The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has come a long way since the original six Avengers. In fact, it’s grown to encompass over thirty-five films and over twenty-three television series – with many more already in development – combining to make up five “phases” currently, with a sixth coming up soon, and two “sagas” in The Infinity Saga and The Multiverse Saga. Needless to say, that’s a lot of different plots and characters to keep up with, not to mention a lot of viewing hours. New characters are constantly being introduced and adapted from their comic origins, while old characters that haven’t been seen in decades are popping back up. The MCU’s newest installment, Captain America: Brave New World, delves into both of these batches by pulling from past films as well as setting the stage for a new age, but don’t worry! We’ve got you covered with a quick recap of where we’ve left off with Sam Wilson, Thaddeus Ross, Betty Ross, and more before they take to the big screen again.

A New Hero Carries The Shield

We first met Sam Wilson back in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier when he teamed up with Captain America and Black Widow, and the character has come a long way since then. Since then, Sam has largely been seen alongside then-Captain America, Steve Rogers, becoming a close friend and ally while Steve trained him in the ways of being an Avenger. Once Sam is restored from the Blip in Avengers: Endgame (2019), by means of an incredible flight through a portal, and aids the rest of the Avengers in their fight against Thanos, Steve passes on the Captain America shield to him, deeming him worthy of standing up against bullies of all kinds and protecting those who need it most. However, Sam and Steve are very different Captains, and the world isn’t quiet about letting Sam know how they feel about the new change. After all, Captain America was created to be a super soldier with the help of a serum, yet Sam has never been given the serum. But what Sam and Steve do have in common is that they both believe the world not only can do better, but that it must do better. With the shield in hand, what Sam Wilson represents as Captain America is the idea that no one needs a special serum to be able to stand up and fight for a better world.

And a New Falcon Takes Flight

While Captain America has previously been seen alongside the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes won’t serve as Sam’s ally this time around. Instead, Bucky can next be seen in Thunderbolts*, which will follow Brave New World with a May 2025 release date. This time, Captain America will be accompanied by a relative newcomer, Joaquín Torres. Joaquín made his MCU debut with Sam in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Just like Sam, Joaquin is a member of the U.S. Air Force, and once Sam takes on the mantle of Captain America, Sam bestows the title of Falcon to Joaquín. Unlike Sam, Joaquín survived the Blip from Avengers: Infinity War (2018), giving him a unique and personal perspective on the hardships that the survivors endured for five years with half of humanity gone. With their similar backgrounds, Joaquín is not only great in combat alongside Sam, but also adept at discovering intel in order to help his alliances, just as he aided Sam in the fight against the Flag Smashers. Now operating as the Falcon, we see a promising future ahead for Joaquín’s role in the MCU, and can’t help but wonder if he’ll follow in his comic footsteps with an eventual team-up with Ironheart and Wasp on either the silver screen or on television.  

A More Villainous Thunderbolt Ross

Back in his days as a General, one of Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross’s main desires was to turn the Hulk into a weapon. Yes, that Hulk. Thaddeus’s first MCU appearance is with William Hurt’s portrayal of the character in The Incredible Hulk (2008), and with those origins, fans have long since been wondering if Marvel would ever take the character down the path of Red Hulk. With all of this talk of a Hulk, you might be wondering how this relates to any sort of a Captain America storyline. Well traditionally, Thaddeus’s Red Hulk comes about from a combination of gamma radiation and Super Soldier Serum – a serum that has historic ties to Captain America, though which Sam Wilson himself has never been injected with. And there’s just one problem with that. All known vials of the Super Soldier Serum were destroyed in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. So Thaddeus, perhaps in an act of desperation for his own declining health, as well as his known resentment of superheroes since the days of the Sokovia Accords when he imprisoned Sam Wilson (amongst others that sided with Steve Rogers) following the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016), is looking to better his chances at taking down superheroes once and for all by putting himself on an equal playing field. Unfortunately, Hurt passed before he was able to portray that larger-than-life aspect of the character, though he was greatly looking forward to it, and we know Harrison Ford will do a great honor to his legacy.

The Return of Dr. Betty Ross and Dr. Samuel Sterns

Perhaps two of the most shocking characters set to make an appearance in Brave New World are Betty Ross, the former girlfriend of Bruce Banner, and Samuel Sterns, a fellow cellular biologist. Maybe not completely unexpected, given that Betty is Thaddeus’s daughter, but neither Betty nor Samuel have been seen or even all that discussed in the MCU since 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. Not even Bruce himself has really mentioned them. Despite being the second film in the MCU, The Incredible Hulk as a whole has been largely ignored by Marvel – aside from a few lines of dialogue here and there. The film stars Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, rather than Mark Ruffalo, which has led many fans wondering if the studio would ever remake Banner’s origin film with Ruffalo instead. Of course, a remake has yet to happen, and as the MCU grows more and more each day, it seems to be less and less likely. For a while, it seemed that one of the only through lines from The Incredible Hulk in the MCU was William Hurt’s Thaddeus Ross, until the studio also recently decided to bring back Tim Roth’s Emil Blonksy (or Abomination) briefly in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) and more prominently in the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022). Similarly to Emil, Betty and Samuel haven’t been seen or mentioned in over fifteen years, so it will be interesting to see how their respective roles as cellular biologists will play alongside Thaddeus’s new transformation into Red Hulk, a man whom, after his attempts to hurt Bruce, Betty wanted nothing to do with. Oh, and there’s that little extra thing of Samuel being contaminated with Bruce’s blood during The Incredible Hulk. Tim Blake Nelson will be reprising his role, and after the cross-contamination, the years that have passed have not been all that kind to Dr. Sterns. We can expect his new role as Leader will have strong connections to Thaddeus’s Red Hulk transformation.

Introducing the Serpent Society

Along with the familiar faces will be a new villainous organization led by Seth Voelker, otherwise known as Sidewinder. Played by the legendary Giancarlo Esposito, we already know we are going to absolutely love to hate Sidewinder, because simply no one plays antagonists as well as Esposito does. As you could probably guess, the Serpent Society is a group of snake-themed villains, including Diamondback, who is also set to make an appearance in Brave New World. While we expect Esposito’s version of the character to be more grounded in reality than his superpowered comic counterpart, we would still love to see Sidewinder’s teleportation abilities. Esposito is already signed on to continue his role in a television series with Marvel, which we are eagerly anticipating. Who knows, perhaps one day we might even see Sidewinder cross paths with Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin, given the comic history between the two characters and their organizations.

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