Captain America: Brave New World is the first MCU movie of 2025, hitting theaters on February 14th. We have already seen footage from the film, as Marvel released the first trailer and additional teasers. That means we saw Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) in the new suit and Red Hulk (Harrison Ford), you know, hulking out.
The big point of Captain America 4 isn’t just to set up Sam as the new Cap, well, again, since we already saw it happen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Disney Plus TV show. It’s also to introduce the new Avengers, seeing as the team has been disbanded after the Endgame events.
Sadly, for the Multiverse Saga story we have seen so far, that’s a detail we have never heard of in any of the movies or TV shows. Instead, it came via Marvel during one of its media events. That is, the MCU currently doesn’t have a functioning Avengers team. Considering that we’re heading to Doomsday and Secret Wars, we need a team in place as soon as possible.
But until early October 2024, there weren’t any Brave New World plot leaks to speak of. We had no idea what would happen with the new Captain America, Red Hulk, and the rest of them. However, a plot leak reveals everything about Brave New World. It could be fake, but insiders are already saying it’s the real deal.
This is where I strongly advise you to avoid what follows below if you’re averse to spoilers. If the leak is true, you’re in for massive spoilers.
Such plot leaks were the norm from Multiverse Saga movies before Deadpool & Wolverine. That’s where things changed. Only the plot elements that Marvel used for the first trailers leaked ahead of the premiere of Deadpool 3. That was a great change of pace for Marvel, implying the studio managed to limit leaks.
It turns out that’s not the case. Brave New World was supposedly shown to a test audience, and the entire Captain America 4 plot is available on Reddit.
As Redditors point out, several Marvel insiders say the leak is correct. Charles Murphy and Alex Perez said so on X. Daniel Richtman provided MCU details that suggest the plot leak is real.
Why am I mentioning these confirmations before even showing you the leak? Now that I’ve given you the spoiler warning, I can tell you I don’t like how the story sounds. Captain America 4 doesn’t seem to be the story I envisioned, as it will not introduce the Avengers. That wouldn’t even be such a big problem if the story were good. But I can’t find any reason to get excited about Brave New World.
This is probably the first time an MCU plot leak has given me a bad feeling, and I’ve read all of them. You’ll see what I mean if you’re a fan of Marvel leaks and have followed them along. It’s probably why so many fans will dismiss it as fake and why the confirmations from insiders matter.
Even without insiders saying the plot leak is real, there is a detail about Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) in Captain America 4 that would make me think it’s real. Apparently, Bucky is running for office, which is an important detail as it ties into Thunderbolts*.
A partial plot leak for that movie, which is a lot more exciting by comparison, says Bucky will be a Congressman by the time he joins the Thunderbolts. Then again, someone creating fake Captain America 4 stories might want to include elements from other Marvel leaks so people like me see the connections.
I won’t quote the entire Brave New World plot leak, which you will find below, but I will show you a part of the Captain America 4 review from the person who shared the story:
Overall, halfway decent movie not bad not good, entertaining for the most part but feels like it is just repeating plot points from both The Winter Soldier and Civil War making the entire story feel way too safe, predictable and by-the-numbers
Whole thing plays out and feels very much like something that belongs on Disney+ (Harrison Ford being the one aspect that makes it belong in cinemas) and some of the action is pretty good
Awkward pacing that could be cleaned up by the time the final version comes out, but the story feels a bit too derivative of other Cap movies (Zemo framing Bucky is like Sterns framing Isiah) (Sam and Joaquin on the run in a truck driving to an underground bunker like Nat and Steve in TWS, Air battle at Tiamat similar to climax in TWS)
Rulk/Cap fight was teased the entire movie only for it to last about five minutes
Only “cameos” were Betty, Bucky, Amadeus Cho
Movie never really showed us why Sam “IS” Captain America or why he should continue to lead the Avengers
I’ve always said that the written plots of Marvel movies will never be as exciting as the movies themselves, but I was always looking forward to seeing them. Captain America 4 is different. The plot doesn’t sound that exciting, making me want to see the movie even less. Then again, we did have leaks that said Brave New World wasn’t that good, and Marvel needed reshoots to fix the story. This plot leak seems to confirm all that.