Captain America: Brave New World is the start of Avengers 2.0

On February 12, 2025By Littum

It’s been almost six years since Avengers collapsed after the defeat of the death of Tony Stark. But it was only a matter of time until the world needed its most powerful heroes again. With new Avengers films coming in 2026 and 2027, MCU has to gather the team pretty quickly. Fortunately, the first step begins in recruiting the next version of The Avengers in Captain America: Brave New World.

“We know people miss The Avengers and we miss The Avengers,” says Nate Moore, a veteran producer in Marvel Studios and one of the guiding hands behind the fourth Captain America movie. “But we knew that if we jumped right back to Avengers after playoffs, we wouldn’t give people a chance to miss it.”

Moore notes that the very best Avengers teams across Marvel Comic’s history have had Captain America in the center. And then after Steve Rogers handed his shield to Sam Wilson at the end of Avengers: Endgame had to spend time building Wilson in the kind of leader he needed. It takes time, partly because Wilson did not easily take the role of Captain America easy. The six -part Disney+ show, Falcon and The Winter Soldier, explored his battles with this transition. Fortunately, at the events of the brave new world, Wilson carries the red, white and blue with pride. But just as he has overcome the challenge of becoming Captain America, he has presented a whole new, more scary task: becoming the leader of a new Avengers team.

As revealed in a marketing clip before release, Brave New World’s opening act sees that President Ross (played by Harrison Ford, who takes over from the late William Hurt), asks Wilson to restart the Avengers project. Long -term fans can understandably be a little confused of this. Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross is the man who established the Sokovia Agreements, the Superhelm Registration Act, causing a civil war. So why should the man notorious to divide Avengers like to see them together again?

“He was a guy who had this real heritage that might be defined by his anger,” agrees brave New World’s director, Julius Onah. “But the man we meet now is a man who is an older statesman who is a diplomat that turns a new magazine that sees and understands the mistakes of his past and will make it better. (He wants to start) The Avengers because they could be an advantage for the world. ”

Ross is a general, so definitely he understands what a tactical advantage is.

Of course, President Ross does not plan to recreate Avengers exactly as they once were. As we saw in Falcon and the winter soldier, Captain America is now an official US government role. And in the opening of the brave new world, Wilson works directly with the president. All of this means that a Captain America-led Avengers team would also effectively be a branch of the US Defense Department.

“Ross is the man who passed the Sokovia agreements,” says Moore. “He certainly realized that Avengers left uncontrolled may not be the best idea for anyone. And then I definitely think he understands that power is more advantageous to him if it is under his command and he expects why not do it first before anyone beats me to the punch. “

undefined — Sam Wilson is now going to step up to Captain America’s Ultimate Responsibility: Leading the Avengers. | Image Credit: Disney / Marvel Studios

But President Ross is probably not interested in gathering Avengers because he knows they are needed for a few films in the future. The more likely explanation of Ross’ sudden interest in a superhero team is the discovery of a world -changing substance. Do you remember the heavenly turned to stone at the end of Eternals? As revealed on San Diego Comic Con 2024, MCU’s researchers have discovered that it is a source of Adamantium, Marvel’s best -known super metal and a precious alternative to Wakanda’s heavily defended vibranium. With this miracle metal just sitting out there in the sea, it’s open season for any nation on earth. So if there is about to be an Adamantium weapon run, it makes sense to have a few superheroes on your side.

“I definitely think any nation that has a group of Avengers has a leg up over someone else,” says Moore. “And Ross is a general, so he definitely understands what a tactical advantage is!”

If there is an underlying motive for this new Avengers team, it means that the working relationship between President Ross and Sam Wilson’s Captain America is not likely to be smooth sailing. Not that this would be an easy partnership to begin with, of course. Steve Rogers was resolutely anti-government control, and Wilson has spent his entire superhero career trying to live up to his predecessor’s values.

“I really focused on the emotional journey that Sam took,” says Onah. “It was really cool to then put him opposite someone who had shared Avengers in the past. Because of this story, Sam was put in prison. The Sokovia Agreements, all the things that Ross pushed forward as State Secretary (came into play). These are things that when these two men enter a room, the tension between them is tangible. ”

Everything that is being considered is very possible that Sam Wilson is not the man President Ross is looking for. And then who will run this state-owned and driven Avengers team if not Captain America? The answer may be in 2025’s second MCU project, Thunderbolts, which arrives just a few months after the brave new world. Thunderbolts has a rag-tag team of anti-heroes including John Walker, the man who took the mantle of Captain America in Falcon and the winter soldier only to shame the legacy Steve Rogers left behind. Maybe it will be Walker and his morally flexible companions who actually become the president’s avengers then. After all, Ross’ nickname is Thunderbolt.

If that’s how things are playing out, Wilson would be free to create his own independent team of superheroes, just in time for the impending arrival of Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday. But whatever the details, Brave New World works as the next step on the road that Wilson began the moment he took the shield: the inevitable path to becoming the leader of Avengers. Knowing that this would be the first movie to deal with the assembly of the next Avengers team, Onah was happy to get Wilson ready for what’s ahead.

“Historically, Avengers has been led by a Captain America, and Sam Wilson is very much a worthy,” says Onah. “But part of telling this story is also to reinforce, illustrate and dramatize for an audience: Why (is he worthy)?”

This dignity comes from Wilson’s empathy, which Onah describes as the superpower of the character. Like any MCU fan knows, Wilson is simply a man with a shield and a few mechanical wings. And sure he can beat and kick pretty well. But it is his ability to understand the perspective of his allies and enemies that allow him to exercise the shield – specifically the values that Vibranium’s disk represents – with efficiency. “I think that’s what makes him a Captain America in this moment,” says Onah.

“I don’t think Sam would be prepared to lead Avengers until he really thought he was Captain America,” Moore adds. “And our goal as filmmakers was to take him on a journey questioning whether he made the right decision or not. Hopefully at the end (we get) him and the audience go ‘there certainly couldn’t be anyone else’. He is Captain America and hopefully he takes the tools from this movie to lead Avengers. “

Wilson will have to get a step further. After brave new world stands only two films between us and Avengers: Doomsday. And then it looks like Captain America will perform in both Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four: First Steps as he tries to recruit his team in front of 2026’s big event. It’s definitely a much shorter way than the five films that led into 2012’s The Avengers, but hopefully, like Spider-Man, Thor and Bruce Banner just wait on the call anyway. Whatever is the case, the assembly of Avengers 2.0 begins here.

How Sam Wilson/Falcon became Captain America in the comics