Summary
Red Hulk, the showpiece ofCaptain America: Brave New World,could have been very different—and more comic-accurate—than his eventual iteration if Marvel Studios had stuck to its guns… quite literally.
Captain America: Brave New Worldsaw the debut of Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, taking the torch from the late William Hurt. Ross is a U.S. general-turned-President who transforms into the powerful Red Hulk after Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns provides him with gamma-irradiated pills. He and Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson battle atop the White House and the streets of Washington, D.C. Months after release, there’s still fan frustration with Marvel Studios for giving away Red Hulk inCaptain America: Brave New World’s marketing, a move believed to have cost the film commercially.
Red Hulk Was Initially Supposed To Wield Guns InCaptain America: Brave New World
It Is Comic Accurate and Makes Some Sense Given His Military Background
Appearing on JoBlo Celebrity Access on YouTube, Julius Onah, the filmmaker behindCaptain America: Brave New World,discussed some aspects of his film, one of which was a what-would-have-been aesthetic choice with Red Hulk. The design in question would have seen the character wield guns against Sam Wilson and the opposing U.S. security forces.
“There was a point in time, actually, it didn’t make the movie, where Red Hulk, arcing back to publishing, wielded a gun and it just didn’t feel quite right for the actual movie. But we did have a moment with Harrison shooting as Red Hulk with a gun and that was one of those moments of like, ‘I can’t believe this is happening right now.’ And he plays into it in a way that’s really fun, because he knows we’re geeking out.”
It’s not justRed Hulk’s weaponized redesignthat landed on the cutting room floor. Onah also revealed that several action beats were trimmed during post-production for pacing and story clarity. One standout omission was a visually striking high-speed shot of Sam Wilson flipping mid-air and landing on his shield.
“You know, with every movie, you kill a few darlings, right? Because, whether it’s just pace or story or clarity, whatever the case may be, I would say there are a couple of action beats that I really miss. You know, in that hallway fight, there was a high-speed shot where Sam had done a flip and landed on the shield, sort of knocking somebody out, that, in some ways, becomes a sort of tease and a predecessor of a flip that he does later on in the movie when he slices the car. And I love those kind of visual callbacks and those moments where things are in communication with each other across the movie.”
A gun-slinging Red Hulk isn’t in the same boat as Zack Snyder’s trigger-happy Batman. No, unlike the latter, the former does wield powerful firearms in the comics, which aligns with his military training. To abandon that vision in favor of a “smash everything” character not dissimilar to The Hulk feels very much like robbing fans. Picture the first reaction to trailers of a Red Hulk pumping out bullets; it would’ve sent the MCU fandom wild with excitement. It won’t have cloakedeverything wrong withCaptain America: Brave New World, though.
Why Marvel opted to sideline such a design remains unclear. But there’s hope thatfuture appearances of Red Hulkwill adopt this design, if Kevin Feige has grand plans for his return. Ross is last seen in his human form, incarcerated in the Raft, a floating prison adrift in the Atlantic. He was notably absent fromThunderbolts*—a curious omission, given the team shares his namesake. Maybe he will break out of the Raft and join forces with Sam Wilson, or better for him, be cured.
