At this point, it seems Marvel will need a legitimate miracle if they want Sam Wilson’s upcoming solo flight to do more than crash land, as a new rumor suggests that the struggling Captain America: Brave New World is set to be re-cut yet again due to the film failing another test screening.
Word of the next Marvel Cinematic Universe entry’s latest stumble was first raised to the public on November 25th courtesy of noted scooper Daniel ‘DanielRPK’ Richtman.
In a post shared to his paid Patreon account, as recapped by numerous news outlets including the Marvel-centric Twitter account @Marvel_Updates_, Richtman claimed that “Captain America: Brave New World is currently being changed due to another negative test screening”.
He further noted that, at current, “It’s unclear if this will include another batch of reshoots or simply just re-editing”.
Notably, this rumor comes a little over a month after the film’s most recently reported test screenings, which according to World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy saw audiences reject two different cuts of Sam’s next adventure.
At current, it’s unclear if the “negative test screening” mentioned by Richtman is related to those reported on by Ruimy – but regardless, these results do not bode well for the winged Avenger.
After all, should Richtman’s scoop turn out to be true, this ‘re-cutting’ would mark but the latest attempt by Marvel to try and salvage Brave New World.
In November 2023, veteran Hollywood insider and entertainment reporter Jeff Sneider alleged that, per his sources, a test screening of the film earlier in the year had gone so poorly that Marvel elected to take the Captain America sequel back to the drawing board, even going so far as to hire Matthew Orton, who had previously served as a consulting producer and writer on the studio’s Moon Knight series, to write new material.
As a result, the studio cut a major-plot involving the full Serpent Society, replaced their role with a completely new villain in the form of Giancarlo Esposito’s Sidewinder, and added in far more action scenes to balance out its apparently ‘overtly preachy’ script.
And according to a supposed insider who spoke to the aforementioned Ruimy, this round of changes was so extensive that they allegedly cost Disney between $75 Million – $100 Million to produce, thus bringing the film’s total budget at the time to somewhere in the ballpark of $375 Million – $400 Million.
That qualifier of ‘at the time’ is important because rather than this being the end of the film’s production woes, Esposito himself would reveal in early November 2024 that he would be returning to set in the coming weeks for another round of reshoots.
While it’s unclear just how much money is being spent between this apparent return to set and its rumored-by-Richtman post-production work, suffice to say, the film’s budget is likely nearing the $500 Million mark – meaning, by the standard ‘true budget equation’ of ‘double a film’s reported budget’, Brave New World may need to make at least $1 billion to break even.
All in all, while Richtman’s latest scoop remains firmly in the ‘rumor’ camp for now, given the tumultuous nature of the film’s confirmed production history, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Marvel is still trying to get Captain America: Brave New World, a film which ostensibly began life as another ‘Disney-level critique of modern day America’, into a somewhat workable state.
And to that, all we as fans can say is: Good luck, Marvel. You’re gonna need it.
Despite still being worked on, Captain America: Brave New World is still planned to make landfall on February 14th, 2025.
