Marvel's 'Brave New World' Challenges Trump Era

The latest Captain America film premiered Tuesday and features a diverse cast, a core message about unity, and an endorsement of international diplomacy. It presents a vision of the United States that is out of step with the Trump era.

Written and filmed before Donald Trump's return as president, the latest blockbuster from Marvel Studios has already faced an online backlash from some right-wingers over supposedly unpatriotic comments by lead actor Anthony Mackie.

Mackie, the first black actor to play the superhero, became a target last month after attempting to make a point about the universal message of Captain America as an ideal of good conscience and incorruptibility.

"Captain America represents many different things, and I don’t think the term 'America' should be one of those representations," he told a promotional event. "It's about a man who keeps his word, who has honor, dignity, and integrity."

In "Captain America: Brave New World", Mackie flies, fights, and flings his famous shield to pursue world peace alongside flawed and mercurial president Thaddeus Ross, played by Harrison Ford.

Ross is attempting to negotiate an international treaty with America's allies to share a precious new metal discovered on an island in the Indian Ocean. Still, his past associations and an international crime gang are thwarting him.

"This a new genre, a new audience for me -- and it was fun!" Ford told an audience in London of his first foray into the Marvel superhero stable at 82.

'Shared society'

Directed by Nigerian-born Julius Onah, "Brave New World" features a diverse cast, including Danny Ramirez and Xosha Roquemore.

Mackie has replaced Chris Evans as the lead actor in the popular film franchise. The plot centers on his self-doubt and impostor syndrome.

Onah told Vanity Fair on the eve of Tuesday's world premiere in Los Angeles that the film's main message was bringing people together.

He insisted on inserting a line at the end in which Captain America tells Ross, "If we can't see the good in each other, we've already lost the fight."

"I think it speaks to the moral obligation that we all have to each other in a shared society, even when we might see things differently," he told Vanity Fair.

US actors Harrison Ford (L), Anthony Mackie (C) and Danny Ramirez (R) attend the world premiere of Marvel Studios' "Captain America: Brave New World" at the TCL Chinese theatre in Hollywood, California, February 11, 2025. Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP

Such sentiments are out of fashion in Trump's Republican party, with its hostile stance toward diversity and aggressive "America First" foreign policy.

In his first three weeks in office, the new US president has pursued a "war on woke" by canceling federal diversity programs, pulling the United States out of international treaties, and threatening America's allies.

Whether the latest Marvel offering can appeal across political lines in such a polarized environment remains to be seen.

Industry observers see the Disney-owned Hollywood studio needing a box-office triumph after recent television and cinema disappointments, including "The Marvels," which flopped in 2023.

Fans of the original 1940s Captain America point out that the messages in the latest film -- and from its lead actor and director -- are faithful to those of the Nazi-bashing comic strip, which was created in response to European fascism and America's isolationism during World War II.

The film will be released internationally on Wednesday before hitting cinemas in the US on Friday.