Exclusive new footage from the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World confirms that the Avengers aren’t active in the MCU’s Phase 5.
New footage from the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World confirms the Avengers are no longer active in the MCU’s Phase 5. Starring Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, it’s revealed that the new Captain America hasn’t yet been involved with any kind of official team of heroes since the events of Avengers: Endgame. However, that may soon change following this upcoming MCU movie.
Set to release in 2025, Captain America: Brave New World is set to release on February 14th, 2025. Coming from director Julius Onah and starring Anthony Mackie’s titular Captain America and Harrison Ford as the newly elected US President Thaddeus Ross, exclusive footage for Captain America: Brave New World was revealed to audiences at CinemaCon 2024. To that end, descriptions of the Brave New World clip have revealed that a new team of Avengers still needs to be formed in the MCU.
The Avengers Need To Be Reformed In Captain America 4
There’s Been No Official Team Since Avengers: Endgame
According to the footage description for CinemaCon’s Brave New World clip, President Ross wants Sam Wilson to reform a new team of Avengers. However, they do seem to be at odds with each other at the same time. Here’s ScreenRant’s description of the new Captain America footage:
Begins at the White House lawn at night. Then inside the Oval Office, Harrison Ford as President meets Sam Wilson (not in the Cap suit). Sam says, “I’m not used to the new look” to Thaddeus.
Thaddeus wants Sam to recreate the Avengers. We see Joaquin Torres and Sam Wilson, who are thanked by Thaddeus and an audience for a mission they accomplished. As Thaddeus is speaking, something starts playing over the speakers. He stops talking to see what’s going on. We see Isaiah Bradley sitting down. The sound triggers something in him.
Isaiah gets up, grabs a gun and shoots at the president. He’s stone-faced, not in control. Then an admiral does the same — multiple people are trying to kill the president, though they’re not in control of themselves. A swat team comes in to protect the president, and Isaiah escapes.
Lots of close-quarter combat and various action shots, including one in which Sam is holding the Captain America shield while people with electric batons are attacking him.
Back at the scene that started the sequence, Thaddeus tells Sam, “Just do your job. You’re not Steve Rogers.” Trailer ends on Sam in the new Captain America suit, with the drone coming out of his back.
Although Sam Wilson is working with Joaquin Torres as the new Falcon, it seems as though a new roster of Avengers has yet to officially form since the events of Avengers: Endgame.
Why The Avengers Aren’t Together In Captain America: Brave New World
A Lack Of Support? No Clear Leaders?
Ultimately, the fact that there is no active team of Avengers following Endgame makes a certain degree of sense. After all, Sam Wilson did reference the financial struggles superheroes still face in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Likewise, Tony Stark was the Avengers’ chief financial backer, so it makes sense that the Avengers wouldn’t be as active or official as they once were in the wake of his passing as seen in Avengers:Endgame.
It also seems as though no official leader ever emerged to keep the Avengers going. After Tony Stark and Black Widow’s deaths and Captain America went back into the past, the key leading figures of the Avengers were effectively no more. Likewise, Sam Wilson didn’t immediately wield the shield either as seen in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It took time for Wilson to accept the role inherited from Steve Rogers, and it will likely take more time to decide if he’s meant to lead the next iteration of Earth’s Mightiest as President Ross apparently wants him to do.
Where Endgame’s Avengers Are In Phase 5
Various Crises And New Status Quos
Currently, Clint Barton’s Hawkeye is seemingly retired with his family, while Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye is currently active in New York as his successor. Likewise, Bruce Banner has been seen helping his cousin Jennifer Walters in her role as She-Hulk, while also traveling to the planet Sakaar where he’s recently met his son. Likewise, Thor has an adopted daughter of his own in the wake of Thor: Love and Thunder.
Beyond the original founding Avengers, Doctor Strange is presumably still busy helping prevent incursions in the Dark Dimension, while The Marvels explained that Captain Marvel had intentionally been avoiding Earth since Endgame (though she isn’t any longer). Shuri has become the new Black Panther. While Wanda Maximoff’s Scarlet Witch is out of commission following Multiverse of Madness, a new White Vision is somewhere out in the world following the events of WandaVision.
With the world having forgotten his secret identity as Peter Parker, Spider-Man is operating solo in New York City. Likewise, Ant-Man and the Wasp are operating in San Francisco. Additionally, War Machine will likely need to grapple with the fact that he was replaced by a Skrull following the events of Captain America: Civil War (as revealed by Secret Invasion). As seen with all the aforementioned heroes and more, it seems as though Sam Wilson’s Captain America may be primed to finally form the New Avengers in the wake of Captain America: Brave New World.
