Captain America 4 Director Addresses Seth Rollins Getting Cut From MCU Sequel

Captain America: Brave New World is finally set to hit theaters, and it’s been quite the journey to the big screen. Over the course of the film’s development there have been some rather substantial changes, and one of those changes was in regards to WWE Superstar Seth Rollins. Rollins was featured in the film as a member of the Serpent Society during its initial filming, but it was later revealed that his role and footage ended up not making it into the final cut of the film. ComicBook’s Chris Killian had the chance to catch up with director Julius Onah all about the film, including why Rollins’ role didn’t make the final cut.

“You know, when you’re taking characters like Serpent Society from publishing, who, as you know, are individuals dressed up as snakes and have snake adjacent powers, you’re always iterating and trying to figure out the version that totally works best in a movie like this,” Onah said. “I love Seth, Seth’s incredible. But as we were evolving and we knew we had an additional photography period, just one that we did early on in the process that’s planned.”

“We were trying to figure out, ‘hey, who’s somebody that can bring a very specific kind of gravitas that works with this tone.’ And when Giancarlo became available, it was such a no brainer. I have a very particular history with him. He’s iconic for working with Spike Lee. I interned with Spike Lee when I was 19 years old,” Onah said.

“And of course, fans have been fan-casting him for a long time in the MCU. So it’s really about making sure that all the elements worked in the grounded tone and vision that I have for this film. And as we evolved and iterated, Giancarlo just made sense. And what a blessing to have in this film,” Onah said.

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It’s a shame that we won’t get to see Rollins make his MCU debut in the film, though perhaps we can see some of that footage in deleted scene extras on the home video release. It has happened before, as Avengers: Endgame even released incomplete scenes at one point, with one including the Hulk, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Rollins is keeping pretty busy these days with everything that’s happening in WWE as the road to WrestleMania hits the next gear. Rollins was eliminated alongside Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble by CM Punk, and after that elimination he went off, curb stomping Reigns on the floor and on steel steps. He also attacked Punk and had to be pulled off of him by security, as Punk was also eliminated right after thanks to Logan Paul.

Rollins is likely headed to a showdown with Reigns at WrestleMania, which would be an easy feud to get red hot again in just a few months. To be honest, it never lost steam in the first place, and Rollins played a key role in helping Cody Rhodes defeat Reigns at WrestleMania 40. Now it seems they will collide once again.

Are you excited for Captain America: Brave New World? You can talk all things movies, Marvel, and wrestling with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!