How Leader’s Captain America: Brave New World Story Sets Up His Avengers: Doomsday Role

Captain America: Brave New World is finally available in theaters, giving Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) his first theatrical adventure as Cap. Set three years after the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Brave New World follows Sam as he works to honor the mantle of Steve Rogers (Chis Evans). Surprisingly, the latest Captain America movie is also a sequel to The Incredible Hulk, with General Ross (Harrison Ford) and Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) playing key roles in the plot. In the case of Sterns (aka “The Leader”), Brave New World pays off the villain’s transformation teased in Incredible Hulk and sets him up for a role in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday.

WARNING: Spoilers below for Captain America: Brave New World

Captain America: Brave New World explains how Sterns was infected by Bruce Banner’s gamma-infused blood in The Incredible Hulk. However, instead of becoming a hulking mass of muscles and anger, Sterns’ transformation increased his brain power, allowing him to calculate the probabilities of any events and anticipate actions on a global scale (and beyond). His supreme intellect also led him to develop the mind control technology he uses to stage a coup on President Ross’ life, kicking off the main story of Brave New World.

[RELATED: Captain America: Brave New World Review: The Winter Soldier’s Spiritual Successor ]

As part of his convoluted plan to destroy Ross and his legacy, Sterns turns himself into the police, after publicly exposing his connection to the president. He’s sent to the Raft (the prison for enhanced people in the middle of the ocean), where Sam ended up at the end of Captain America: Civil War. Sam visits Sterns in the Raft in Brave New World’s only post-credits scene; the villain warns Sam that the Avengers might be able to defend the planet, but he wonders what will happen when Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have to fight against other heroes from other worlds. Sterns underlines that he has calculated the odds, and that different realities of the multiverse will soon clash.

And just like that, the Leader gets promoted to a potentially critical player in Avengers: Doomsday.

The Leader Could Be a Key Figure in the Multiverse Saga

The Multiversal Saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been all about the different worlds across the cosmos, where history took an alternate path from the Sacred Timeline. Loki explains the functioning of the MCU’s Multiverse, while TV shows such as What If…? and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man explore the stories of these timeline branches. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has even introduced the concept of Incursions, an apocalyptic-level event in which two timeline branches collapse against each other. To survive, the heroes of one universe must destroy the other, wiping out trillions of innocent lives.

In Brave New World, the Leader’s ominous warning is a direct nod to incursions. Sterns knows that Sam will have to lead the Avengers against heroes from other timelines, being forced to decide if they want to protect the universe at the cost of another. While the plot of Avengers: Doomsday is being kept under wraps, we know that the next crossover movie is the first chapter of a two-part story that ends with Avengers: Secret Wars. In the comic books, the Secret Wars storyline is all about Incursions, as different realities fuse, and the Avengers must band together with their variants to fight other variants for universal survival.

While it’s still too soon to know how Incursions will be used in Avengers: Doomsday, there’s no question that they will. Marvel Studios is bringing back Robert Downey Jr. to play Doctor Doom, a villain who is directly responsible for the second Secret Wars event in the comic books. Plus, rumors have been swirling about the return of the OG Avengers, including Chris Evans. The fact that The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set in an alternate reality before they join the Sacred Timeline is another clue about the importance of Incursions in the Multiverse Saga.

The Leader’s knowledge about these cataclysmic events before they happen indicates that Sterns could be an essential ally to Sam and the New Avengers. The gamma-enhanced mastermind could help the heroes understand how to undo whatever Doctor Doom does to the Multiverse – he could also be the key to helping a select few heroes survive the incursions. That could create an interesting dynamic, as Sam would be forced to trust someone who doesn’t share the same values as the Avengers but is uniquely equipped to deal with the problem at hand.

Did you like how Captain America: Brave New World expands the Leader’s MCU story? How do you expect the Leader to return in Avengers Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars? Join the discussion in the comments!