Captain America: Brave New World Reveals What Its Title Really Means (And Promptly Drops The Ball)

This article contains spoilers for "Captain America: Brave New World."

Marvel's "Captain America: Brave New World" has a very good title for a movie that features the first big-screen appearance of Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) in his new role as the titular superhero. Compared to Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), the former Falcon's Captain America debut was underwhelming since it happened in the Disney+ show "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" (2021) instead of a tentpole movie, but "Brave New World" is a powerful title that immediately makes one hope that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is correcting course with gusto.

In some ways, it does. "Brave New World" might be a safe, forgettable rehash, but it showcases the new Captain America's skills and tenacity (not to mention his massive arsenal of weapons and equipment) with great dedication that makes the viewer fully believe that Sam Wilson is ready to lead the Avengers. However, absolutely none of that is reflected in the movie's title which, it turns out, isn't about Sam at all. Neither is it a reference to Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel "Brave New World," in which the powers that be have created the kind of world they deem correct — which is essentially how President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) operates in the movie. 

The real meaning is far less than such allusions, as the end of the movie reduces the bold title into yet another setup for the next big Marvel thing. "Welcome to the brave new world of adamantium," a news anchor says, giving away the movie's apparent position that the MCU considers the powerful Marvel metal and its implications for the film universe's future far more important than anything that actually happens in this movie.

The plot of "Captain America: Brave New World" revolves around an attempt to solve an international conflict over the rights to the petrified remains of the Celestial Tiamut from "Eternals" (2021), now known as Celestial Island. The area is highly sought after due to its adamantium deposits, which will clearly play a major role in the MCU's future. The most important adamantium-adjacent Marvel character, in turn, is of course Wolverine (currently played by Hugh Jackman). As such, it seems that "Brave New World" is the latest Marvel project that's been drafted into teasing the impending arrival of the X-Men ... which, apparently, still needs setting up despite the fact that the franchise's biggest success in 2024 was the R-rated mutant movie "Deadpool & Wolverine." 

Still, if such setups are required, a question lingers: Is "Brave New World" really the right movie for that? It's one thing to insert an alternate-timeline Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" or add a quick Beast (Kelsey Grammer) cameo in "The Marvels." "Captain America: Brave New World," on the other hand, isn't an outlandish romp across time and space like the aforementioned two. With its focus on political tensions and a Black man taking up the Captain America title, it had every chance to be the rare MCU movie with something real to say. Instead, the "brave new world of adamantium" title drop is a perfect analogy of what the movie itself ultimately is: Something that could have been smart and nuanced, but ultimately deflates into an underwhelming tool to set up the path ahead.