Highlights

• Red Hulk as the big villain in Captain America 4 shows Marvel's lack of faith in the project.
• Harrison Ford's appearance as Red Hulk is a major reveal, sparking skepticism about the movie's success.
• Marvel should focus on promoting Anthony Mackie as Captain America rather than emphasizing the Red Hulk villain.

Marvel Studios only has one movie being released in 2024, but 2025 is shaping up to be a big year, with Captain America 4 being the first Marvel release of the year. It will be subtitled Brave New World. However, the revelation of the upcoming sequel's big villain being Red Hulk potentially shows a lack of faith in the project. The fourth entry in the Captain America series will be missing the original lead star, Chris Evans, which could explain the focus being put on the villain to entice audiences to see the movie.

Anthony Mackie will take on the lead role, as he dons the iconic shield and costume, after his character, Sam Wilson, previously took on the mantle of sidekick, The Falcon. Captain America: Brave New World will star Harrison Ford as Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross aka Red Hulk, and his entrance into the Marvel CInematic Universe is bound to raise a few eyebrows.

Who is Red Hulk in the Marvel comic book series?

Captain America: Brave New World is keeping its plot under wraps, despite being the first MCU movie due to hit theaters in 2025. Marvel hasn't released any footage yet (apart from clips screened at CinemaCon), but there has been a major new detail about the movie which came courtesy of a McDonald’s Happy Meal: Red Hulk will appear as one of the major villains in the fourth Captain America movie.

It's not a total surprise for fans who are familiar with Harrison Ford’s character, General Thunderbolt Ross. The transformation of Ford's character into Red Hulk was inevitable, due to his appearance in Marvel’s Incredible Hulk comics.

General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross is one of Hulk’s biggest enemies, dating all the way back to 1962’s first Hulk comic. Ross is a military man and a constant thorn in the side of the troubled Bruce Banner. But there was a period in time when Ross transformed himself into the very thing he hated the most.

Marvel's 2008 Hulk comic series first introduced the audience to Red Hulk. Like Hulk himself, the villain possesses incredible strength and durability. In contrast to Banner's alter ego, Red Hulk retains his intelligence when transformed and possesses other useful abilities like energy absorption. Red Hulk's biggest weakness is anger, which is the polar opposite of Hulk, who grows stronger the angrier he gets. Rage present in Red Hulk causes his body to overheat with excess gamma radiation.

The revelation of the villain shows Marvel doesn't have much faith in Captain America 4

Harrison Ford is a massive coup for the ailing Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it'll surely help to draw audiences to Captain America: Brave New World. However, criticism has been placed in Marvel's direction about the true revelations of the character he is set to play: Red Hulk. It points to the studio not having much faith in the upcoming movie, but they really didn't need to spoil the surprise for the section of fans who aren't familiar with the origins of the character in the comics.

Chris Evans hung up his shield for the final time in Avengers: Endgame way back in 2019, and his presence will be missed in the next Captain America movie. The true revelations about the villain are surely an attempt to fill the unimaginable void left by Steve Rogers' exit. Similar to other big superhero movies, like The Dark Knight, where the Joker took center stage, it is possible that Captain America 4 is spearheading its villain as the center point of the next Marvel entry.

Adding to this, Harrison Ford is a huge movie star whose name alone can be the difference between a hit and a flop. However, Ford's recent return to the Indiana Jones franchise wasn't enough to save it from losing Disney $130 million. Marvel needs to be careful not to focus its Captain America 4 promotional campaign around Ford's iteration of Red Hulk.

The Marvels made a similar mistake by choosing to shift its focus onto the so-called post credits surprise, and that movie was Marvel Studios' biggest ever box office disaster. Anthony Mackie should be front and center in the build up to Captain America 4's release in 2025. He has been a prominent figure in the MCU ever since he first appeared in Captain America: Winter Soldier. Red Hulk is bound to be a formidable opponent for Sam Wilson's Captain America, but it wasn't necessary to reveal it in the lead up to the release of the new movie.

Despite Chris Evans' departure from the series, the Captain America moniker was known to shift between different characters in the comic books, and there's no reason why this can't continue in the movie series as well. The revelation of Red Hulk's appearance in Captain America 4 shows how little faith Marvel has in its new iteration of the shield-wielding superhero.