The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a cinematic juggernaut of a franchise by now. Its near unstoppable nature coupled wtih the ever-escalating scale of its conflicts has meant a bit of a franchise fatigue seeping in. This was more recently reflected in the disappointing performance of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, although James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy escaped that fate and restored some faith in the franchise. Still, an ever lingering complaint is that after the universe-ending stakes of the Avengers movies, the MCU could do with a little more grounded stories.
Captain America: Brave New World appears to have no intentions to deviate from that staple. The series has always remained fairly grounded in how it tackles real-world issues, its tone peaking at Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In an interview with Collider to discuss the film’s sets, production designer Ramsey Avery revealed how the movie is pushing for a grounded take that has a basis in reality, calling the approach “very forward-thinking”.
The intent of this is to be very grounded, to make sure it has that sense of really happening in the world. So it’s a different sense in a lot of ways than particularly some of the more recent pieces have been. And it’s a very deliberate choice, and it’s a fascinating choice and an exciting choice. And it comes with a whole host of different kinds of questions involved in that.
While it’s great reassurance to see that Sam Wilson’s embracing of his Captain America identity will see a take grounded in reality, it’s not the first time we’ve heard of this. Director Julius Onah of The Cloverfield Paradox who is helming this project has stated numerous times in the past that he’s approaching the whole thing keeping real-world events in mind. Dubbing the film’s genre as a paranoid thriller, Onah had previously teased about some new, unexplored things they want to do with the franchise’s action that are grounded and tactile in their approach.
There’s a lot we’re gonna bring to the table. Again, this is a new set of challenges and a new set of adversaries. So I love classic paranoid thrillers and that’s part of the big inspiration for this film. We want to find action that is grounded, and tactile, and give him new things to do that you haven’t seen in those other films. I don’t want to spoil too much, but let’s just say we are planning some really, really exciting things.
In another exercpt from the same interview, Onah had focused on the challenges that Sam Wilson would need to face with this film, stepping into a leadership role and guiding a group of people towards an objective. From being a part of a team taking orders from Steve Rogers to becoming its leader, Brave New World will put Wilson in some unforeseen territory.
It’s going to be a really, really incredible ride. It’s a paranoid thriller with Sam (Wilson) at the center of it, and he is now in this position where he is a leader and he has to deal with that challenge of what it means to lead a group of people that he really cares about. For Sam, beforehand, he was part of a team, but now to be at the head of a team is a new set of challenges, so his journey in this film is really about that.
At this stage though, fans are a little wary of anything that comes out of marketing, until they actually see some footage. The words “grounded” and “real” have been thrown around a lot to increase buzz, but the actual movie turns out to feature incredible larger-than-life sequences with near-death brushes for its characters leaving fans exasperated. Brave New World faces an even bigger challenge in that regard. While Steve Rogers was injected with the super-soldier serum that excused some of his leaps and death-defying stunts, Sam Wilson is a regular soldier donning the mantle. It remains to be seen just how much the film will remember this aspect of Wilson, or eschew it in favor of more exhilariting sequences like Black Widow did.
Captain America: Brave New World now hits theaters on July 26, 2024, after being delayed from its original May 2024 release date.
