One of the most anticipated upcoming Marvel movies has to be the next movie starring Captain America. The next film is, technically, the fourth in the franchise, but it’s actually a new beginning, as it will be the first film to see Anthony Mackie headline as the new Cap of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While the movie in many ways goes back to the earliest days of the larger franchise, Mackie promises that the film will act as a “reset” for the cinematic universe, showing fans where the MCU is going, and that includes the film’s villain.
Many fans have been critical of the MCU post-Avengers: Endgame, with a common refrain being that it’s unclear where everything is going. While I’m not sure that’s the problem that others do, Anthony Mackie tells EW that after seeing Captain America: Brave New World, fans will know where Marvel is going, at least thematically. He also makes a comparison between the new film and another Captain America film that will likely get many excited. Mackie explained…
This movie is a clear reset. It really reestablishes the idea of what this universe is and what this universe is going to be. I think with these movies, you're getting a clear, new branding of what Marvel is headed towards the same way they did with Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier certainly did change the game in the MCU when it was released. The first Captain America film didn’t set the world on fire, but The Winter Soldier is regarded by many as not only one of the best Marvel movies but the best Marvel movie in the MCU to date. It did set the stage for the tone of the franchise from that point forward.
The fact that the new movie acts as a sort of reset implies that, while The Captain America: Brace New World cast includes a few characters we haven’t seen since The Incredible Hulk, there’s no need, according to Mackie, for fans to go back and remind themselves where the franchise left things. These are essentially “new” characters in his mind, and when we see just who they are, we’ll get an idea of where they came from, and what direction stories may be going from this point forward. He continued…
The title implies that there's a new, bigger enemy now; there's a new frontier that we have to conquer. From Captain America: The First Avenger to Endgame, the enemy was always good versus bad. Now that we've conquered that, where do we go from here? When the bad guys reappear, in what form are they reappearing? It is a new storyline with new characters, with new beliefs, and it creates a new idea of this new world that we're going into.
Whether or not the villains of Brave New World are set to be a bigger part of the franchise, it does seem that the bad guys here will be thematically an indication of what we can expect going forward. It’s all the more reason to watch when the Captain America: Brave New World release date arrives next year.
