Captain America: Brave New World Is the Start of Avengers 2.0

It has been almost six years since the Avengers broke up following the defeat of Thanos and the death of Tony Stark. But it was only a matter of time until the world needed its mightiest heroes once again. With new Avengers movies coming in 2026 and 2027, the MCU needs to reassemble the team pretty quickly. Thankfully, the first step in recruiting the next version of the Avengers begins in Captain America: Brave New World.

“We know people miss the Avengers and we miss the Avengers,” says Nate Moore, a veteran producer at Marvel Studios and one of the guiding hands behind the fourth Captain America film. “But we knew if we jumped right back into the Avengers after Endgame, we wouldn't give people a chance to miss it.”

Moore notes that the very best Avengers teams across the history of Marvel comics have had Captain America at the centre. And so after Steve Rogers handed his shield over to Sam Wilson at the end of Avengers: Endgame, the MCU had to spend time building Wilson up into the kind of leader he needed to be. That takes time, in part because Wilson did not take to the role of Captain America easily. The six-part Disney+ show, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, explored his struggles with that transition. Thankfully, by the events of Brave New World, Wilson wears the red, white and blue with pride. But just as he has overcome the challenge of becoming Captain America, he’s presented with a whole new, more daunting task: to become the leader of a new Avengers team.

As revealed in a pre-release marketing clip, Brave New World’s opening act sees President Ross (played by Harrison Ford, who takes over from the late William Hurt) ask Wilson to restart the Avengers project. Long-term fans may understandably be a little confused by this. Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross is the man who established the Sokovia Accords, the superhero registration act that caused a civil war. So why would the man infamous for splitting up the Avengers want to see them reassembled?

“He was a guy who had this real legacy that could maybe be defined by his anger,” agrees Brave New World’s director, Julius Onah. “But the man that we're meeting now is a man who is an elder statesman, who's a diplomat, who's turning a new leaf, who sees and understands the errors of his past and wants to do better. [He wants to initiate] the Avengers because they could be a benefit to the world.”

Ross is a general, so certainly he understands what a tactical advantage is.

Of course, President Ross doesn’t plan to recreate the Avengers exactly as they once were. As we saw in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Captain America is now an official United States government role. And in the opening of Brave New World, Wilson is working directly with the President. All this means that a Captain America-led Avengers team would also effectively be a branch of the US defence department.

“Ross is the man who passed the Sokovia Accords,” says Moore. “He certainly realized that the Avengers left unchecked may not be the best idea for anyone. And so I certainly think he understands that power is more beneficial to him if it's under his command, and he figures why not do it first before somebody beats me to the punch.”

But President Ross presumably isn’t interested in reassembling the Avengers because he knows they’re needed for a couple of films in the future. The more likely explanation for Ross’ sudden interest in a superhero team is the discovery of a world-changing substance. Remember the Celestial that was turned to stone at the end of Eternals? Well, as revealed at San Diego Comic Con 2024, the MCU’s scientists have discovered it’s a source of Adamantium, Marvel’s best-known super metal and a precious alternative to Wakanda’s heavily-defended Vibranium. With this miracle metal just sitting out there in the ocean, it’s open season for every nation on earth. So if there’s about to be an Adamantium arms race, it makes sense to have a few superheroes on your side.

“I think certainly any nation that has a group of Avengers has a leg up over anyone else,” says Moore. “And Ross is a general, so certainly he understands what a tactical advantage is!”

If there is an underlying motive to this new Avengers team, it means that the working relationship between President Ross and Sam Wilson’s Captain America isn’t likely to be smooth sailing. Not that this was going to be an easy partnership to begin with, of course. Steve Rogers was resolutely anti-government control, and Wilson has spent his entire superhero career trying to live up to his predecessor’s values.

“I really focused on the emotional journey that Sam was taking,” says Onah. “It was really cool to then put him opposite somebody who had divided the Avengers in the past. Because of that history, Sam was put into prison. The Sokovia Accords, all the stuff that Ross pushed forward as Secretary of State [came into play]. These are things that when these two men walk into a room, that tension between them is palpable.”

All that considered, it’s very possible that Sam Wilson is not the man President Ross is looking for. And so who will run this government-owned and operated Avengers team if not Captain America? The answer may lie in 2025’s second MCU project, Thunderbolts, which arrives just a few months after Brave New World. Thunderbolts features a rag-tag team of anti-heroes including John Walker, the man who took up the mantle of Captain America in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier only to violently disgrace the legacy Steve Rogers left behind. Perhaps it will be Walker and his morally-flexible companions who actually become the President’s Avengers, then. Ross’ nickname is Thunderbolt, after all.

If that’s how things play out, Wilson would be free to set up his own, independent team of superheroes, just in time for the imminent arrival of Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday. But regardless of the details, Brave New World acts as the next step on the road that Wilson began the moment he took up the shield: the inevitable path to becoming the leader of the Avengers. Knowing that this would be the first movie to deal with the assembly of the next Avengers team, Onah was excited to get Wilson ready for what lies ahead.

“Historically the Avengers have been led by a Captain America, and Sam Wilson is very much so a worthy one,” Onah says. “But part of telling this story is also reinforcing, illustrating, and dramatizing for an audience: why [is he worthy]?”

That worthiness comes from Wilson’s empathy, which Onah describes as the character’s superpower. As any MCU fan knows, Wilson is simply just a man with a shield and a pair of mechanical wings. And sure, he can punch and kick pretty well. But it's his ability to understand the perspective of his allies and enemies that allows him to wield the shield – specifically, the values that disc of Vibranium represents – with effectiveness. “I think that's what makes him a Captain America of this moment,” Onah says.

“I don't think Sam would be prepared to lead the Avengers until he truly believed that he was Captain America,” Moore adds. “And our goal as filmmakers was to take him on a journey of questioning whether or not he made the right decision. Hopefully by the end, [we’ll have] him and the audience go ‘There certainly could be no one else’. He is Captain America, and hopefully he takes the tools from this movie to be able to lead the Avengers.”

Wilson will need to get a move on. After Brave New World, only two movies stand between us and Avengers: Doomsday. And so it seems likely that Captain America will make appearances in both Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four: First Steps as he attempts to recruit his team ahead of 2026’s big event. It’s certainly a much shorter road than the five films that led into 2012’s The Avengers, but hopefully the likes of Spider-Man, Thor, and Bruce Banner are just waiting for the call, anyway. Whatever the case, the assembly of Avengers 2.0 begins here.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Senior Features Editor.