The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s expansion on Disney+ includes a TV series that was not positively received, and Captain America: Brave New World comically undoes its only exciting part. The MCU’s 2025 movie slate began with Anthony Mackie’s first film as Captain America. After it faced some negative reviews before release, the latest of the MCU’s Captain America films managed to finish its first global weekend at the box office with a respectable $192 million. With an 80% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, the Captain America movie is being more positively received by fans than by critics.
Captain America: Brave New World is an interesting experiment for the MCU, with its box office likely to be closely monitored by Marvel. The reason for that is the movie is a direct follow-up to a TV show, 2021’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Captain America: Brave New World‘s cast pulls the key characters Isaiah Bradley and Joaquin Torres from the MCU series. The film’s story could also have connected with that of another MCU TV show, but instead of using the best part of the worst Marvel Studios series so far, it simply ignored the show’s events altogether.
Captain America: Brave New World Ignored Secret Invasion On Purpose
The MCU TV Series And The Movie Had A Similar Tone
2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier set up the grounded tone that an MCU thriller should have. In recent years, Marvel Studios has been trying to recapture the magic of the second Captain America movie. Sam Wilson actor Anthony Mackie made it clear during the press run for Brave New World that the new MCU movie was gunning for the same darker, more serious tone as Chris Evans’ second Captain America movie. Two years before the new Captain America movie, Marvel had already tried to achieve that through Disney+’s Secret Invasion.
The MCU series followed Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury as he uncovered a Skrull invasion on Earth. Despite having an interesting setup and a darker, paranoia-heavy story, Secret Invasion failed to be exciting and is now regarded as one of the worst MCU entries. That said, not all aspects of the show were bad, and there was one in particular that could have been followed by Captain America: Brave New World. Speaking on the Phase Hero podcast, director Julius Onah explained that Secret Invasion was not used because they chose MCU beats that connected with Sam Wilson and Thaddeus Ross.
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Secret Invasion’s Ending Set Up Something Genuinely Interesting
It Seems Like Marvel Will Never Continue That Story
The reason why Captain America: Brave New World and Secret Invasion are connected is due to their stories revolving around presidents. In Secret Invasion, President Ritson incites hate against all skrulls and other aliens found on Earth, with a final montage showing vigilantes, mercenaries, and more killing or attempting to kill those they thought were aliens all over the globe. With so many heroes and aliens on Earth, it seemed like that story would build up to a boiling point in a future project. However, Captain America: Brave New World ignored it.
The film was perfect for continuing Secret Invasion‘s ending, as it once again gave a US President a prominent role in the form of Harrison Ford’s Thunderbolt Ross. Despite following Ritson as the new man in charge of the USA, Thaddeus Ross never made comments about the events set in motion by his predecessor. For an MCU movie that references events from multiple films and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Secret Invasion‘s ending getting at least a nod would not have been too much. Instead, it seems like Marvel will move on from the series completely, forgetting that storyline.
Secret Invasion Now Has 2 Unresolved Cliffhangers
The MCU Seems To Have Cancelled The Movie That Could Pay Off One Of Them
Secret Invasion set up two major stories for the MCU to follow. With Ritson declaring that Earth would no longer welcome aliens and groups starting to hunt them down, it seemed like that story could have tied to a number of projects, perhaps even making Marvel Comics’ “Siege” event the plot for Thor 5. However, given how Secret Invasion was negatively received and how Marvel’s follow-up skrull project, The Marvels, became the lowest-grossing MCU movie of all time, it seems like any connections to the skrulls and that storyline are not on the cards anymore.
Marvel would have followed up on that reveal in Armor Wars, but since that project is no longer in active development, it is unlikely to ever be released.
Secret Invasion also featured a shocking reveal related to Don Cheadle’s Marvel future. The series showed that Rhodey had been replaced by a skrull after getting injured in Captain America: Civil War, so the real James Rhodes had been taken hostage by the invading skrulls years ago and was only freed by the end of the series. Marvel would have followed up on that reveal in Armor Wars, but since that project is no longer in active development, it is unlikely to ever be released. As such, Captain America: Brave New World ended Secret Invasion‘s follow-up chances.
All Announced Upcoming MCU Movies
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Thunderbolts*
- Release Date
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May 2, 2025
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The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- Release Date
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July 25, 2025
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Avengers: Doomsday (2026)
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Spider-Man Homecoming 4
- Release Date
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July 24, 2026
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Avengers: Secret Wars
- Release Date
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May 7, 2027
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