“The Marvel Cinematic Universe is so rich and diverse, and we’ve seen so many cosmic and supernatural stories recently, so to be able to get back to something that really takes these fantastic characters and puts them in a world that we all understand and can relate to emotionally and psychologically is really powerful and at the heart of what makes everything about the MCU even more palpable,” says Nigerian American writer and director Julius Onah.
Within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Captain America canon often occupies a very grounded space from the World War II setting of the The First Avenger to the paranoia thriller aspect of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is squarely where the filmmakers want this next chapter to be.
Captain America: Brave New World offers a distinctly modern take on the thriller genre that brims with multi-layered characters and a finely calibrated tension expertly woven throughout the narrative.
Punctuate it all with visually exciting set pieces and kinetic, heart-pounding action and you’ve landed on the sweet spot for director Julius Onah’s singular skill set, which dovetails perfectly with the established DNA of MCU films.
Onah is known for the indie drama thriller Luce and the sci-fi thriller The Cloverfield Paradox.
A true storyteller, Onah is a detailed-oriented, visually inclined director who is deeply invested when it comes to fully developing his characters. Particularly with Sam, who is grappling with how to define himself and put his own stamp on Cap and continue to serve his country.
“As the film begins, Sam has been Captain America for a while, and that is a big part of what drew me to wanting to direct this movie. We left Sam at the end of ‘The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’ knowing why he wanted to be Captain America, but now we’re meeting him at a place where he has to negotiate what that actually means, what course of action he’s going to take, how he’s going to relate to other people, and how he’s going use the power that the platform gives him. A big part of what he’s going through in this movie is trying to define that in a really specific way,” the Onah explains.
As our heroes are pulled into the mystery of who is orchestrating all these world leaders without their knowledge, the political and emotional stakes are exponentially high. It’s a new world order, one that is very different than the one Steve’s Captain America had to face.
Anthony Mackie, who plays Sam Wilson/Captain America,remarks on the film’s storytelling: “The story being told is very grounded and very much in line with the ‘Captain America’ franchise that has more of a realistic approach to telling a story. It’s more human being to superhero contact as opposed to superhero to fantastical contact. When you look at the Captain America throughline you can see yourself in there, because it’s actual and wholly representative of where we are today.”
At the end of “Avengers: Endgame,” Steve Rogers passed on his vibranium shield to Sam Wilson, who had stood beside the Avengers as the winged Falcon. But the decision to take on the mantle of Captain America was more complex for Wilson, and his journey from Falcon to Captain America was explored in Marvel Studios’ “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” series for Disney+
“We love that the Disney+ series gave us such an opportunity to explore Sam Wilson and the interior life
that he had and his relationship with Bucky Barnes,” says producer Nate Moore, “but ‘Brave New World’ is
about him taking the mantle of Captain America and running with it while facing threats that are bigger than what we’ve seen in the past. We’re putting Sam through the paces to prove to people, not only that he should be Captain America, but that he can be Captain America in a way that even Steve Rogers never was.”
What does it mean to be Captain America?
Adds producer Kevin Feige, “In ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Sam Wilson is Captain America, and he has made the decision to unabashedly become Captain America. But what does it mean to be Captain America when you’re not a super soldier, which we definitively know Sam Wilson is not, and in a world where the Avengers are not currently active?” We will find out when Sam, who after meeting with newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross, finds himself in the middle of an international incident. He must discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot before the true mastermind has the entire world seeing red.
This return to the Captain America franchise is also a return to the tone of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” meaning a more grounded, more geopolitical landscape punctuated with issues that feel relevant and timely. Says Moore, “We have a hero who doesn’t have superpowers but is very well-versed in the political and military landscapes, so this film puts Sam squarely back into the genre of the political thriller.”
Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World stars Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, Xosha Roquemore, with Giancarlo Esposito, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson, and Harrison Ford.
The Making of a Brave New World
Taking full advantage of the versatile environments and topography in and around Atlanta, Georgia, which was home base for the production, the filmmakers looked to veteran production designer Ramsey Avery to establish the multi-layered visual landscape.
Avery’s first conversations with the director yielded a focused, more intentional and relatable sense of realism for “Captain America: Brave New World” to further the material’s tone and narrative and allow for a transition away from the visual vocabulary that’s been a mainstay of Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“For ‘Brave New World,’ in particular, Julius [Onah] wanted the aesthetic to be very specific and feel like it was something that could be happening now within the current space,” says Avery. “He also wanted to veer away from those elements that can sometimes take an audience out of the storytelling. It really was important to Julius and Kevin [Feige] that this story felt ‘of the moment’ and mimicked the characters as they move through a very real and honest world.”
Capturing it all on camera in a compelling way would be essential to realizing Onah’s singular vision. Leading the charge was award-winning director of photography Kramer Morgenthau, known for his innovative camera work and dynamic lighting design.
“We wanted to achieve a look that was as close as humanly possible to shooting photochemical film but with digital cameras. So, in prep we shot extensive tests and dug deeply into color science and vintage anamorphic lenses to achieve that look,” explains Morgenthau. “We created a set of rules around camera movement, color, composition and texture. The goal was for the film to pay homage to some of the great
paranoid thrillers of the 1970s but also have the visual space for extensive action and spectacle that Marvel Studios’ films achieve on the highest level.”
While tonally more rooted in realism and embracing the thriller genre, there’s no denying that this chapter in the “Captain America” franchise retains the DNA of its predecessors with signature eye-popping action sequences that are expertly woven into the narrative in a fresh, new way.
“There have been three widely popular ‘Captain America’ movies before, so clearly this is a beloved character,” says director Julius Onah. “So, I’m thrilled for audiences to go on this journey with Sam, who’s such fan favorite in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and redefine him as Captain America in a way we’ve never seen before. I can’t wait for people to see it!”
