MCU fans saddened by impending reboot and recasts for one very good reason

Marvel fans are saddened at the prospect of Disney rebooting the MCU by recasting some of its most popular characters.

I think most of us can agree that the MCU hasn't been quite the same following 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. The Infinity Saga was pretty much epic from start to finish during its run from 2008 to 2019, ending with Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Many fans were hoping that the release of Captain America: Brave New World in February this year might get the MCU back on track, but while I enjoyed the movie, it has received somewhat of a mixed reception.

Check out the trailer for Captain America: Brave New World below!

However, it looks like Thunderbolts* might just be the Marvel movie we’ve waited years for, with an impressive Rotten Tomatoes score of 94% from the audience.

But where does that leave the former Falcon turned new Captain America, Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie? This is a question asked by members on the Reddit forum with concerns that a reboot may be on the cards.

“After some of the Captain America: Brave New World hate and MCU soft reboot recast rumours, this was stuck in my mind,” said marvelcomics22. “I really liked Brave New World, it's in my top five MCU movies, but I do agree that some of the dislike of this movie is valid.”

“A lot of the hate I've seen for Anthony Mackie is entirely unjustified. He's a great actor, and he's done a great job across the MCU, and it was no less in Brave New World, but people were hating on him.”

They continued: “Also, before I get to the point, the rumours of the 'soft reboot' of the MCU where they recast the six Avengers, and start from scratch, some of the people calling for that are certainly Sam Wilson haters, because they will never let a black man be Captain America.”

It seems that much of the Reddit thread is in agreement with what is being said by marvelcomics22.

“This was the biggest disappointment for me, both as a black guy and a fan of the comics,” replied MIAxPaperPlanes.

“I expected this film to have some sort of cultural relevance or message, hell, his first trade paperback is called ‘Not my Captain America’, but instead we got a poorly written mess that doesn’t say anything or do anything interesting with Sam Wilson.”

“The cultural significance of Sam Wilson taking the title of Captain America could’ve been huge with many interesting plot threads,” explained Dionysues.

“Sadly, it seems Disney got cold feet and made his character into this weird fence-sitting/status quo upholder instead of the many different interesting takes they could’ve done with a black man carrying the shield.”

“This isn’t a problem with the actor, Anthony Mackie. This is a writer's problem, and I feel so awful for how they treated the character, given how passionate Anthony Mackie is,” they concluded.

“They messed up when they chose Sam not to take the super soldier serum,” exclaimed BartleBossy. “What made Cap interesting was his unshakable moral character. No matter how hard, no matter the consequences, Cap did the right thing.”

Captain America: Brave New World releases on Disney Plus on 28 May 2025.

The next MCU movie to arrive in cinemas is The Fantastic Four: First Steps on 25 July 2025, which begins Phase Six.