Marvel’s upcoming blockbuster “Captain America: Brave New World” isn’t due in theaters until February 2024, but as you may have noticed by now, companies like McDonald’s are already advertising the film, and various pieces of marketing have revealed some early spoilers (beware, spoilers discussed below in this article). The issue, it seems, is that “Captain America: Brave New World” was initially scheduled for release this summer, with a date that once included May 3, 2024, and a subsequent date for July 26, 2024.
With Marvel giving the film a significant amount of reshoots and a potential facelift that isn’t even commencing until later month—requiring a whole new writer to come on board— ‘Brave New World,’ was moved to February 14, 2025.
However, many tie-in campaigns set for summer 2024 seem to have gone forward regardless. An Instagram account from Brazil dedicated to toy collecting posted a video about some McDonald’s Happy Meal toys, revealing many details Marvel would probably have liked for audiences to discover themselves in theaters (via Variety).
On top of a lot of first looks at never-seen-before costumes, including a first look at Danny Ramirez as the new Falcon (his character introduced in “The Falcon & The Winter Soldier”), the toy merchandise has also revealed the Red Hulk, seemingly confirming the rumors that Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross transforms into the character much like he does in the comics.
Perhaps to deflect, distract, or get on board with a marketing campaign that’s ten months early, Marvel has also revealed a first look of Anthony Mackie in his new Captain America suit—revealed first through these various toy tie-ins—in Empire.
‘Brave New World’ director Julius Onah told Empire in the upcoming “Deadpool & Wolverine” issue of the magazine that the movie is truly Mackie’s debut as Captain America and the film nearly breaks the character (Mackie formerly played the Falcon but became the new Captain America at the end of ‘Falcon And The Winter Soldier’).
“It’s really his coming-out show,” Onah said, “[the movie] is about putting him through the paces. The action in this movie is incredibly exciting because this is a guy who can break; this is a guy who can bleed. We get to have a lot of fun pushing him to the limit.”
“Part of the challenge for Sam as Captain America, working within the government, is the way he’s going to make decisions,” Onah teased. “The point of view he’s going to have will, at times, put him at odds with the President.”
That President is, of course, Ford’s aforementioned Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross character, who was formerly the Secretary of State in the MCU but becomes President as ‘Brave New World Begins.’
To further the Red Hulk and Hulk angle of it all, ‘Brave New World’ also features Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns, aka The Leader, who was first introduced into the MCU back in Edward Norton’s version of “The Incredible Hulk” back in 2008.
“Sam finds himself almost standing between Samuel Sterns and what he thinks the government owes him and how he wants to go about getting that,” Onah said.
Marvel and Disney haven’t commented on why spoilers are out so soon, but Variety notes that toy deals are usually struck “12 to 18 months in advance to give the toymakers enough time for design,” which is likely part of the reason some of these spoilers are out so early.
“Anything from other preexisting tie-in deals to supply chain issues to a lack of a replacement toy line can force a toy company to stick to the original release window, even if the movie does not,” Variety writes. And well, that basically explains it all. So, the “Captain America: Brave New World” marketing campaign has started ten months early and even before “Deadpool & Wolverine” is in theaters. It’s not ideal for Marvel, but likely, at this point, their hands are tied. Meanwhile, check out the first official still from the movie below.
