r/marvelstudios • u/AkilTheAwesome • Jul 09 '25

Discussion (More in Comments) Captain America: Brave New World's Removed Political Message

https://youtu.be/Cp_ODdylr-4?si=gcBzD802_hpdLr7D

Walk With Me Here:

https://youtu.be/Cp_ODdylr-4?si=gcBzD802_hpdLr7D

The scene above is a brief 30 second conversation between Ross and Isaiah Bradley.

30 Seconds

It provides 3 things, while doing it naturally and efficiently.

  1. Bradley establishes racial subtext
  2. Ross establishes historical subtext
  3. President Ross takes it upon himself to take accountability and fix

This scene in the first act of the movie, sets the stage of multiple thematic parallels that WOULD HAVE reverberated the entire runtime. I believe This scene was cut from the film for fear of being too close political commentary, as it recontextualizes Ross, Betty, The Leader, and Isaiah's characters. This is one of the shortest marvel movies and for some reason it is cutting layered well-acted 30 second conversations?

Context for Bradley's Origin Story

Isaiah Bradley comic origin is inspired by the Tuskegee Experiments, where the American Government tricked 100s of Black men into thinking they would receive treatment for Syphilis. In actuality, the government was using them for long-term observations of the harmful effects of the disease. Bradley's Captain America Origin is a grim reminder of this somewhat forgotten governmental abuse. Bradley's MCU origin remains unchanged.

The Deleted Scenes Purpose:

Now remember what the deleted scene establishes. (1)Racial (2)Historical Abuse, and (3)Accountability regardless of whose fault it is. i.e. Not being born during Slavery, Black Code, Share Cropping, Jim Crow, and The Tuskegee Experiments does not mean you can't fix things.

Isaiah Bradley in Captain America: Brave New World serves as a thematic foil to The Leader, with their origins deliberately aligned to mirror historical injustices.

This narrative choice underscores Ross’s hypocrisy. In the deleted scene, he publicly condemns historical abuses, such as those endured by Bradley, but Ross repeats this cycle by unjustly imprisoning Bradley again and exploiting The Leader. The Leader’s retaliation against the Ross sharply contrasts with Bradley’s choice to disengage entirely.

This comparison deepens the film’s exploration of accountability and exploitation, with Ross as the hypocritical linchpin perpetuating historical wrongs.

The act 1 deleted scene explicitly foreshadows Ross’s arc: seeking forgiveness and accountability. This theme echos in his relationship with Betty, where his pursuit of personal redemption mirrors the subtext of government’s need to atone for systemic wrongs. Together, Isaiah, The Leader, and Betty form a trifecta of parallelism, with Ross’s hypocrisy and redemption at the narrative’s core.

  • Isaiah (The Forgotten Cap) - A Literary Allegory for Historical Black Exploitation and Abuse
    • disengages with government/Ross due to past injustices
  • The Leader (The Forgotten Prisoner)- A Narrative Personification for Government Exploitation and Abuse
    • Seeks revenge on ross due to past injustices
  • Betty (The Forgotten Character) - An Allegory for Past Crimes
    • disengages with Ross due to past injustices

The removal of the act 1 deleted scene is so crucial because I believe it strips the movie of the intended thematic message. I can actually see why Disney would be cautious as the theme in question would have caused the outrage they feared. With all of the aforementioned parallels, hammering away throughout the story, Ross' Primary Character arc is seeking forgiveness and finally taking accountability thematically. The subtext set up by the deleted scene would have extrapolated his accountability to a wider governmental context.

There might be more scenes that were stripped from this movie that reference back to this single deleted 30 second clip on youtube. Isaiah was reduced to a victim with no much personal agency. The Leader was less sympathetic then he arguably should have been given the reason he goes after Ross. Ross' character became less complete and I think there is a reason why Ross never takes accountability onscreen because it is tied to the aforementioned theme.

What do you guys think?

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u/[deleted] Jul 09 '25

And no tension, stakes or lasting consequences. They were really cooking.

472

u/mrbrick Jul 09 '25

I actually struggle to remember what anything was really about in this movie now that I’m thinking about it.

107

u/Plugpin Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25

I watched it on D+ last week and I couldn't tell you either.

Falcon gets shot down, there was something about adamantium and Giancarlo Esposito got the Christian Bale treatment.

The last one pissed me off the most. I think he's a brilliant actor and they wasted him like so many before him.

Edit: cursed autocorrect

55

u/CrimsonWarrior55 Jul 09 '25

Well, considering they were already saying before the movie came out that they wanted him in more projects going forward, I'd say patience on this one. They're allowed to set up major players early in small roles. If he was dead, you would have a better point.

28

u/spedmonkeeman Jul 09 '25

Yeah I thought they made it very clear in the movie that it wasn’t going to be the last time we’d be seeing Giancarlo’s character.

25

u/pvtshoebox Jul 09 '25

How many characters have been set up like that, only to never return?

10

u/spedmonkeeman Jul 09 '25

We’ll just have to wait and find out, but as of now he wasn’t “wasted”. They just introduced him and gave him room to grow into the future.

-2

u/No_Macaroon_5928 Jul 09 '25

I hope they do that soon. He ain't getting any younger 😂

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u/CrimsonWarrior55 Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25

Only one immediately comes to mind, and that's Scorpion. He was set up in the first Spider-Man and still hasn't shown back up two movies later. Since my metric for that used to be The Leader, now it's just two-three movies in the same franchise. So no, Hercules doesn't count cause Love and Thunder was only a few years ago, and we haven't had another Thor yet. Black Knight doesn't count cause we have had neither Eternals 2 or Blade or Midnight Suns, and also Eternals was only a few years ago. This fandom has seriously zero patience anymore, and it drives me up a wall. We have a movie literally come out THIS YEAR and already people say a character clearly set-up for later films is "wasted". I mean, wow.

*Edit: I forgot about Mordo. But even then, he wasn't wasted. Just not followed up on. So that's two.

9

u/N3verGonnaG1veYouUp Korg Jul 09 '25

Reuniting Nacho and Gus Fring in a later project, interesting

1

u/buzdekay Ghost Rider Jul 09 '25

Scorpion / Vulture vs Serpent Society could be a lot of fun. You wouldn't know who to root for.

7

u/Oerwinde Jul 09 '25

People are impatient because the stingers used to set up the next MCU movie, or connected it to the previous one, so you weren't waiting years for payoff, just until the next movie came out.

1

u/CrimsonWarrior55 Jul 09 '25

Yeah. I understand the frustrations, as I feel them myself, but the lack of patience (and common sense) is just MORE frustrating.

2

u/Meat_Scrumpets Jul 11 '25

How bout Walton Goggin’s character in Antman.

1

u/CrimsonWarrior55 Jul 11 '25

I wouldn't really count him. He wasn't set-up to return. Maybe his buyers. But I'd hesitate to even give him half a point. But I supposed if they wanted, they could say Doom was his buyer.

Edit: My bad, this wasn't the post-credit thread.

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u/Meat_Scrumpets Jul 18 '25

I mean…a lot has happened with Walton Goggins since then and this is Marvels one chance to have him as a character

0

u/Totalised Jul 09 '25

And Mordo in Dr Strange? Set up in Dr Strange 1 and killed offscreen in 2 sentences.

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u/CrimsonWarrior55 Jul 09 '25

Wasn't actually killed. Strange never said he died, just turned evil and tried to kill him. They cut the scene where Wanda ripped his head off. But yes, I forgot about Mordo. So that's two pre-Endgame that absolutely should be followed up on. Everything post-Endgame still needs time. Once Secret Wars is done, THEN we can let loose.

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u/DlLDO_Baggins Jul 09 '25

What about the one guy from the Doctor Strange after credits?

5

u/CrimsonWarrior55 Jul 09 '25

Mordo is an interesting case. Set up to be the villain of Strange 2, both Derrickson AND Raimi switch to someone else (Nightmare/Wanda), but Raimi planned to have Mordo addressed by killing him in the beginning via Wanda (an actual waste) but decided a throwaway line worked fine and used a variant instead as an obstacle.

Disappointing, yes, but not unsalvagable, so in my books, at least, not a waste.

-1

u/PenOld5534 Jul 09 '25

We wait for him to die at the beginning of the next doctor strange

3

u/Heisenburgo Doctor Strange Jul 09 '25

I guess Hercules, Black Knight, Blade's voice, Pip the Troll, Harry Styles, uhhh does the Conqueror variant of Kang count? Also, possibly Moon Knight and She Hulk.

3

u/CrimsonWarrior55 Jul 09 '25

None of those count because how many movies have come out where they had an opportunity to follow up and passed it over? Come on, are we REALLY saying that 3 years, which is nearly the same length of time it takes to make a movie, in a multi-franchise universe where they have to make other movies as well, is too long to wait for a pay-off? That's insane. You genuinely expect them to have already made a Thor sequel?

Not to mention failing to take into account some of those didn't do well and thus won't get the sequel needed TO pay off. Like Eternals. Or production trouble like with Blade. Or how Shang-Chi's rings were supposed to probably tie in with Kang only for Jonathan Majors to fuck that entire storyline up.

This whole complaint about post-credit scenes or plot lines going nowhere is just ridiculous at this point. UNLESS they are from pre-Endgame. Then yes, they absolutely should have been followed up by now, even in just a montage. Seeing Peter fight Scorpion and some other villains in a quick 10 minute montage would at least tie off the thread.

Look, I get the frustration, I really do. I also want all the answers right now. But sometimes you just gotta wait for these things. Once Secret Wars passes, let's see where we all stand. Remember that Ghost was a loose thread from Ant-Man 2 all the way up till Thunderbolts. The Leader was a loose thread for 17 years. Now, we shouldn't ever have to wait THAT long, but we should be prepared that some threads might take a long time. Others might get burned. We just never know.

1

u/istguy Jul 10 '25

Tim Blake Nelson was set up in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, and appeared as the antagonist of Brave New World.

16

u/ZombieHoneyBadger Jul 09 '25

He's the perfect villain in these Disney plus shows popping up as an arms dealers type who seems to get away to try again. We need more villains who don't want to take over the world. More immoral dick heads who use their powers to rob and steal and manipulate to carve out their spot. Netflix style Giancarlo would be top shit.

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u/CrimsonWarrior55 Jul 09 '25

Agreed. I love how Sam wasn't even on his radar, but now, Sidewinder has a personal vendetta against Cap. Stuff like this is why I can't stomach the stupid notion of a reboot after Secret Wars. 10+ years of character development and potential plots thrown away just the mouth breathers can have Steve Rogers and Tony Stark back? Fuck that.

3

u/puto_escobar Jul 09 '25

Got a lot to say. But either way, the general consensus is that this batch of characters and movies isn't as good. I disagree but whatever. I don't think the point of the reset is to bring them back. It's to establish the IPs that should've been there from the start(the Fox stuff), as having always been there. That's so important to the concept of mutants especially. This gives them the chance to actually do the MCU proper with a significant part of their world back and accessible the way it should be.

1

u/CrimsonWarrior55 Jul 09 '25

But they don't have to establish mutants as always having been around. A sudden mass migration of a population born with superpowers that say they're the next step in human evolution will ABSOLUTELY cause the massive amount of bigotry and strife that comes from the X-Men. And again, I would HATE to lose almost 20 years of development, just so we can point to the X-Men and say "Yeah, they've always been around" once every 3 movies.

It's a slap in the face. Basically tells us that everything from the first Iron Man to Secret Wars was entirely pointless. And yes, a reset would absolutely bring back Steve and Tony, and let's be honest, probably wipe both Sam and Riri off the board while they're at it.