This article contains MCU spoilers.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been captivating audiences with its movies for over a decade, and in recent years, they’ve expanded into TV shows. With all of this media, keeping up with or revisiting everything in the MCU can seem like a very intimidating task.
When Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame came out, there was not nearly as much media one needed to watch to understand what was going on. Now, with the expansion of the MCU into TV shows and the newest multiverse saga, there is far too much to watch before going to the movies to see Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford share the big screen. If you’re hoping to catch Captain America: Brave New World but don’t want to rewatch every movie and TV show to catch every reference, this article has you covered.
Below, I have detailed (almost) all the information you’ll need to know going into Brave New World without having to watch dozens of movies and TV shows. From The Incredible Hulk to Eternals, there is a plethora of information one needs to know, and I’ve tried my best to lay it all out.
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The First Avenger introduces the audience to Steve Rogers, who later becomes Captain America. Rogers joined the US Army during World War II, and he was chosen to be injected with the Super Soldier Serum.
Howard Stark and Abraham Erskine designed the Serum and administered it to Steve Rogers before sending him out to boost morale. While on his “morale-boosting” trips, Rogers discovered that his friend, Bucky Barnes, had been taken prisoner behind enemy lines. Rogers puts it upon himself to rescue Bucky and then recruits him to help take down Red Skull. Mid-mission, Rogers loses Bucky to a fall.
At the end of the movie, Rogers flies his plane into ice and freezes for decades. He wakes up once found by The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D.) and meets Nick Fury, who lays out the Avengers Initiative.
The Incredible Hulk
The Incredible Hulk is where fans first meet Bruce Banner and learn how he became the Hulk. As the story goes, the Lieutenant General of the US Army (Thaddeus E. Ross) asked Banner to recreate the Super Soldier Serum that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America.
Banner was unaware of what he was creating, so he took it upon himself to replace vita radiation with gamma and then administered the serum to himself. The gamma radiation exposure led Banner to become the Hulk when angered, and Ross spent the remainder of the movie hunting him down. Instead of imprisoning him once caught, Ross forces Banner to fight off the Abomination and lets him go free until he is needed again.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is where fans first meet Sam Wilson. Wilson was a test pilot for the EXO-7 Falcon Suit in the Air Force but left after losing his wingman.
Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff found Wison in D.C. and recruited him to help them take down Hydra. Hydra had recently infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and had turned Steve Roger’s best friend (Bucky Barnes) into the Winter Soldier. Hydra used the Winter Soldier to further their agenda throughout history (including by killing Tony Stark’s parents). After helping Rogers and Romanoff, Wilson agreed to join the Avengers and help Rogers and the others fight off enemies throughout the Infinity saga.
Captain America: Civil War
In Captain America: Civil War, Ross reappears as President Ellis’s Secretary of State. Ross proposes the Sokovia Accords to the Avengers after the destruction they caused in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Steve Rogers opposed the Sokovia Accords, and Wilson sided with him. Rogers and Wilson ended up breaking the Accords to save Bucky Barnes, causing them to hide from the government. The Sokovia Accords were later repealed, as revealed in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
Falcon and the Winter Soldier
After Steve Roger’s retirement in Avengers: Endgame, Sam Wilson was appointed the new Captain America. After having doubts about his ability, he decides to give up the shield, which leads to the government replacing Rogers with John Walker. John Walker injected himself with the Super Soldier Serum, and Wilson had the same opportunity to do so. Wilson declined the offer and stuck to his wingsuit as his full armor.
Walker wasn’t the only one to be injected with the serum. Throughout the show, we meet other characters who have been injected, including many of the Flag Smashers (the show’s antagonists), as well as Isaiah Bradley, a Korean War veteran who was unwillingly subjected to human tests of the Super Soldier Serum in the 1950s. He was tortured for years before escaping and living life in the shadows, eventually meeting Wilson and sharing his story.
Walker uses the shield in an aggressive manner, which leads to Wilson taking the shield back and officially becoming Captain America. As Captain America, Wilson has given himself a new suit and gifted his old one to an Air Force contact named Joaquin Torres. Torres had assisted Wilson before, and it seemed as though he was fixing up the old suit.
Black Widow
In 2021, the MCU released its first movie about Scarlett Johansson’s character, Black Widow. This movie followed Natasha Romanoff as she and her family took down the Red Room and saw the reunion of her and her sister, Yelena Belova.
After the Red Room destruction, all former and present Widows were administered a cure for the mind-controlling chemicals they had endured while in the Red Room. With this cure came the Widow’s freedom, and a few of them are rumored to appear in Captain America: Brave New World.
Eternals
Not many MCU fans ran to the theatre to see Eternals, but a lot of people talked about Harry Styles’s cameo in this movie. Before Styles appears, Eternals follows Sersi and her teammates as they defy their creator, Arishem. This prevented the emergence of a new celestial being and saved humanity. To prevent the emergence of the new being, Sersi turned the unborn celestial to stone. This left his corpse sticking out of the Indian Ocean.
In the Captain America: Brave New World trailer, fans can see the corpse (Tiamut) in the Indian Ocean and can see that humans have converted it to Celestial Island.
Most likely, there are other movies and TV shows you need to see before going to the movies. But, if you’re just hoping to enjoy Anthony Mackie as The Falcon and Harrison Ford as Red Hulk without doing any extensive research, then you’re all caught up!
Want to see more HCFSU? Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Pinterest!