When Captain America: Brave New World dropped its first trailers, it did not take long for the footage to spoil one big thing about the MCU movie: Harrison Ford’s transformation into Red Hulk. While many people questioned why Big Red was spoiled so early in promotional material, director Julius Onah has explained exactly why Thaddeus Ross becoming Red Hulk had to be shown in the trailers.
Speaking with Empire Magazine, Onah said he doesn’t believe there was ever an option of hiding Red Hulk from Brave New World’s trailers because the whole thing would have been spoiled in some other way. He said:
“When you’re making a movie like this, an announcement goes out that Harrison Ford is going to play Thaddeus Ross, and you have a fandom as massive and as passionate as the MCU fandom is, you’re toast at that point, you know? In a perfect-case scenario, it would have been awesome [if ] that [had been] an in-theatre surprise, but I think it would have been very difficult. Somewhere along the way, a toy would have been found, or somebody would have leaked a trailer. It’s just so hard to keep anything secret in today’s day and age.”
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‘Brave New World’ Kept a Different Character Hidden in the Shadows
While Red Hulk became a centerpiece feature of the movie and its marketing promotions, the villain of the movie was appropriately kept hidden in all the trailers for the movie. The Leader’s appearance was pretty much unknown until the moment the film landed in cinemas, as even the design of merchandise like action figures and Funkos were all based on the original, abandoned design of the character.
For some people, when the Leader, aka Samuel Sterns, did make his appearance in the movie – with Tim Blake Nelson reprising his role for the first time since 2008’s The Incredible Hulk – it was just another divisive character update.
Now, Brave New World is available to stream on Disney+, and, as expected, the movie shot straight to the top of the chart despite its mixed reviews and disappointing box office run. As Marvel Studios heads towards Secret Wars, the MCU is still struggling to reach the kind of box office ticket sales it became accustomed to during the Infinity Saga. While there is no doubt that the upcoming Avengers movies will deliver big results, July’s arrival of The Fantastic Four: First Steps will certainly be a big indication of how other Marvel movies starring well-known characters can fare. Both Brave New World and May’s release of Thunderbolts* were relatively grounded action movies rather than the more fantastical cosmic stories of Marvel Comics, and this could certainly be one factor as to why neither movie could break a significant $500 million barrier during their runs.
Source: Empire Magazine