It’s been over three years since Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) officially became the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s new Captain America at the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. In early 2025, he’s finally going to go on his first solo MCU adventure, too, in Captain America: Brave New World. The film will test Sam’s resolve by pitting him against not only Seth Voelker (Giancarlo Esposito), a.k.a. Sidewinder, and the rest of his villainous Serpent Society, but also the MCU’s newly elected President of the United States, Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford).
Ever since William Hurt first appeared as Ross in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, comic book readers have been waiting to see the character transform into the Red Hulk. In Captain America: Brave New World, they’re finally going to get to see that, though, the character’s long-awaited evolution will be portrayed by Ford, who stepped in to play Ross following Hurt’s death in 2022. Notably, the first Captain America: Brave New World trailer only briefly alluded to Ford’s Red Hulk transformation.
The film’s latest trailer, which Marvel released in conjunction with its D23 Brazil panel this weekend, goes much further. Not only does the teaser give fans their first full, straight-on look at Brave New World‘s Red Hulk, but it also teases a climactic battle between him and Mackie’s wing-clad Sam Wilson.
In addition to further hyping up Sam’s inevitable showdown with Ross, the newest Captain America: Brave New World trailer continues to lean into the paranoid espionage thriller vibes of the Julius Onah-directed film’s early marketing materials. The teaser offers further insight into Isaiah Bradley’s (Carly Lumbly) seemingly mind-controlled attack on Ford’s Ross, and its repeated use of split screens reinforces the idea that there will be multiple sides, interests, and political factions at war both out in the open and in secret in Brave New World.
This isn’t, of course, the first time that a Marvel film has tried to be both a big-budget comic book movie and a political thriller. Marvel actually experienced great success doing something similar in both 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. Only time will tell whether or not Captain America: Brave New World is able to live up to the standards set by those films.
Captain America: Brave New World is set to hit theaters on February 14, 2025.
