Captain America: Brave New World trailer reveals Red Hulk, first look at Giancarlo Esposito

Anthony Mackie faces a Brave New World as the Marvel universe's new Captain America, and he's got a hulking problem to deal with.

Marvel has dropped the first trailer for Cap 4 (shown above), officially titled Captain America: Brave New World, which confirms that a long-rumored comic-book baddie is making his MCU debut. The final moments of the footage reveal a shot of Red Hulk catching Cap's vibranium shield in an epic battle playing out amid the cherry blossoms of Washington, D.C.

The Captain America: Brave New World trailer also gives us our first look at Giancarlo Esposito in a mysterious villain role, which was added to the movie following fairly recent reshoots. He's shown wielding an automatic assault rifle, shooting at someone off camera.

The film continues the journey of Mackie's Sam Wilson, who assumed the mantle of Captain America after Chris Evans' Steve Rogers in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021). Now, Mackie headlines his own Cap movie.

Meanwhile, Harrison Ford takes over the role of Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, following the late William Hurt. Ross is now president of the United States and tasks Sam with reconstituting the Avengers team, but everything goes awry when they uncover a sleeper-agent conspiracy.

Potential spoiler warning: In the comics, Ross is fated to become the Red Hulk when his long-held hatred of Bruce Banner leads him to become the very thing he always fought against. Of course, the MCU often plays with and remixes comic book source material in new ways, so perhaps a few surprises await.

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A sneak peek screened exclusively at CinemaCon in Las Vegas first hinted that we'd be getting major Captain America: The Winter Soldier vibes. Similar to how Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) could activate Bucky Barnes' (Sebastian Stan) brainwashing in that movie, turning him back into a sleeper-agent assassin, Carl Lumbly's Isaiah Bradley (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) is now one of various individuals activated by a mysterious sound that forces them to attack the president. The incident leads Sam and Ross to realize that the president's inner circle has been breached.

"It made more sense for it to be more of a grounded espionage action movie as opposed to aliens and airplanes coming through portals and s---," Mackie previously told Entertainment Weekly. "Even though I've been in so many of them and have seen it all now, the opportunity for Sam to really establish himself as a true action star and Avenger comes with this movie."

Captain America: Brave New World also features Danny Ramirez's return as Joaquin Torres, another face from the Disney+ series, destined to become the next iteration of Falcon. A shot from the trailer shows another individual wearing a Falcon flight suit soaring through the sky alongside Mackie, so we can only assume this is Joaquin.

Shira Haas will play Ruth, a member of the U.S. government, while Liv Tyler and Tim Blake Nelson will return as Ross' daughter Betty and Samuel Sterns (a.k.a. the Leader), respectively, for the first time since their debut in 2008's The Incredible Hulk. Xosha Roquemore also has a role in the film.

"This movie is a clear reset. It really reestablishes the idea of what this universe is and what this universe is going to be," Mackie told EW. "I think with these movies, you're getting a clear, new branding of what Marvel is headed towards the same way they did with Captain America: The Winter Soldier."

Directed by Julius Onah, Captain America: Brave New World opens in theaters Feb. 14, 2025. Watch the trailer above.