Marvel Boss Blames Captain America: Brave New World Failure On Replacing Chris Evans

Kevin Fiege took time out of his day of delivering nothingburgers on the future of the MCU by placing the blame on Captain America: Brave New World's failure on Anthony Mackie.

via: Screen Rant

Captain America: Brave New World underperforming at the box office has been addressed by the Marvel Cinematic Universe's boss. Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson went on a journey to become the lead of the MCU's Captain America movies in both Avengers: Endgame and Disney+'s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. That led to the first of the MCU's 2025 movies.

However, despite Sam's long journey, the addition of Hulk-related characters like The Leader and Harrison Ford's Red Hulk, and more, Captain America: Brave New World finished its global box office run with $415.1 million (via Box Office Mojo) on a $180 million production budget, far below Chris Evans' Captain America: The Winter Soldier's $714.1 million and Civil War's $1.15 billion.

During a conversation about the MCU's future with members of the press, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige (via Deadline) claimed that Captain America: Brave New World's disappointing box office performance was because it "was the first without Chris Evans." The Steve Rogers actor famously left the role behind in Avengers: Endgame, where an older Steve gave Sam Wilson his shield.

Avengers: Endgame saw key characters like Captain America, Iron Man, and Black Widow leave the MCU. Marvel Studios has since tried to develop their successors, with Sam Wilson leading a TV show and a movie, while Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova was recently the star of Thunderbolts*, which also underperformed, and Riri Williams' Ironheart series finally arrived on Disney+.

With Kevin Feige claiming the reason Captain America: Brave New World was not a hit is due to how it was the first Captain America movie without Chris Evans, the message for future MCU movies seems clear. Perhaps legacy heroes might not be the way to go for Marvel. Replacing Evans was always going to be a tall order.

MCU Captain America Movies	Worldwide Box Office	Release Year
Captain America: The First Avenger	$370.6 million	2011
Captain America: The Winter Soldier	$714.4 million	2014
Captain America: Civil War	$1.15 billion	2016
Captain America: Brave New World	$415.1 million	2025

After all, the actor was one of the faces of the MCU alongside Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man. With the MCU headed towards a reboot at the end of Avengers: Secret Wars, the future of the franchise might lie in recasting key roles like Evans' Captain America. Marvel could also bring back Evans for the upcoming Avengers movies.

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The reason why the movie failed is because with Captain America being a political thriller you failed to actually stand on an actual point of view. The movie also felt like a sequel to The Incredible Hulk than a film that centered on Sam Wilson.

I also thought it would have made a better movie if you would have brought in Bucky Barnes as a proper sidekick to Sam. While the Falcon and Winter Soldier series was just ok, I think it would have worked better on the big screen. I love Danny Ramirez, but his dynamic with Sam and the way his character was written didn't work for me in the film. I also wanted more of Carl Lumbly's Isaiah Bradley character in the film.

I thought YouTube pundit Robert Myer Burnett hit the nail on the head when he recently said that if they played up Brave New World like the MCU's version of Lethal Weapon tonally it would have been a much better film.