Captain America: Brave New World was supposed to launch the MCU’s next phase of grounded, politically charged storytelling — instead, it became one of the studio’s biggest misfires. Despite a great cast that included Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, and Giancarlo Esposito, the film stumbled to a 46% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and earned just $415 million at the global box office. Now, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is offering a blunt assessment of what went wrong: the movie didn’t have Chris Evans.
“It was the first without Chris Evans,” Feige said at a roundtable event attended by Collider’s Steve Weintraub, addressing the backlash and underperformance head-on. While fans were eager to see Sam Wilson take up the shield, the film’s troubled production and heavy reshoots may have undermined the story’s emotional payoff.
Originally slated to feature Tim Blake Nelson’s Leader a lot more heavily, and center a climactic final battle involving Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) and Sabra (Shira Haas), the movie went through major last-minute changes. Entire scenes were cut. Giancarlo Esposito’s Sidewinder replaced the Serpent Society as the main threat. Even the film’s finale was restructured, reportedly removing key characters from the action. The end result? A movie that felt cobbled together instead of confident, with a CGI mess of a final fight between Sam Wilson and the Red Hulk.
Why Have Marvel Films Been Failing?
Feige’s comments reflect that concern inside Marvel Studios that recent audience fatigue is partly due to disjointed storytelling and reliance on familiarity. In Brave New World, that nostalgia may have worked against it. Fans loved Steve Rogers — but when he handed off the shield to Sam in Avengers: Endgame, that was six years and a Disney+ series ago. The delay may have cost Marvel its momentum.
Feige has also acknowledged that audiences are growing weary of needing to follow every series and spin-off to keep up. Referencing Thunderbolts — which also underperformed despite positive reviews — he said: “Thunderbolts was a very good movie, but nobody knew that title, and many of those characters were from shows. There was that residual effect of [audiences going], ‘I guess I had to have seen these other shows to understand who this is?’”
That strategy is now changing. Marvel will reportedly scale back to just one TV series per year, designed to stand more independently from theatrical releases. The goal is to stop making the MCU feel like homework.
Chris Evans might return in Avengers: Doomsday, out in December 2026.
via Collider