Captain America: Brave New World Already Sets a Record for the Franchise (And It’s Surprising)

Captain America: Brave New World is arriving in theaters with a very unexpected record to its name. The upcoming fourth installment of Marvel Studios’ Captain America franchise, Brave New World, also stands as the Captain America movie with the shortest run time. By comparison, its three predecessors carried more standard run times expected of modern superhero movies.

Per Discussing Film, Captain America: Brave New World carries a run time of one hour and 58 minutes, or 118 minutes. By comparison, 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger was released with a run time of 124 minutes, with its 2014 follow-up Captain America: The Winter Soldier having a run time of 136 minutes. Additionally, 2016’s Captain America: Civil War is the longest of the four Captain America films, with a run time of 147 minutes.

Anthony Mackie previously returned as Sam Wilson in the 2021 Disney + series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which continued Sam’s arc from the ending of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. That movie saw the now-elderly Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) formally step down as Captain America (after time-traveling with the Infinity Stones to live the full life he previously missed out on during his frozen stasis), with Steve passing his Vibranium shield onto his trusted ally Sam. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier acted as its own Captain America origin story for Sam, with Brave New World set to be his first full story as Captain America.

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Brave New World will see Sam at odds with newly elected President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford). Ross formerly sought to bring the Avengers under more direct government control with the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War (Ross was then portrayed by the late William Hurt), and the trailers for Brave New World show President Ross wanting Sam to become a direct agent of the U.S. government. Like Steve Rogers before him, Sam Wilson rejects the idea of being a superhero under the government’s control, setting up the conflict of Brave New World.

The fact that Sam has already undergone a Captain America origin story in episodic form could account for why Brave New World is substantially shorter than the previous Captain America movies. With Sam having fully taken up the shield and mantle bequeathed to him by Steve, the aim might simply be to get the ball rolling on his next mission as quickly as possible. Indeed, Sam has quite a challenge ahead of him with President Ross becoming the Red Hulk.

With the MCU’s long-awaited debut of General-turned-President Ross as the Red Hulk, Brave New World promises to be a very action-heavy and to-the-point MCU adventure. While some superhero movies need longer run times to tell their stories, it seems that Marvel Studios and the makers of Brave New World feel that being just under two hours is all that’s needed for Sam’s first big-screen adventure as Captain America. Indeed, Sam’s first Captain America movie is only six minutes shorter than Steve’s, so the run time for Captain America: Brave New World isn’t necessarily a drastic comedown, but it is nonetheless a record in storytelling brevity for the Captain America franchise.

Captain America: Brave New World will be released in theaters on February 14th.