Captain America 4: Tim Blake Nelson Teases The Leader’s MCU Return

Lee Freitag
·2 min read
7
Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns before his transformation into The Leader.
Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns before his transformation into The Leader.

Actor Tim Blake Nelson recently opened up about his long-awaited return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Captain America: Brave New World.

In an interview with Michael Rosenbaum on his podcast, Inside of You (via ComicBookMovie.com), Nelson shared that he was “very happy” to have been asked to return as Samuel Sterns/The Leader more than a decade after his last appearance in the MCU.

While Nelson was light on details regarding how The Leader fits into the fourth Captain America movie, the actor confirmed that the MCU’s Leader would sport his comic book counterpart’s enlarged cranium. Additionally, he revealed that the effect was achieved with minimal CGI.

“I can tell you about my character that we did everything we could, and this was entirely supported by Marvel, and I’m so grateful to Kevin Feige and Nate Moore for supporting this,” shared Nelson. “They were on board 100% to do the character as practically as possible with an absence of digital stuff.”

The actor continued, “I really credit Marvel and also [director] Julius [Onah] for wanting to make a very much reality-based superhero movie, as oxymoronic as that sounds. In terms of our approach to The Leader, that’s really where we went and I was really gratified to do it that way.”

Watch Rosenbaum’s full interview with Nelson below:

Who leads Captain America: Brave New World?

While Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers headlined the first three Captain America movies, Brave New World will be fronted by Anthony Mackie‘s Sam Wilson, who assumed the mantle of Captain America in the series finale of the Disney+ limited series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

While plot details remain largely under wraps, Mackie has teased the movie as a “grounded espionage action movie,” similar to 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. However, Brave New World will also resolve narrative threads from 2008’s The Incredible Hulk that were left dangling, like Samuel Stern’s transformation into The Leader. Liv Tyler is also set to make her first MCU appearance since The Incredible Hulk, returning as Bruce Banner’s ex-girlfriend, Betty Ross.

Other cast members for Captain America: Brave New World include Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres/Flacon, Carl Lumbly as Isaiah Bradley, Shira Haas as Sabra, and Harrison Ford as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. Xosha Roquemore, Seth Rollins, and Rosa Salazar have also been cast in undisclosed roles.

Captain America: Brave New World is set to hit theaters on February 14, 2025.