“Captain America: Brave New World“Director Julius Onah Is a proud American, but he is also a truly international director. Born in Nigeria, a globetrotter through his earliest years, and now based in Berlin, was the indie -filter behind “Limate” a bold choice to direct one of Marvel: S largest tent poles and bring a new Captain America, Sam Wilson, to the big screen.
But as with all MCU movies, Onah does not make a film – Even one with “America” in the title – just for an American audience. Since its peak with “Avengers: Endgame”, Marvel has had a hard time trying to regain his former appearance and Box Office dominance, see Some hitsyes, but definitely some Miss. So Onah knew that when he returned there, “Brave New World” needed to be a universal story with ties to all different cultures, especially his own.
Onah grew up in America from a young age, but he still feels a move to Nigeria. The country’s film industry, Zerowood, is one of the growing markets in the world with its own form of very populist story. Movies from the region slowly attract investments from big streamers, with the idea that in just a few years they could break through with Western audiences. Should Onah ever make a movie there, he would like to approach it with the same local taste – but global scope – which he tackled “Captain America.”
“People want to tell stories about who they are and where they come from, and that it is something that I really want to lean into and celebrate,” said Onah, “Onah,” Onah.
“Brave New World” is, as Onah notes, a MCU movie that consciously has no multivers, no foreign invasions, no portals in the sky. His goal was to make the film more “grounded and structured”, shot in more practical places and tied to the real world. The climatic battle between Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and the Red Hulk is located in the middle of cherry flower trees around Washington DC’s tidal pool, a place Onah said he specifically pressed on due to the story’s political conflict between Japan and the United States
“These cherry flowers were a gift from Japan to the United States,” Onah said. “I always just think about what makes a story have touch points to feel that it can reason in different cultures around the world.”
The founded feeling is reflected in Onah’s creative choices, such as a color palette that loses the color red from the world so that the red hulk feels like an “intrusion.” Onah Name releases movies as different as “The Day of the Jackal” (1973), “Le Samourai”, “The Great Beauty” and “Point Break” who informed the look and feeling of “Brave New World” and can appeal to different audiences .
In our conversation, Onah drove back on reports of extensive reshoots that affected his vision. The film’s post -production was traced by the authors and actors strikes and one 22-day Reshoot Giancarlo Esposito was allowed as a villain made during that time. But Onah said the film was still going through a normal process, and further photography was planned from the beginning.
“I think there is a lot of assumption that is frankly just wrong and not anchored in reality,” he said. “We always shot the film under the principle and planned to come back during further photography to complete certain elements and to improve certain elements in the film as well.”
Although “Brave New World” completed the main photography as early as 2023, the movie feels like a reaction to the new Trump administrationAlthough Onah said the goal was not to make the movie “Open Political.” Rather, the filmmaker was attracted by the idea of something inclusive that could create a shared, common moment.
“I just wanted to make a movie that could lean into this idea of empathy, shared experience and see the good in each other,” Onah said. “It felt like something that would also be organic to this specific new Captain America, Sam Wilson, who is an individual who does not have a conventional set of superpowers, his superpower is empathy.”
