How to watch 'Captain America: Brave New World': Catch it in theaters, and later stream on Disney Plus (2025)

Details are light on the story side so far, despite how close we are to launch. Harrison Ford's General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross is elected President of the United States and Sam Wilson finds himself involved in an international incident.

Beyond that, we can only speculate based on what we've seen in the trailers. We know that General Ross will end up becoming the Red Hulk. We also know that Samuel Sterns aka Leader will be making his first appearance since *checks notes* 2008's The Incredible Hulk aka the very first movie in the MCU... kinda, Marvel themselves seem to count it as canon... sometimes. Liv Tyler will also be reprising her role as Betty Ross.

The MarvelCinematic Universe is notoriously sprawling, with multiple realities and timelines running in parallel, making the storylines sometimes confusing. With over 50 films and TV series to catch up on, this probably shouldn't be the first MCU movie you see. However, you also don't need to start right at the beginning and work your way through the whole catalog if you don't want to (although if you want to watch the Marvel movies in order we applaud you.)

Here are the films and series you absolutely should have seen to understand the plot of the new movie (and some you can probably skip):

- The Incredible Hulk: It's barely canon and now it's essential viewing. Wild times in the MCU. You'll have to just pretend Edward Norton looks like Mark Ruffalo, but there is a lot of essential backstory in this one.

- Captain America: The First Avenger: Next up, the beginning of the Captain America story is essential to understand the motivations and origin of Steve Rodgers' Cap. While this film doesn't contain Sam Wilson, it is the beginning of the Captain America legend.

- Captain America: Winter Soldier: We first meet Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, an Air Force veteran, in thesecond Captain America movie, where Steve Rodgers' cap faces the terrorist organization Hydra.

- Captain America: Civil War: Sam Wilson is back helping Cap lead the resistance against the Accords.

- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: This 2021 addition to the Marvel Universe follows Sam Wilson, the Falcon, and Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier over six episodes as they team up against an anti-patriotism group. Brave New World follows on from where The Falcon and the Winter Solider left off. We've rated all the Marvel TV shows from worst to bestand put this one at number 17.

Other films featuring Sam Wilson as a minor character:

'Avengers: Age of Ultron'

'Ant-Man'

'Black Widow'

'Avengers: Infinity War'

'Avengers: Endgame'

We've also ranked the best Marvel movies, so you can see which ones are unmissable, and which ones you can skip.

Anthony Mackie leads in his first feature film as Captain America after taking up the mantle at the end of 'The Falcon and the Winter Solider'.

Harrison Ford takes over the role of General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, and Tim Blake Nelson and Liv Tyler reprise their roles as Samuel Sterns and Betty Ross, who you may remember from 'The Incredible Hulk'. Rosa Salazar will appear as Rachel Leighton/Diamondback, Giancarlo Esposito as Sidewinder, Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres/Falco,n and Shira Haas as Ruth Bat-Seraph / Sabra.

If you enjoyed "The Falcon and the Winter Solider', you'll be pleased to hear that main writer Malcolm Spellman also leads the 'Brave New World' writing team.

Marvel is known for reliably dropping nuggets of storyline in the short post-credit scenes. While we never know for sure whether there will be a post-credit scene, we sure hope so!