Captain America: Brave New World’s Director’s Reaction to Harrison Ford’s Hulk: “Holy F-cking Sh-t”

There is a lot of pressure on Harrison Ford to bring the Red Hulk to life in Captain America: Brave New World, but director Julius Onah feels that he rose to the challenge. In an interview with Empire Magazine published this week, Onah raved about Ford’s performance – especially as he is stepping into a role previously played by a friend. Onah called Ford’s portrayal “mind-blowing,” along with a few other choice words.

“All of us on set were like, ‘Holy f—ing s—, he nailed it,’” Onah said frankly. “It’s really great to get back to a Hulk that is just f—ing breaking s—, and a rage monster.” It’s especially impressive knowing that Ford is now 82 years old, though of course he has the help of CGI. We’ve seen some of the final result in the trailer released last month. It mostly shows Ford playing President Thaddeus Ross, but at the end we get a glimpse of the Red Hulk in action.

Ford himself seemed more concerned with playing Ross than the Red Hulk. Ross has appeared in five MCU movies so far, played by the late William Hurt. Hurt passed away in 2022, and this will be the first time the character appears on screen. He clashed with the Hulk as a U.S. Military general, then with all the Avengers as the Secretary of State. Now he has been elected president, and Ford hopes to maintain some continuity in his performance.

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“I was a little concerned about taking over from Bill Hurt, who was a wonderful actor,” he told Empire. ““I was ambitious to find the right way of assuming this character after the audience had seen other people doing it. I’m only slightly familiar with the Marvel Universe — I live in another universe — but I have watched a number of Marvel films with wonderful actors, apparently having a good time. And I thought, ‘Well, why not me?’”

When it comes to the Red Hulk portion of the performance, Ford thought it was simply not that complicated. He said: “I tried to understand the ambition of the filmmakers, and to be useful to them. I just didn’t sit home at night and say, ‘Oh, what do I want to do when I turn into the Hulk?’ It didn’t seem to me to be a terribly difficult acting proposition.”

Captain America: Brave New World is the next MCU movie coming out, slated to premiere on February 14, 2025. Ford is also expected to appear in the next movie, Thunderbolts on May 2, 2025. In the meantime, you can catch up on the entire MCU on Disney+.