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We’ve already had one wide release trailer for Captain America: Brave New World — the first big-screen adventure for Sam Wilson’s Cap after his Disney+ origin story as the hero in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier back in 2021… but an entirely different trailer was shared to fans at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 and D23 Expo 2024. And for SDCC attendees who made it into Marvel Studios’ Hall H panel, there was even more footage, with a scene revealing two pretty big pieces of information that could significantly impact the MCU going forward. Want to know what you missed? We’ve come up with our five biggest takeaways from what we saw in the room itself… but consider all of what you’re about to read kind of a spoiler, at least until Marvel officially puts the trailer and footage out for the rest of the world.

The world is changing in more ways than one

There’s a line in the trailer played at both SDCC 2024 and D23 Expo 2024 that talks about the villains in Brave New World being a threat to “global power.” Certainly, there’s a heavy political element to the movie, with Thaddeus Ross as President — we’ll get to him soon enough — but in footage exclusive to SDCC, it was revealed that there’s more change to the world of the MCU than any party political system: the world has started exploring the body of the Celestial that was frozen while emerging from the Earth in 2022’s Eternals movie, and in the process has discovered a whole new element: Adamantium.

Maybe there should be a brief sting of the X-Men ’97 theme here…

How many superheroes are in the White House?

We know, of course, that Captain America visits the White House in Brave New World; that’s not only in the trailers shown at SDCC and D23 Expo, but also in the first wide-release trailer for the movie. So that’s one. We also know, via a tease in the wide release trailer and a confirmed sighting in the SDCC and D23 trailer, that President Ross is now a Hulk. So that’s two superheroes. But Captain America has also brought along his sidekick, the new Falcon, bringing the total to three, and… well, President Ross introduces his aide-de-camp in the SDCC/D23 trailer: Ruth Bat-Seraph — who, at least in the comic book mythology, has a costumed identity all her own. So… how many superheroes are we talking, for real…?

Wait, President Ross is definitely a Hulk?

Yes, as ever-so-briefly glimpsed in the first wide release trailer and then shown entirely in the SDCC/D23 footage, President Thaddeus Ross Hulks out in Captain America: Brave New World — specifically, he follows his comic book counterpart in becoming the Red Hulk. Quite what causes this transformation in the movie remains to be seen, however.

So, wait, who are the bad guys again?

Here’s where things get interesting. We know from announcements, as well as a San Diego Comic-Con 2024 appearance, that Tim Blake Nelson is returning as the Leader for the first time in close to two decades… but there’s no Leader in the SDCC/D23 footage. Instead, there’s Giancarlo Esposito showing up and shooting at Cap. He’s playing Sidewinder, head of the Serpent Society, in the movie… so does that mean that he’s the actual villain this time around? Or is there far more going on than meets the eye…?

And something not in the trailer…

I mentioned above that there was footage shown at San Diego Comic-Con that isn’t in the official trailer at either that show or D23 Expo — and it included an important piece of information even beyond the Adamantium tease. One of the reasons that President Ross wants to work with Captain America is to rebuild the Avengers… but the two can’t come to an agreement about what that might look like, given that Ross was one of the reasons why the team broke up in the first place, back in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. In other words: expect this Captain America movie to be as important to the MCU as that one happened to be, way back when…

Captain America: Brave New World will be released February 14, 2025.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights: How Marvel Studios is now working "much more closely" to sell Marvel comics, where Marvel sees its future audience (and it's not at Marvel, yet!), Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak, the biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows, and Marvel's accidental closure on the Kang storyline.