Captain America 4: Diamondback, Seth Rollins, and the Marvel Characters Cut From the Movie
0 Comments This article contains spoilers for Captain America: Brave New World.
No one would argue that Captain America: Brave New World is a jam-packed movie. It’s stuffed with so many characters and subplots from The Incredible Hulk, Eternals, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier that Sam Wilson doesn’t always feel like the main character in his own movie.
But it could have been featured even more Marvel characters. It’s no secret that Brave New World went through reshoots that radically changed the finished film, including by cutting several characters who originally had scenes in the movie. It’s a testament to the cast and crew that Brave New World ended up a pretty fun, slick action flick.
Still, it’s hard not to wonder what could have been had some of these cut characters made it into the finished cut. So let’s take a look at what almost was, and how these characters could have affected Brave New World.
Rosa Salazar as Diamondback
Rachel Leighton aka Diamondback probably got the furthest into production before the editor’s blade fell upon her. Not only are there photos of the character on set, but Diamondback even made it into some leaked Happy Meal promos before she was cut from the movie.
Played by Rosa Salazar of Alita: Battle Angel and the Short Treks standout “The Trouble With Edward,” Diamondback debuted during writer Mark Gruenwald’s defining run on Captain America. 1985’s Captain America #310, penciled by Paul Neary, introduced Rachel Leighton as a member of the Serpent Society. Although immediately attracted to Captain America, her affections weren’t returned until she and Sidewinder enlisted his help after the villain Viper overtook the Society.
Eventually, Rachel and Steve Rogers became lovers, albeit in a conflicted relationship. While Steve wanted to see the best in her, he couldn’t help but take issue with her connections to unsavory characters, especially the mercenary Crossbones. Rachel, for her part, resented Steve’s mistrust, especially since Crossbones was her abuser. The relationship came to an end after Rachel killed fellow Serpent Society member Snapdragon, and while the two have had brushes ever since, they never fully reconciled.
It’s entirely possible that Diamondback would have been a romantic interest for Sam in the finished film. While she’s most often associated with Rogers, Sam’s counseling background would have made him a natural to help her move from villainy to heroism. However, with Sam’s usual comic love interest Leila Taylor added to the film, played by Xosha Roquemore, and Giancarlo Esposito added as Serpent Society leader Sidewinder, Diamondback was probably deemed redundant and removed late in the process.
Seth Rollins as Serpent Society Member
Speaking of the Serpent Society, perhaps the most high-profile addition and removal from Brave New World was WWE star Seth Rollins, who is featured in the set photo above. Although we knew that he would be playing a member of Serpent (as the team is called in the movie, giving it more of a James Bond Spectre feel), no one has yet released specifics, not even Rollins. Judging by the set photos of Rollins in costume, most assume he played a variation of Cobra or Anaconda.
Neither Cobra nor Anaconda are particularly rich characters, which suggests that Rollins would have just had the role of henchman or heavy, somebody who gives Sam some trouble in a single set-piece, but doesn’t affect much of the plot. However, rumors suggested that Rollins’s character would connect to plot involving the U.S. government stealing adamantium as its own counter to vibranium (more on that later).
That theory is supported by the fact that a Serpent heavy does remain in the finished film. Icelandic strongman Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson appears as Copperhead, and does get to tangle with Sam for a few minutes. Given that Copperhead remains and Cobra/Anaconda does suggest that Rollins got to be more of an evil genius, making his loss a bit more of a substantial plot change.
Logan Kim as Amadeus Cho
Like Kamala Khan and Miles Morales, Amadeus Cho points to Marvel’s future, an exciting young character created within the past 20years. Cho made his first appearance in 2005’s Amazing Fantasy #15 by Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa, where his mighty intellect won him the title of 7th Smartest Person in the World. His smarts also drew the attention of a jealous supergenius, who attacked Cho’s house and left his parents dead. Cho palled around with the Hulk and Hercules for a while, before gaining his own gamma powers and becoming the Totally Awesome Hulk aka Brawn, a key member of the Champions.
According to insider DanielRPK, Logan Kim, best known as Podcast from Ghostbusters: Afterlife, appeared in the an early screening of Brave New World as Cho. Sam encountered Cho working for Stark Industries, and Cho would later help Sam develop a counter to the Red Hulk. Although you should of course take this leak with a grain of salt, the rest of DanielRPK’s descriptions of the film match the finished version, lending some credibility to his claims.
At any rate, Cho doesn’t make it into Brave New World, but that doesn’t mean he’s off the screen. He can currently be seen in the excellent animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, where he works as a junior scientist at Oscorp.
Elijah Richardson as Eli Bradley
The omission of Eli Bradley particularly stands out in the finished version of Brave New World. As portrayed by Elijah Richardson in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Eli lives with his grandfather Isaiah Bradley, the disavowed former Super Soldier. Played wonderfully by Carl Lumbly, Isaiah plays a major role in Brave New World. And yet, Eli neither appears on screen nor even gets a mention.
As producer Nate Moore explained, Eli did appear in early drafts of the script. “[B]ut we started to feel like there were too many characters to track and we want to make sure if a character is in the film, they have something to do,” Moore said. Seemingly getting in the way of Isaiah’s relationship with Sam, Eli got cut.
In the comics, Eli is a founding member of the Young Avengers. Created by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung, Patriot claims to have inherited the same powers as his grandfather and leads the team as Patriot. However, he later admits that he used a Mutant Growth Hormone to simulate the powers. Eli retired from the role of Patriot after the Young Avengers disbanded, but we’re sure to see a version of him as the MCU’s version of the team comes together.
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine
Given how often she’s popped up in recent MCU entries, it’s almost shocking that Valentina Allegra de Fontaine didn’t show up to meddle in Sam Wilson’s first Captain America outing. As reported by the generally reliable insider Jeff Sneider, Val figured in early versions of Brave New World. Frustrated by her failed attempts to get vibranium in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Val saw adamantium as a solution to her problem and worked hard to secure it. Her efforts involved the Serpent Society, which probably involved Seth Rollins’s character.
Adamantium certainly matters in the finished film, and there is a lot of talk about needing a new set of Avengers. However, Thunderbolts* gets set up through a cameo by Bucky, now apparently a U.S. Senator, and not by Val’s machinations.
Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner
Perhaps the most tenuous of Brave New World potential characters, Mark Ruffalo indicated that he would be in the movie during an interview at the 2024 Santa Barbara Film Festival. It didn’t take long for other sources to clarify he wouldn’t be in the movie, but the confusion makes sense. Brave New World operates as a sequel to The Incredible Hulk as much as it does a Captain America movie. Even though Edward Norton and not Ruffalo portrayed Banner in that film, it is a bit odd that Brave New World would spend so much time talking about President Ross’s attempts to kill the Hulk without having the Hulk show up.
Still, it’s probably good that Banner didn’t drop by, making the movie even less of a Sam Wilson film than it already is.
Captain America: Brave New World is now in theaters.
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