‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Director Says Marvel Film Is About “Cementing” Sam Wilson As Star-Spangled Avenger: “His Superpower Is His Empathy, And I Want The Audience To Walk Away With That Emotional, Inspiring Idea”
According to Captain America: Brave New World director Julius Onah, more than just serving as another franchise entry, his upcoming film is intended to serve as the official “cementing” of Sam Wilson as the official Star-Spangled Avenger of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Onah, whose past directorial credits include the crime thriller The Girls is in Trouble, the contemporary drama Luce, and the sci-fi stinker The Cloverfield Field paradox, offered this insight into Sam Wilson’s next flight during a recent stop on the film’s currently ongoing press tour.
Per a recap provided by GamesRadar+ based on their personal attendance of the press event, the topic of Brave New World‘s ‘mission statement’ was first broached by Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige.
Speaking as to what he specifically wanted audiences to get out of the film, the ever-baseball-capped Hollywood exec explained that, ideally, they would walk away from their viewing with a confident optimism towards Sam’s Stars and Stripes-clad future.
“I think, in many ways, the victory has already happened, but it’s that full acceptance of Sam Wilson as Captain America, right?” he posited to the crowd. “That shield has been passed, and it feels like the audience knows it was passed to the right person, and I think this movie will solidify that more.”
Echoing this sentiment, the aforementioned Onah would subsequently assert, “This is about cementing Sam Wilson as our new Captain America.”
“And his superpower is his empathy, and I want the audience to walk away with that emotional, inspiring idea of that empathy,” the director added. “Because I think the twists and the turns, the action, surprise, the fun ride that they will absolutely go on is about taking you to that emotional destination.”
Notably, this is not the first time a member of Brave New World‘s cast and crew has described the film as ‘establishing a new benchmark’ for not just the titular hero, but the MCU overall.
Discussing his in-universe promotion with Entertainment Weekly‘s Nick Romano at the 2024 Cinema Con following the first public showing of footage from the film, star Anthony Mackie himself told his host, “Even though I’ve been in so many of them and have seen it all now, the opportunity for Sam to really establish himself as a true action star and Avenger comes with this movie.”
“This movie is a clear reset,” he continued. “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.”
Closing out their time together by turning to the topic of the film’s title, Mackie ultimately told Romano, “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,” he said. “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.”
Nor is this the first time that public mention has been made of Wilson’s more ’empathetic’ take on the mantle of the MCU’s premiere shield-bearer.
During a February 2023 interview with Yahoo! Entertainment’s Kevin Polowy, when asked how his “approach to the mantle departs most dramatically from Chris’ [Evans],” Mackie affirmed, “My Cap, he’s not a superhero. He doesn’t have a super-serum. So his superpower is his humanity.”
So I think with him he has to come to the stage with a very different understanding of what it is it to be a good guy or be a bad guy, and what are the decisions that make you tow that line in the way that you did.”
“I just see him as more of a humane Cap, as opposed to a Cap of judgment, where this is right, or this is wrong,” he explained to Polowy. “There are decisions that make you choose right or wrong.”
Likewise, when asked by an attendee of his speaking appearance at Disney’s November 2024, Singapore-based APAC [Asia-Pacifc] Content Showcase event as to how Sam’s time as Captain America would differ from his predecessor’s, Mackie replied, “Sam’s evolution is simple. He’s still a counselor. He’s still serving soldiers, but at the same time, now he’s a leader of his community in the country.”
“It’s very different with the serum — you can fight anybody,” he added. “When you don’t have the serum, you have to be smart and engineer different ways of defeating [enemies]. With Sam, him being a counselor, he uses more of his brains than brawn. He uses more of his wit than his fist. He’s more of a friend to everyone.”
Barring any last minute delays – which, let’s be honest, isn’t out of the realm of possibility for this particular film – Captain America: Brave New World is set to land in theaters on February 14th.
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