Does Captain America: Brave New World ignore the comics? Anthony Mackie reveals why he stayed away from the source material when preparing for his upcoming film.
There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about how much the MCU does or doesn’t respect the comics its projects are based on. This conversation resurfaced again in the lead-up to Anthony Mackie’s return to the MCU in Captain America: Brave New World. The film takes some major liberties from the comics, with many of its characters coming from Hulk stories instead of the original Captain America books.
There seems to be a reason to that. At least, according to Anthony Mackie. When speaking on his preparation ahead of Captain America: Brave New World, the star revealed that he mostly strayed away from reading comics. This is because the film serves as an amalgamation of some of the character’s best stories, cramming multiple storylines into one bombastic film.
“I literally just focused on the script,” Mackie told Collider in a recent interview. “I mean, these, these stories are so interesting because they don’t do the comic books page by page by page. They use the comic books as a blueprint or outline.”
“So you can have three or four different comic books in one movie. So I stayed away from the comic books and just utilized the script and the story and the background that we’ve created of Sam Wilson to develop him into the Captain America he is in the movie.
Anthony Mackie Reveals The Heart Of Captain America
This may worry some fans that believe the comics are the only medium that truly capture the heart of what Captain America is. However, it seems as though Anthony Mackie was truly invested in honoring the mantle with Captain America: Brave New World. Continuing his thoughts, he explained the responsibility he felt in picking up the shield of the iconic hero.
“There were two words that kept coming up on set every day we shot this movie, and it was compassion. And it was empathy. I think when you look at, you know, with great power comes great responsibility. Right? And Sam Wilson has now taken on the mantle of Captain America. So there’s a huge amount of responsibility and understanding that comes along with that.”
“There’s a huge amount of empathy that him, as a counselor, brings to the table that Steve Rogers didn’t have. And so when you think of the shield, when you think of that moniker, I want you to, I want people to think of that: understanding, compassion, and empathy.”
At the very least, this quote shows that Anthony Mackie has a strong understanding of the characters roots in the comics, even if he didn’t have any specific books to reference during the production of Captain America: Brave New World. Early reviews paint Mackie as a stand out in an otherwise messy production, so hopefully he manages to hold the mantle for a long time to come.
Captain America: Brave New World is currently slated to hit theaters on February 14, 2025. Stay tuned for the latest news regarding the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!
