Captain America: Brave New World Is Fine, But I Have A Major Problem With How The Serpent Society Was Handled

Warning: SPOILERS for Captain America: Brave New World are ahead!

The 2025 movies schedule has delivered its first MCU offering in the form of Captain America: Brave New World, which sees Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson taking over the film series following Steve Rogers’ tenure as the Star Spangled Avenger. However, the 35th of the Marvel movies in order also serves as an indirect sequel to The Incredible Hulk, which is best showcased by Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (who becomes Red Hulk) and Samuel Sterns, a.k.a. The Leader, being its main antagonistic figures. The 2008 MCU flick is definitely worth streaming with a Disney+ subscription before heading into this new movie.

But that’s not to say that Brave New World is entirely devoid of Captain America villains, as we also see Sam fighting the Serpent Society, led by Giancarlo Esposito’s Seth Voelker, a.k.a. Sidewinder. Unfortunately, while I thought this movie was a fine enough watch (I’d give it a higher score than what our own Eric Eisenberg gave it in his Captain America: Brave New World review), one of the first thoughts I had while exiting the theater was how underwhelming the Serpent Society was handled.

The Serpent Society Feels Incredibly Generic In Brave New World

The MCU’s use of this supervillain team amusingly pays off on a joke over a decade old. Back in 2014, the title of the third Captain America movie was first announced at a special event to be Captain America: Serpent Society, only for this to be declared fake mere moments later and Captain America: Civil War to be revealed as the main title. Alas, this payoff didn’t really stick the landing in my book, as the Serpent Society end up being incredibly generic.

I’ll talk more about this later, but one of the most notable changes that came from the Captain America: Brave New World reshoots was the redevelopment of the Serpent Society. Instead of being a team of costumed supervillains, they’re now just a rogue black ops group, also referred to as SERPENT, that came into conflict with Captain America when he foiled the sale of an adamantium sample that they’d stolen from Japan. We later learned that Sterns was the buyer, but he never intended to show up, as he was enacting a plan that he’d calculated 10 steps ahead.

With the exception of SERPENT being uttered a few times, a few snake-themed code names and some of the colors on Sidewinder’s clothes calling back to his comic book counterpart’s costume, there’s nothing about these gun-toting bad guys that remotely resembles the Serpent Society. In fact, on the subject of code names, the only other SERPENT member who gets one is Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson’s Copperhead, and I don’t think it’s actually said in Brave New World, only how he’s credited. The point being, there’s nothing to make this take on the Serpent Society stand out from the black ops groups we saw in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War respectively led by Batroc the Leaper and Crossbones.

Giancarlo Esposito’s Scenes Feel Noticeably Separate From The Rest Of The Movie

Giancarlo Esposito wasn’t around for Captain America: Brave New World’s principal photography. He only joined the movie when his schedule became open for the reshoots period, with his inclusion meant to add an a extra infusion of star power and help with giving Brave New World the “perfect political thriller tone,” as producer Nate Moore described it. Esposito replaced the WWE’s Seth Rollins and Alita: Battle Angel’s Rosa Salazar, which, again, we’ll talk more about later.

I don’t mind that Esposito was added to Brave New World, although I’m still curious what his take on Professor X would have looked like. The problem is that not only is he the only memorable aspect of SERPENT, as even Copperhead’s fight with Sam was pretty cookie cutter, he doesn’t share any screen time with significant characters other than Sam. They fight two times, and then Sam later visits Sidewinder to learn information that helps him deduce what Samuel Sterns is plotting. Sidewinder also promised to escape incarceration, setting up his eventual return in one of the upcoming Marvel TV shows.

I get that it’s a challenge to make reshoots footage blend in seamlessly with what was shot during principal photography, but Giancarlo Espositio’s scenes ended up feeling weirdly separated from the rest of the movie. Maybe I’d have felt differently if we’d seen Sidewinder at track down Samuel Sterns, as that way Espositio could have performed opposite Tim Blake Nelson. As it stands now, while I won’t mind seeing Sidewinder again at some point, I couldn’t care less if he’s still affiliated with the Serpent Society or not.

I Wish We Could’ve Seen The Original Incarnation Of The Serpent Society

Had the original version of Captain America: Brave New World made it to theaters, we would’ve seen Rosa Salazar’s Diamondback leading the Serpent Society and Seth Rollins allegedly playing Cobra. While no official footage of them was ever released, leaked set photos revealed that they would fought Sam Wilson in an airport battle. Furthermore, according to scooper @CanWeGetSomeToast (via Reddit), Constrictor, Rattler and Asp were also on the team, and all five members had special powers from cybernetic enhancements.

I thought the MCU had reached a place where it didn’t feel the need to shy away from colorful, costumed supervillains, even in something like Brave New World. After all, while I understand that this is one of the more grounded entries in the MCU, this is still a movie where a super intelligent, green-skinned guy with his brain showing arranges to have the president of the United States transformed into a crimson-colored rage monster. Would it really have been too out there to have the original Serpent Society causing trouble as well?

I’m not saying that first version of the team would have gone down in the pantheon of great MCU villains, but at least they would have stood out more than the team we got. Then I’d have a slightly improved opinion of Captain America: Brave New World. If Sidewinder is leading the Serpent Society when he reemerges, I hope the team is represented in a way that’s more faithful to the comics.