There is nothing that Disney touches that they cannot, sooner or later, set on fire. We’ve seen it with Star Wars, with Snow White, with sports, and, boy howdy, have we seen it with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
When Marvel Entertainment embarked on developing the MCU in 2005, it was a movie venture previously unprecedented in scale. Like the Marvel comics, Kevin Feige and others envisioned a combined thread of films over several phases that were all intertwined with each other. Disney believed they could pull it off though and purchased Marvel Entertainment in 2009, shortly after the first Iron Man movie was released.
And for the first decade, Phases I – III, they DID pull it off. The MCU films were immensely popular through 2019 when Phase III culminated with Avengers: Endgame. The 22 movies in that span grossed more than $22 billion. There were some misses [cough — Captain Marvel — cough] but most of the movies were smash hits with old and new fans alike.
Since that time, while the movies in Phases IV and V have made plenty of money, the franchise rapidly declined and it’s not difficult to see why. Instead of telling fans stories they wanted to see, Disney started injecting woke politics far more blatantly into each movie. Only one of the movies during this period surpassed $1 billion at the box office (the recent Deadpool and Wolverine) and many others were complete disasters (almost no one even went to see The Marvels). Adding television programs on Disney+ didn’t help matters, as many of the shows were irrelevant to a larger story, a complete mess in terms of plot, and — most importantly — introducing characters that no fans cared about, like Miss Marvel.
One of those shows was Captain America and The Winter Soldier which was Marvel’s attempt to pass the torch of the Captain America character from Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). There was nothing wrong with giving the Captain America mantle to a new character. About 20 characters, men and women of multiple races, have held the title of Captain America in the comics over the years, including Hawkeye.
The problem with the show was that they made the entire theme about how America is a racist country, going so far as to have Mackie’s Sam Wilson denounce America in the final episode even as he assumed Captain America’s iconic shield. Captain America has fought enemies abroad AND at home Jack Kirby and Joe Simon created him back in 1940 and never shied away from standing up to his own government. But the original character always believed in America, hence his title.
We can kiss all of that goodbye now, though. As Mackie prepares for Sam Wilson’s feature film debut as Captain America in the soon-to-be-released Captain America: Brave New World, Mackie declared on a recent press junket that Captain America … should not represent America.
Wait, what? Watch:
“For me Captain America represents a lot of different things and I don’t think the term ‘America’ should be one of those representations.” – Captain America pic.twitter.com/I60lpZhIAZ
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 28, 2025
We actually like some of the things Mackie said in the second part of these comments about preserving the innocence of childhood fantasy. Unfortunately, no one was listening to that part because he started out by denying the very nature of the character he is playing.
Ironically, Mackie doesn’t seem to notice that he himself destroyed some of that childhood wonder by denying the superhero’s origins and history.
Plus, it was just plain stupid.
https://t.co/FAhrqhNpaa pic.twitter.com/mHiSc5Pzct
— Magills (@magills_) January 28, 2025
His name is literally Captain America. https://t.co/0aZEeMRb8S
— The Critical Drinker (@TheCriticalDri2) January 28, 2025
Maybe someone forgot to tell Mackie the title of the movie he just made. Or maybe he thought he was playing Cap in an alternate multiverse where his character is Captain Hydra.
More likely, Mackie was probably trying to make sure everyone in China would see his movie.
I really like Mackie as an actor, but this is an absolutely disastrous take.
Actors used to be told to remember they are not bigger than the movie/show/character they are playing.
I have no idea what the hell happened to Marvel. https://t.co/pvQU7Te1Jw
— Matthew Marsden (@matthewdmarsden) January 28, 2025
Disney. Disney is what happened to Marvel. It’s not more complicated than that.
Mackie isn’t the first to insult the audience by not understanding the nature of his character. Rachel Zegler, who is playing Snow White in an upcoming remake, has sneered publicly at her character as traditionally portrayed, while also cheering for Palestine and wishing death on Donald Trump and anyone who voted for him.
When — not if, but when — this movie bombs, they’ll blame “racists” for not going to see it. https://t.co/K79RA48Tle
— Amy Curtis 🇮🇱 (@RantyAmyCurtis) January 28, 2025
Of course, they will. That is Disney’s business model. We’ve seen it repeatedly, not just with Zegler’s antics, but also with the recent disaster in the Star Wars franchise, The Acolyte, where one of the ‘stars’ giggled at destroying a once-beloved franchise.
Then you don’t deserve the shield. https://t.co/ktriTWvGGX
— MagentaMan (@zaalsikar) January 28, 2025
He does not. They should have given it to Steve Rogers’ best friend, Bucky Barnes (who was also Captain America in the comics).
I was gonna see this movie but after this not anymore.
— ♠️Audsauce♠️ (@Audjuice9989) January 28, 2025
Something tells us you are not alone there. We don’t even think America’s favorite old curmudgeon, Harrison Ford — who joined the movie to replace the late William Hurt — can save it at this point.
Captain Woke
— AussieGamer (@AussieGamr) January 28, 2025
It would have been fine if Mackie wanted to say that Captain America represents more than just America, but that’s not what he said. And it wasn’t an accident.
We wonder which of the qualities Mackie listed — honor, dignity, and integrity — are the ones he believes are not representative of America.
On second thought, don’t ask him. He’s liable to answer.
For this statement alone, people should boycott this movie, purely to punish his genuine stupidity. https://t.co/Qvhi1BVZdR
— Joshua Lloyd-Braiden (@Joshlloydbraid) January 28, 2025
We’d say that the director of the movie, Nigerian-American Julius Onah, was aghast at Mackie’s words here, but he was likely cheering. In his own words, he says that he makes movies about ‘who is in power and who is disenfranchised.’
I guess we can call Sam Wilson ‘Captain Critical Race Theory’ now.
Welp. If he can’t that part right, no need to see the film. https://t.co/KHbnIuSSRs
— Captain Whitebread doesn’t care, Margaret (@CapnWhitebread) January 28, 2025
It would be like someone playing Batman, but ignoring that the character has a moral code against killing.
Oh, wait. Ben Affleck already did that.
“For me, Pizza Hut represents a lot of different things and I don’t think the term ‘Pizza’ should be one of those things.” https://t.co/yaiycanrUa
— RazörFist (@RAZ0RFIST) January 28, 2025
HA.
Captain America, brought to you by the people who hate America
— TechSignals (@TechSignalsonX) January 28, 2025
As the saying goes, ‘It’s a bold strategy. Let’s see how that plays out for them.’
Well, I’m sure this will do wonders for box office receipts. https://t.co/5qZ1rbii8h
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) January 28, 2025
So Temu Captain America doesn’t even like America. Awesome job, Marvel studios. Apparently you printed so much money through Endgame that you decided you could set fire to it with impunity. Well, irrelevance and insolvency is a choice. And you chose…poorly. https://t.co/Bu63xwpJxs
— Physics Geek (@physicsgeek) January 28, 2025
Captain America: Brave New World will hit theaters on Valentine’s Day.
We sincerely hope all of AMERICA has something better to do that weekend.