Although February’s Captain America: Brave New World focused first and foremost on giving Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson to shine after he officially embraced the star-spangled mantle in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, this upcoming Marvel movie is also making good use with the Hulk mythos. Liv Tyler is making her long-awaited turn as Betty Ross, Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns, a.k.a. The Leader, is serving as the main antagonist, and not only is Harrison Ford taking over as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross from the late William Hurt, he’ll also transform into Red Hulk. But wait, how can Sam, a character who doesn’t have the Super Soldier Serum in him, handle a battle against such a monstrosity? Well, we have the answer.
While the specific circumstances of how Ross, who’s now President of the United States, likely won’t be known until Brave New World is released on the 2025 movies schedule, producer Nate Moore acknowledged that figuring out the fight between Red Hulk and the new Captain America was a “big hurdle.” Dan Cox, the visual effects supervisor from Weta, pointed out that that if Sam “takes a punch, his head's going to go flying." That’s why our main protagonist will be outfitted with a vibranium-laced wing suit from Wakanda, although that’s only going to help him “somewhat,” with Moore explaining to EW:
I say 'somewhat' because it's a Red Hulk. What are you going to do? We're very conscious of not having the movie feel disingenuous. So, giving Sam equipment to survive is different than giving Sam equipment to succeed.
Not only that, but judging by what was show in the latest Captain America: Brave New World trailer, it looks like President Ross isn’t willingly transforming into Red Hulk, but rather someone is forcing him to change. This has The Leader’s fingerprints all over it, but more importantly this means that Sam Wilson will have to neutralize the empowered Ross without killing him. That would be hard enough for Bruce Banner to do in his Smart Hulk form, and while it’s good to hear that the vibranium wingsuit offers Sam some protection, he’s going to have one hell of a time pulling off this victory.
My guess is that like in the comics, Harrison Ford’s Red Hulk emits more heat as he gets angrier rather than gets stronger like Hulk does. So rather than trying to fight brawn with brawn, which is a losing proposition, Captain America will fly around and evade Red Hulk’s attacks until his opponent is hit with heat exhaustion and collapses. Hopefully from there Ross reverts back to normal and doesn’t become stuck in that gigantic form.
Other important characters appear in Captain America: Brave New World include Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres, the new Falcon; Shira Haas’ Ruth Bat-Seraph, a loose adaptation of Sabra from the comics; Giancarlo Esposito’s Seth Voelker, a.k.a. Sidewinder; and Carl Lumbly’s Isaiah Bradley. Julius Noah Onah directed Captain America 4 and wrote the screenplay with Peter Glanz and Matthew Orton. This will be the penultimate movie in the MCU’s Phase Five, with Thunderbolts* wrapping things up a few months later.
With Captain America: Brave New World hitting theaters on February 14, make sure you’re caught up on Sam Wilson’s prior MCU adventures ahead of time. You can do that by streaming his Marvel movies in order, as well as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, with your Disney+ subscription.
