Director Julius Onah’s Captain America: Brave New World is currently putting in a 22-day shoot to capture additional photography and a new action sequence, a fairly routine course of business for an MCU film. What’s intriguing about Brave New World’s shoot is that it’s also bringing in a phenomenal performer, Giancarlo Esposito, to play a mysterious new villain.

Onah’s film actually wrapped principal photography in the spring of 2023, before the writers and actors struck. For the additional shoot, Moon Knight scribe Matthew Orton penned some new pages, with Esposito taking on this undisclosed bad guy role.

Brave New World is a major new MCU installment, with Anthony Mackie taking on the mantle of Captain America for the first time on the big screen. We’ve seen the burden Sam carries as the first Black man taking on the role Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) carried for so long in Marvel’s Disney+ series Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige presented some footage of Brave New World at Cinema Con and said the vibe of Brave New World is decidedly more of a grounded, gritty action flick, akin to the Russo Brothers’ beloved Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Winter Soldier was, in fact, Mackie’s first MCU film, where Sam Wilson became Captain America’s most trusted ally—Cap’s best friend, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), was the Winter Soldier, after all, often acting as Cap’s brain-washed antagonist. Sam Wilson was the man Cap could count on the most, which is why he was selected at the end of Avengers: Endgame by an aged, retired Steve Rogers to carry on the shield.

Falcon and the Winter Soldier showed us just how hard it was for Sam to replace a white icon and savior figure. By the end of the series, Sam has accepted the role and proven himself more than capable of carrying the shield. Brave New World finds Sam after he’s accepted and grown into the role, and also introduces Harrison Ford into the MCU as he takes over for the late William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross. The cast also includes Danny Ramirez returns as Joaquin Torres, the young man who takes over from Sam as the Falcon, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson, Carl Lumbly (reprising his role of Isaiah Bradley from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), and Shira Haas.

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