Brave New World Offers A Comic Accurate Look For The Leader (And Now I’ve Got FOMO)

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe consistently puts out new content in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. One of the most recent movie installments was Captain America: Brave New World, which has connections to movies like Eternals and The Incredible Hulk. Actor Tim Blake Nelson reprise his role from the latter, although concept art revealed more comic book accurate looks for Samuel Sterns/ The Leader.

Fans were hyped when Captain America: Brave New World‘s cast list included some Hulk players, including Nelson. He ended up being the mastermind and true villain of the movie, but some fans weren’t happy with his appearance in the movie. Concept art from the movie came out with the book Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World – The Art of the Movie, and The Artbook Collector’s Twitter showed alternate takes on The Leader. Check them out below:

Does anyone else have FOMO? While Tim Blake Nelson’s appearance was disturbing in Captain America 4, he definitely didn’t look like this. Fans of the comics will note that the concept art is way more accurate to the source material, specifically giving the character an overgrown head to fit his enhanced mind. Go big, you cowards!

Disney+: from $9.99 a month w/ ad-supported plan
Captain America: Brave New World is streaming now on Disney+. Plans start at $9.99 a month for its new ad-supported plan. Go ad-free and pay $15.99 a month or save 16% and pre-pay $159.99 for a year.View Deal

Of course, actually having a main character with this giant green head might be easier said than done. There’s always the risk that it will look too silly to get audiences on board. Just look at Corey Stoll’s M.O.D.O.K. in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. Fans took umbrage with the character’s appearance and VFX, as well as how he was used in the story. Perhaps the studio was worried about making the same mistake twice.

It should be interesting to see what comes next for Tim Blake Nelson’s character in the MCU. Not only did he survive Anthony Mackie’s blockbuster, but The Leader was featured in Captain America: Brave New World‘s post-credits scene, seemingly teasing the multiversal conflict that’s coming in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. We’ll just have to see if/when the character returns in upcoming Marvel movies.

In many ways The Incredible Hulk has always felt like it was on an island away from the rest of the MCU. Mark Ruffalo took on the role of Bruce Banner starting with The Avengers, which is one major way that the solo movie seems separate. We also never saw the return of most of those characters, but Brave New World brought back not online The Leader but Liv Tyler’s Betty Ross. While her role was small, it helped to finally connect that 2008 movie to the rest of the shared universe.

Captain America: Brave New World is streaming now on Disney+, and the next movie hitting theaters is The Fantastic Four: First Steps on July 25th as part of the 2025 movie release list. Only time will tell if/when Tim Blake Nelson returns to the MCU as The Leader, but he seemingly knows something about the conflict to come.