Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) finds himself struggling in Captain America: Brave New World (2025), Marvel Entertainment
In the opinion of Captain America: Brave New World screenwriter Rob Edwards, the many, many critics who felt that the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe entry wasn’t enough to snuff, simply put, “got it wrong”.
Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Red Wing give chase to Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito) in Captain America: Brave New World (2025), Marvel Entertainment
Edwards, whose Hollywood credits prior to serving as one of six writers on Sam Wilson’s Wild Ride includes Disney’s Treasure Planet and The Princess and the Frog, offered his take on the critical response to his latest release while speaking to The Direct in promotion of his upcoming film The King of Kings during the recent WonderCon 2025, as held in Anaheim, CA this past weekend.
Pressed by the outlet as to whether or not he put any stock in the large discrepancy between critic and fan opinions towards Brave New World, Edwards asserted, “I kinda did, kinda didn’t.”
“I think similar things have happened,” he added, “with a lot of different projects. It was weird to me, because some of my friends who are critics, I said, ‘I think you guys missed it. I think you guys got it wrong.’”
President Ross (Harrison Ford) is a teensy bit angry in Captain America: Brave New World (2025), Marvel Entertainment
To this end, Edwards then noted that while critics may have that Marvel’s latest was wholly unimpressive, the responses he personally observed from general audiences told a different story.
“When the audience’s marks came in,” recalled the writer, “everybody I saw said like, ‘Not only did I love it, but I brought my family to the next week. I’ve seen it more than once. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable film, and I don’t know what everybody’s talking about.’ I mean, that’s really what you want as opposed to the other thing.”
Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) lands ahead of his own sonic boom in Captain America: Brave New World (2025), Marvel Entertainment
According to Rotten Tomatoes – which admittedly is not the most accurate aggregator of relevant data, but is the best one available to the public – Brave New World currently holds a 48% score across 331 critic reviews and a collective 79% from over 10,000 regular moviegoers.
Curiously, and even a bit hilariously, despite Edwards’ read that audiences were ecstatic over the film, Rotten Tomatoes’ own summary of their user reviews notes that, according to a large subset of viewers, “Captain America: Brave New World is a passable superhero enterprise that delivers the swell action one comes to expect in a Marvel outing.”
Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) makes a personal visit to a family protected by home insurance in an American Family Insurance-sponsored ad for Captain America: Brave New World (2025), Marvel Entertainment
At current, with its theatrical run winding down, Brave New World has thus far pulled in, per analytics outlet The-Number, roughly $404 million USD worldwide.
While this number does admittedly represent a successful pull against the film’s reported $180 million budget, it does not even come close to matching or exceeding the film’s supposedly actual post-mass-reshoot budget of roughly $400 million.
Sam, Joaquin, Isaiah, and Ruth suit-up on Daniel Acuña’s promotional poster for Captain America: Brave New World (2025), Marvel Entertainment
Ultimately, should Brave New World have any hope of turning a real profit, it will have to soar above and beyond in the home market – and thanks to the rise of streaming, this result is ever more unlikely by the day.
Mentioned In This Article:Captain America: Brave New WorldDisneyMarvelMarvel Cinematic UniverseMarvel StudiosRob Edwards
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Screenwriter Rob Edwards thinks critics were completely off-the-mark in their read of ‘Captain America: Brave New World’. Read More