Captain America: Brave New World is not just another Marvel superhero project. It’s a nostalgic return to the roots that made the MCU a global phenomenon. With Sam Wilson donning the iconic shield, this film promises to revive the marvel grounded storytelling that captivated audiences in the early days of Marvel. Marvel, which was famous for its grounded scientific parts in its early years, has moved a bit away from it. But the project we’re about to discuss will bring back those old Marvel days. Sam Wilson will soon appear on the big screen as Captain America in the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World, and there’s been a major update related to this project that talks about bringing back the greatest strengths of Phase One and Phase Two of the MCU.
The movies of Phase One and Two had given Marvel Cinematic Universe the position of the number one franchise, but after Phase Three, Marvel left some of the methods of Phase One and Two, due to which many people today would say that Marvel is missing that special something, and one project alone won’t fix it, but at least the story of Captain America 4 and its central villain have gone down the path that will bring back the vibe of Phase One and Phase Two.
The article is about Marvel returning to a grounded approach like the Iron Man, Captain America, and even Thor movies, which will bring back the old days of Marvel. Two Avengers movies that will end the Multiverse Saga will come out in 2026 and 2027, but it seems that the final push for solo movies has already begun. This is because 2024 is very light in terms of Marvel movies. However, this lightness is only in terms of quantity; quality-wise, it is a very heavy year. After Deadpool and Wolverine appear in July, the beginning of 2025 will start with Sam Wilson, followed by the Thunderbolts* and the Fantastic Four. If Captain America: Brave New World can bring back the old atmosphere, then the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be able to establish its footing again. Avengers Five and Avengers Six are being pushed by Captain America: Brave New World, which is bringing back the tradition of grounded MCU movies confirmed by Tim Blake Nelson, who played Samuel Sterns in The Incredible Hulk in the podcast ‘Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum,’.
If you remember, Hulk’s blood fell on his head in that movie, and because of that incident, he will appear as the Leader in Captain America: Brave New World. He shared that Brave New World is a very reality-based superhero movie where he will come as the villain of the movie. On top of all this, the actor also mentioned that the movie’s overall take and this villain will be very grounded, which pleases him. Now, Marvel has a bad habit of inserting humor in places where the atmosphere needs to be serious. It also seems considering the leader, that something like this could happen with this character, like what happen with Gorr – The God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunders, or M.O.D.O.K. in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. But the grounded approach gives a hint of the seriousness that is needed.
Along with all this, the movie’s Captain America has not taken any super soldier serum, nor does he have superpowers like the comics’ Sam Wilson, which is making Brave New World the most grounded among all the projects we have seen from Marvel Studios recently. Here, the only character who has become big due to the effect of the super soldier serum will be Red Hulk, who will be played by Harrison Ford, replacing the late William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross. His character has also been confirmed through McDonald’s MCU tie-in and promotional materials. However, the appearance of a Hulk also does not guarantee that this project will be very grounded in terms of its setting, story, and tone, but MCU has come a long way from its grounded origins.
Grounded simply meant that the logic in MCU’s stories used to be sensible and simple. Obviously, all this is fiction, but the logic given by this fiction motivated the audience. Here, big elements were shown connecting with the real world. The Iron Man suit is not real, but it was presented in such a way that those who saw it did not doubt its possibility. Thor is very much connected with high fantasy, but in most parts of the first movie, Thor was shown in Mexico and explained like a technologically advanced model. Even Thor said in the first Thor movie that magic and technology are the same. Also, Jane Foster immediately understands Asgardian tech as a quantum field generator in Thor: The Dark World. This clearly shows that at that time, Marvel was keeping Thor’s stories grounded as well, but as the Thor franchise progressed, the explanation for magical abilities disappeared. The Bifrost was described as a teleportation device that was transporting people from one place to another through a wormhole that was operated by a key, but later in the franchise, magical abilities were shown directly through the Bifrost.
Another point that needs to be mentioned here is that MCU in its early phases used to do many such things that would instantly make a normal audience become their fans. The callbacks and long-running details that were seen in Phases One and Two were not seen later. Iron Man’s hand was continuously getting injured. Captain America was saying the most in pain, “I can do this all day.” Tony Stark was fixing the problem in his suit after every problem. Iron Man’s anxiety, all these details made MCU relatable.
Do you remember the scene where Iron Man was repairing the shield helicarrier in the first Avengers movie? Here, you see the level of groundedness. An attack is going on the shield helicarrier, one rotor is damaged, and Nick Fury is not sending his technician there, but he is sending the most terrific engineer in his Iron Man suit, who can not only fix that rotor but also start it back with the help of his suit. Iron Man did not become a favorite of fans in a day. Remember what Iron Man was doing at the beginning of the Avengers movie? He was using arc reactor technology to power Stark Tower. Iron Man, in this scene, is single-handedly dealing with the issue of an energy shortage. Think about the atmosphere that was in Phase One.
Another example of groundedness that is normally talked about in any cinematic universe is that when a superhero is dealing with a world-threatening problem, where are the other superheroes? So, for this, it was shown in the first phase that Fury’s Big Week, where Hulk’s attack in New York, the Whiplash attack in Iron Man 2, and the appearance of the Destroyer in Mexico all happened within a week, was called Fury’s Big Week.
The discussion about weapons was also next-level in the first two phases, with formidable Iron Man armors, Vibranium shield, which could withstand any big attack and still not break. There was logic everywhere. Even in Phase Three, an attempt was being made to explain to Doctor Strange how sorcerers were conjuring energy from the multiverse through magic.
Groundedness was once the soul of MCU, which was helping it in not just making superheroes famous among a select few people but in creating a sensation in mainstream because the unrealistic details of superhero movies seem straight-up silly to some people. Superman, Blade, and X-Men movies were struggling with this silliness somewhere before the Marvel Cinematic Universe came along. Iron Man broke this barrier of silliness as soon as it arrived. The discussion about tech in Iron Man was so tremendous that this movie was a superhero movie later and a classic action movie first. Even an audience that did not come towards the superhero genre immediately became fans of this genre after watching Iron Man.
After Phase Three, this atmosphere changed a lot because explanations gradually disappeared, and fans had to directly accept that they understood every move of the superheroes without any logic. Here, where there used to be a balance between groundedness and fantasy in the beginning in MCU, this balance got disturbed and was left only to fantasy. But now MCU needs to bring back this balance between groundedness and fantasy. It is not totally true that a superhero movie will be of higher quality only if it is grounded, not at all. There are many MCU movies that are tremendous in their setting and story where science fiction is directly discussed. However, MCU, in Phase One and Phase Two, was connecting its stories with humans. There are many such interesting and exciting stories in the Marvel Universe that match the real world, which you can relate to everyday life, and it is very necessary to explore them. So, Marvel needs to come back to ground level so that Multiverse Saga can be ready to end on a high note in 2027.
