look was... not particularly well-received!

Sterns really didn't end up looking much like the leaked promo art featuring the character, which suggests that several alternate designs were considered. Aside from being clean-shaven, his signature elongated cranium was much smaller, with his brain partially exposed (the character has had a similar look in the comics).

Spoilers follow.

Towards the end of Brave New World, Sterns successfully forces Ross to transform into the Red Hulk, but he surrenders to the authorities in the process and is sent to the Raft. In the movie's post-credits scene, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) pays the Leader a visit in his cell, and is told about some mysterious "others" that are on the way to cause problems for Cap and whoever his new team of Avengers will be.

Will we see Sterns in the MCU again? We don't imagine Marvel brought the character back just for this one movie, so we'd say he will still have a part to play in whatever Hulk-related projects are on the way.

Brave New World underperformed at the box office, but did recently manage to pass $400 million worldwide (which didn't always seem likely). The critical reception was mixed-negative, and the fourth Captain America movie is currently sitting at 48% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 331 reviews.

How do you feel about Captain America: Brave New World now that some time has passed? Would you be willing to give the movie another go when it hits Digital/streaming? Let us know in the comments section.

After meeting with newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross, played by Harrison Ford in his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, Sam 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.

Captain America: Brave New World also stars Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Xosha Roquemore, Carl Lumbly, with Giancarlo Esposito, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson, and Harrison Ford. The film is directed by Julius Onah and produced by Kevin Feige and Nate Moore. Louis D’Esposito and Charles Newirth serve as executive producers.

Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World is now in theaters.

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HagridsHole1
HagridsHole1 - 4/9/2025, 10:52 AM
They had his look pretty much perfect and then we got this. This.
V
V - 4/9/2025, 10:55 AM
Why did Biden put in tariffs, create a trade war and crash the stock market?
Wahhvacado
Wahhvacado - 4/9/2025, 11:01 AM
@V - User Comment Image
BruceWayng
BruceWayng - 4/9/2025, 12:05 PM
@V - you forget to mention that he ruined the global economy by shutting down the US economy for 2 years, printed $5 Trillion through “quantitative easing”-which then led to skyrocketing asset inflation-which then widened the wealth gap and artificially pumped up the stock market and housing market all while finding time to spend hundreds of billions of US tax dollars overseas on proxy wars and soft power initiatives through government funded NGO’s and flood the countries with tens of millions of legal immigrants- all of whom received hundreds of billions of dollars of US tax payer funded financial support and benefits.
Luigi
Luigi - 4/9/2025, 1:29 PM
@V - Same reason he's threatening war with Iran and invading Greenland. Because WOKENESS!
THEKENDOMAN
THEKENDOMAN - 4/9/2025, 10:56 AM
How Marvel [frick]ed this up is beyond me.

Then again, that's all they have been doing.

[frick]ing shit up.

For [frick]s sake
Repian
Repian - 4/9/2025, 10:57 AM
It's terrible how they've wasted Tim Blake Nelson. He's a good actor.

He could make a great Victor Freeze for Reeves' Bat-universe. I know Tim is white, but I want him for the role🤣
User Comment Image
THEKENDOMAN
THEKENDOMAN - 4/9/2025, 10:58 AM
@Repian - 😂😂

My N***a 👊🏿
Wahhvacado
Wahhvacado - 4/9/2025, 11:00 AM

User Comment Image
DocSpock
DocSpock - 4/9/2025, 11:04 AM

Bad. They ruined his character. Move along. Nothing to be done here.

Mickey the rat sucks.
Waifuslayer2
Waifuslayer2 - 4/9/2025, 11:22 AM
You guys still wasting bandwidth posting about this trash?
FrankenDad
FrankenDad - 4/9/2025, 11:26 AM
The Toxic Revenger
DarthOmega
DarthOmega - 4/9/2025, 12:03 PM
He looks like he literally gave head to an HPV patient.
Gambito
Gambito - 4/9/2025, 12:05 PM
Yet another brilliant thespian wasted by the Marvel machine, at least he got paid handsomely.
JustAWaffle
JustAWaffle - 4/9/2025, 12:06 PM
I already forgot about this movie.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 4/9/2025, 1:35 PM
I thought Sterns was alright in BNW honestly even if I wish he had more to do in the film itself…

However I guess that is an issue with characters whose primary power is their intelligence is that there is a lot of calculating & planning and not much physical action if any.

Also I know some said that the character didn’t feel entirely consistent with the one we saw in the Incredible Hulk since he was somewhat eccentric in that and to that I say , years of torture and being willingly exposed to radiation to help one man’s cause would I think make anyone bitter & resentful imo hence those neuroses would be gone.

User Comment Image

In regards to Harrison Ford & Ross , I honestly thought he & Carl Lumbly had the best performances in the film and that Ross had the most compelling arc in it.

I still think the movie was decent-good and I honestly want to see it again just to settle on my opinion at the least.
StSteven
StSteven - 4/9/2025, 7:34 PM
@TheVisionary25 - I'm right there with you on all your points actually. I saw it a coupe of weeks ago with my parents when I had to travel up where they live for a funeral (thankfully not one of theirs) and then had to literally head straight to the airport after the movie to fly back to where I live so I had a lot going on ash the time, but I enjoyed the movie and thought that it was definitely better than I was expecting, given all the shade that it's been getting around here and elsewhere.

As far as Sterns's story goes, it's tough to say how much of what we saw was in the original script and how much of it was retooling, especially considering that Disney reportedly redid some story elements to try to avoid comparisons between Ross and Trump after he got elected, so we don't really know what the original arc with Sterns was. But overall I was fine with where it landed. He was already a rather curious and intellectual character in "TIH" trying to figure out Bruce's condition, and so it seems that the addition of Game radiation just increased that to extremely high levels, similar to how it increased Bruce's and Ross's natural anger and physical strength, so that tracks. Considering that he still has all that gamma juju flowing through his veins, he'll probably look somewhat different the next time we see him and probably more in line with his comic book look (i.e., even larger head, facial hair, etc.).

And I'm with you, being as the movie was fairly family friendly I'll watch it again with my wife and kids when it comes to D+ or whatever and make another assessment when I don't have like 1000 other things going on at the same time.

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