Anthony Mackie in Marvel Studios’ ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.’
Courtesy of Marvel Studios/Disney+.
Sam Wilson is back in action this week in Atlanta, where Captain America: Brave New World began a round of additional photography, with a new actor now in the cast.
Giancarlo Esposito, who for a few weeks had hinted at his involvement in a Marvel Studios project, is officially on the call sheet in an undisclosed, but sources say, villainous role.
The shoot will run 22 days, according to insiders. Among the added elements will be some new action sequences. Julius Onah remains the director.
Brave New World has been operating under a hazy shroud ever since it wrapped principal photography in the spring of 2023. The movie, which stars Anthony Mackie as hero Sam Wilson takes up the mantle of Captain America, barely escaped the direct impacts of the writers and actors strikes. Marvel’s other productions — Thunderbolts*, Deadpool & Wolverine and Blade — were forced to shut down or delay production, with the latter still not making it to filming.
Even though it managed to wrap principal photography before the strikes, Brave New World‘s postproduction was hampered and delayed. As the actors strike ended in November, Marvel moved Brave New World‘s release date from July 26, 2024, to Feb. 14, 2025, which gave execs time to home in on what they needed to get out of the reshoots and take in feedback from test screenings. Matthew Orton, who previously worked on Marvel’s Moon Knight, was hired to work on the new pages in December, writing over the winter.
Despite reports of multiple reshoots on the movie, so far this is the only one. It does not appear to be as extensive as the reshoots that faced Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which lasted six weeks, nor the expensive and extensive reshoots endured by The Marvels. In fact, one insider says Brave New World will cost significantly less than The Marvels overall.
The movie is a political action thriller that, tonally at least, is akin to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the 2014 film that starred Chris Evans and introduced Mackie to the MCU. At this year’s CinemaCon, Marvel head Kevin Feige promised “no aliens, no alien invasions, no time travel,” before showing off some footage. He also called is a “relatively grounded action film.”
Harrison Ford, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson, Danny Ramirez and Rosa Salazar are also in the cast.
Marvel, as usual, has a lot riding on the success of movie, but there’s another important aspect at play for Brave New World. The film centers on a Black hero stepping into the costume of an iconic and well-known character, one that wears and carries the symbol of the American flag. Some believe that in terms of its potency and its relevancy, it has the potential to have a similar impact as Black Panther, the best picture-nominated 2018 film that was the first major superhero feature led by a Black cast.
Brave New World spins out of Disney+’s 2021’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series, headlined by Mackie and which culminated with Sam Wilson taking the Captain America mantle.
