Having been shut out of canon for so long, the return of Tim Roth’s Emil Blonsky in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law cracked the door open, but Tim Blake Nelson’s Leader has just waltzed right on through to become part of the cast for Captain America: New World Order.
Taking to the stage at D23, Anthony Mackie’s feature-length debut as the star-spangled superhero will also feature the return of Carl Lumbly’s Isiah Bradley, who stole every scene he was in during his stint on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Danny Ramirez’ Joaquin Torres will also return and presumably pick up where he left off by assuming the mantle of the Falcon like his comic book counterpart, with director Julius Onah describing his superhero blockbuster as “a paranoid thriller”.
In other news, Shira Haas has been cast as Israeli superhero Sabra to add further firepower to the ensemble, but the absence of Sebastian Stan was definitely noticed, especially when Bucky Barnes was confirmed for Thunderbolts at the expense of his longtime bromantic interest Sam Wilson.
Stepping into Chris Evans’ shoes as Cap is a tough task, but Mackie showed that he was more than up to the task when he officially suited up and wielded the shield on Disney Plus last year, so we’ve got no reason to doubt that New World Order isn’t going to deliver the goods.
And besides, the Leader is back! That wasn’t on our bingo card, but we couldn’t be happier about it.