The Strangest Visual Effect In Captain America: Brave New World Involves Harrison Ford

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

Harrison Ford's Marvel Cinematic Universe introduction is a wild one. Instead of taking the logical venerable A-lister route of jumping in as a new character like, say, Robert Redford did when he played Alexander Pierce in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," Ford takes over an existing character — President Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, one of the franchise's most categorically unpleasant and antagonistic figures. The war-mongering Ross, of course, was originally played by William Hurt, who died in 2022. If tackling the recasting challenge wasn't enough, Ford also lent his likeness to the Red Hulk, a smoldering, gamma-radiated monstrosity who looms large over the film's climax.

Ford's Red Hulk provides many of "Brave New World's" most eye-popping VFX moments, but weirdly enough, the film's strangest Ford-themed effects have nothing to do with the musclebound monster. That honor goes to the tactically-deployed flashbacks and photos where we see his character in the past, rocking the Hurt-era Ross' iconic mustache. It's weird to see Ford's version of Ross at a point of the character's arc where he was still played by a different actor — and while the intention behind these moments almost certainly doesn't count as blatant William Hurt erasure, they sure can come across as that.

Though Tim Blake Nelson's Samuel "The Leader" Sterns is the main villain of "Captain America: Brave New World," Harrison Ford's Thaddeus Ross is its centerpiece. The movie went through several reshoots and rewrites so there's no real way of knowing how things would have played out with William Hurt in the role, but let's face it: There was never a way to make this version of "Brave New World" without putting Ross front and center, regardless of who plays him. 

Because Hurt obviously wasn't available and the movie uses elements from other Ross-centric MCU films like 2008's "The Incredible Hulk," there were few other options but to insert a Harrison Ford Ross here and there to remind the audiences of the role the character has played in the grand scheme of things. As such, the visuals of the Ford Ross in old photos and news clips that are meant to be from the Hurt era are jarring, but their presence in the movie is also understandable.

As for Ford himself, he took the role with full awareness of its challenges, but ultimately refused to see the situation as anything but an opportunity. At the Los Angeles premiere of "Captain America: Brave New World" in February 11, the veteran actor spoke to People about replacing Hurt in his usual straightforward tone:

"We knew each other enough to nod and say hello, but I didn't know the man very well. But I knew his work, and his work is fantastic. To have the opportunity to step into the shoes of a character that he helped to create was not a barrier to me. It seemed like a wonderful opportunity when I read the script, and that's how I felt about that."