Why Captain America: Brave New World Couldn't Keep Harrison Ford's Red Hulk A Secret

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For much of its history, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has relied pretty heavily on keeping secrets when it comes to its biggest movies. Sometimes, that pans out, such as with "Avengers: Endgame" and "Spider-Man: No Way Home." Sometimes, it doesn't, like when the "Avengers: Doomsday" cast reveal wound up spoiling parts of "Thunderbolts*." Sometimes, though, Marvel Studios just needs to come right out with it. That's precisely what happened with "Captain America: Brave New World," which made it clear from the jump that Red Hulk was going to be in the film.

Harrison Ford took over the role of the MCU's Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross in "Brave New World," which was a big deal. Having him become Red Hulk? An even bigger deal. It's the kind of surprise that might have been cool to save until opening night, but Marvel chose to spoil the Red Hulk reveal early on in its marketing. Why was that decision made, exactly? While speaking with the folks at Empire, director Julius Onah touched on that very topic. According to the filmmaker, it simply wouldn't have been possible to keep this a secret:

"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?"

Red Hulk has a long, complicated history in the pages of Marvel Comics but, to Onah's point, observant fans were certainly going to speculate that's where Anthony Mackie's first solo movie as Captain America was going. Speculation is one thing, though. Confirming it in the marketing is another.

Tim Blake Nelson's The Leader served as the main villain in "Brave New World," with Giancarlo Esposito's Sidewinder also functioning as a secondary baddie. That being the case, one could argue Marvel and Disney should have centered the marketing on those antagonists and merely saved Red Hulk for fans on opening night. As Onah's logic goes, however, it probably would have been spoiled anyway, so why not just lean into it? Speaking further, the director explained that, inevitably, a toy or some other sort of leak would have given the game away:

"In a perfect-case scenario, it would have been awesome [if ] that [had been] an in-theater 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."

Indeed, toys have been responsible for leaking many details about major blockbuster movies over the years. That's not just a Marvel problem, either. Even so, it's not as though this has prevented Marvel from trying to keep a lid on its secrets in the past. Even though Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire's "Spider-Man: No Way Home" return was a poorly kept secret, the studio wouldn't confirm the casting ahead of the film's release.

In truth, the MCU isn't as powerful as it once was. These movies don't make as much money as they used to bring in, with "Brave New World" ranking as one of the lowest-grossing MCU films, having taken in just over $415 million globally. That's to say, putting Red Hulk in the marketing may have been a choice that was motivated by trying to get people interested in the movie. Did it help? It's tough to say, but let's hope Marvel continues to keep some surprises in store in the future.

You can grab "Captain America: Brave New World" on 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD from Amazon.