15/11/2023

Captain America 4’s New Release Date Breaks 14-Year MCU Trend

Marvel Studios’ new movie schedule means that Captain America: Brave New World’s release date breaks an MCU trend that has been present for 14 years.

Summary

Captain America: Brave New World’s release date of February 14, 2025, will mark four years between Sam Wilson’s last appearance as the character which was previously only two years between Avengers: Endgame and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Chris Evans’ appearances as Captain America every year from 2011 to 2019 highlight the MCU’s failure in developing Anthony Mackie’s version of the character.
The lack of appearances for Sam Wilson’s Captain America reflects the MCU’s overabundance of characters and content, resulting in the unintentional sidelining of important characters.

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Captain America: Brave New World‘s new release date means the MCU is breaking a trend that has been ongoing for 14 years. In November 2023, the end of the SAG-AFTRA strikes meant that updates on upcoming Marvel shows and movies came thick and fast. One of these updates concerned the changing release dates of the MCU’s Phase 5 projects, specifically the movies of 2024 and 2025.

One of these movies was Captain America: Brave New World which was previously scheduled for release on July 26, 2024. However, in light of negative test screening scores and planned reshoots, Captain America 4‘s release date has been pushed back to February 14, 2025. This new release date means that the MCU is breaking a 14-year-old trend concerning Captain America’s MCU timeline ahead of Sam Wilson’s first solo adventure as the star-spangled man.

Related: Captain America: Brave New World Cast & Marvel Character Guide

Captain America 4 Releases 4 Years After Sam Wilson’s Previous Appearance

The trend in question is that Captain America 4 will mark the biggest gap in the MCU without an appearance from the titular character. Between Captain America’s first appearance in Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011 and Captain America 4 in 2025, the longest gap between Cap’s appearances was two years. This gap came between Avengers: Endgame in 2019 and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in 2021.

However, with Captain America: Brave New World now coming in 2025, this record will have stretched to four years. Throughout all Phase 4 and 5 projects since 2021’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson’s Captain America was entirely absent. The only movie release coming from the MCU in 2024 is Deadpool 3 which will likely not feature Cap, meaning his next MCU appearance will come four years after his previous entry.

Chris Evans Appeared In An MCU Movie Every Year For 8 Years Straight

While four years between appearances may not seem too large a gap, it is made worse when looking back at Chris Evans’ tenure as Steve Rogers/Captain America. Between 2011, Evans’ debut as Cap, and 2019, the character appeared in at least one project every year for this eight-year period. Despite not every one of these appearances being a major role, the abundance of times Evans’ Cap appeared proved how important his character was and how the MCU is currently failing Anthony Mackie’s version of the character.

Chris Evans’ Captain America Credits in the MCU	Captain America’s Role	Release Date
Captain America: The First Avenger	Chris Evans’ MCU debut came in Captain America: The First Avenger as the titular hero. This film was the story of Steve Rogers’ enrollment into the U.S. Army in World War II, his transformation into Captain America, and his battle against the villainous Red Skull and HYDRA.	2011
The Avengers	Captain America’s next appearance came in The Avengers. Teaming up with Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, Captain America rose to become the titular team’s leader against the invading Loki and his army of Chithauri.	2012
Thor: The Dark World	Chris Evans appeared in Thor: The Dark World in Captain America’s first cameo role. As Loki and Thor escape Asgard, the former impersonates Captain America as a jab at the latter’s new teammates.	2013
Captain America: The Winter Soldier	Captain America: The Winter Soldier centered on Evans’ Steve Rogers adjusting to the modern world while reckoning with the resurgence of HYDRA and the reappearance of his thought-deceased friend Bucky Barnes as the titular Winter Soldier.	2014
Avengers: Age of Ultron	The second Avengers film saw Evans return once again as the team’s leader. This time, Cap led Earth’s Mightiest Heroes against Ultron, a malevolent A.I. creation of Tony Stark’s.	2015
Ant-Man	Another small cameo, Ant-Man featured Chris Evans as Captain America in the film’s post-credits scene. The scene came from Captain America: Civil War and teased the inclusion of Scott Lang/Ant-Man in the third Captain America movie.	2015
Captain America: Civil War	The third Captain America movie saw The Avengers split in half by the Sokovia Accords which offered oversight for superpowered individuals. Captain America opposed this motion while Iron Man was in favor, resulting in a clash of ideologies between the two pillars of the MCU.	2016
Spider-Man: Homecoming	Another brief cameo from Evans’ Cap came in Spider-Man: Homecoming. At Peter Parker’s high school, Captain America appeared in a series of inspirational videos regarding the school’s curriculum.	2017
Avengers: Infinity War	The third Avengers movie featured Captain America emerging from exile after being labeled a criminal in Civil War. This emergence was spurred by Thanos’ attack on Earth, who was searching for the Infinity Stones.	2018
Captain Marvel	Captain Marvel‘s end-credit sequence directly teased Avengers: Endgame showing the titular heroine arriving on Earth, only to be confronted by Cap and The Avengers.	2019
Avengers: Endgame	Steve Rogers’ final MCU appearance came in Avengers: Endgame. After losing 50% of the universe’s population to Thanos’ attack, the film saw Captain America lead The Avengers one final time in an attempt to reverse Thanos’ devastation.	2019

Marvel Is Already Failing Sam Wilson As Captain America’s MCU Replacement

Sam Wilson's Captain America in the MCU's Phase 4

The sheer volume of these appearances by Chris Evans as Steve Rogers’ Captain America proves that the MCU is failing his replacement, Sam Wilson. Evans’ 11 appearances in eight years showcase just how important Captain America is to the MCU, something that the large gap between 2021’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier and 2025’s Captain America 4 does not reflect. The MCU has introduced too many characters to the franchise of late, resulting in many being unintentionally sidelined.

Unfortunately, Sam Wilson’s Captain America is one of these characters despite his supposed importance to the universe. The lack of appearances from Sam Wilson only highlights the MCU’s overabundance of content which is actively failing its best characters. While Captain America: Brave New World will likely be a strong showcase for Sam’s version of the character, the time between that and his last appearance is undoubtedly too long.