A new quote from Marvel head Kevin Feige on the fate of one of the only not-great superhero movies of the year, Captain America: Brave New World, has sparked a whole lot of debate over the course of the past day.
Feige, at a recent roundtable event, discussed the issues with Brave New World and said “It was the first without Chris Evans” as a reason it struggled. Perhaps not the only reason, but the rationale is being described as “blunt,” to day the least.
He’s not wrong.
This is not to say that new star and new Captain America Anthony Mackie did anything wrong, but he had not been set-up to succeed in any capacity. First, he had his entire “becoming Cap” journey shuffled into a Disney Plus series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, that far fewer people would watch compared to a film. And as it turned out, it was actually better than his actual debut film.
Second, mantle passing is just…incredibly difficult, especially in this case. Yes, this is something that happens in the comics eventually, but in the context of the MCU it’s important to consider that Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers was Cap 11 times over nine years. Sam only appeared as supporting character Falcon during that time, and only managed two appearances as the new Cap across five years (certainly Marvel’s fault there).
This would have happened with any role. If Jane Foster stuck around to become the new Thor in her own film, that would have underperformed past Thor movies. If She-Hulk (as a Hulk replacement) was a film, that would not have done well. If Ironheart (as an Iron Man replacement) was a film, that would not have done well. We just saw Yelena more or less sub in as the new Black Widow leading the Thunderbolts and that…did not do well, and that time the movie was even good. And if they actually made John Walker the real Captain America leading a whole film, I doubt it would have done any better than Brave New World.
Feige is right. The movie suffered from not having Chris Evans, though that should not be taken as a knock against Mackie’s performance. There were also plenty of other, very clear reasons the movie was bad as mainly, after awful editing and big reworks, it ended up being a baffling sequel to The Incredible Hulk, complete with the “surprise climax” of President Ross turning into Red Hulk being the full-on marketing campaign, giving the film literally no dramatic tension.
As it stands, it seems that Mackie’s Sam Wilson is poised to be the new leader of the not-yet-really-reassembled Avengers, but once we get past Doomsday and Secret Wars, which will be a massive ensemble featuring Thor, Thunderbolts, the Fantastic Four and a bunch of X-Men, I do wonder what his actual future holds. We may not see him much after this, just like we haven’t the last five years.
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