All signs now point to us getting the Champions in the MCU rather than the Young Avengers. Marvel Studios has missed the boat to assemble the latter team, though likely didn't want to do anything that risks watering down the Avengers franchise.
Members of the group have been showing up all over the place since Phase 4 started, including Eli Bradley in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. The grandson of Isaiah Bradley, he leads the comic book Young Avengers as Patriot.
The expectation was that Marvel Studios would also head down that route. However, even with Isaiah set to take on a lead role in Captain America: Brave New World, there's been no mention of Elijah Richardson making his MCU return (a shame as it's not a stretch to assume his grandfather's powers have been handed down to the teenager).
Talking to Screen Rant, executive producer Nate Moore explained why Eli didn't make it into the movie.
"There are early drafts of the script where Eli was in it, but we started to feel like there were too many characters to track and we want to make sure if a character is in the film, they have something to do," he explained. "And so we had to make the tough decision to just explore Isaiah and to see how Isaiah being pulled into Sam's world maybe affects him."
"We also wanted Sam and Isaiah. We wanted room to build up their relationship without a third party kind of commenting on it," Moore continued. "And so this film is very much about establishing that Isaiah has become not only a mentor to Sam, but a training partner. He is a super soldier."
"I think it allows Sam to expand on his physical skills, but that relationship might not be the best thing for Isaiah in the long run," the executive teased.
It's a compelling enough reason, though Eli's emerging powers would have made for a fun subplot. Instead, Captain America: Brave New World will focus on Sam Wilson's developing relationship with the new Falcon, Joaquin Torres.
Eli can always show up elsewhere, and he doesn't necessarily need to become Patriot in the new Captain America's shadow. For now, his MCU debut was little more than an Easter Egg.
A new TV spot for Captain America: Brave New World has also been released showing President Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross visiting his wife's grave. Could her death have contributed to his Red Hulk transformation?
We'll have to wait and see but there's a phenomenal shot of the villain in the teaser's closing moments showing just how incredibly detailed Red Hulk's character model is (there will surely be no She-Hulk complaints here).
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.
Captain America: Brave New World opens in U.S. theaters on February 14, 2025.