Was Red Hulk a Stand-In for Trump in Captain America 4?
It’s becoming clear what at least some of those Captain America: Brave New World reshoots were about and what test audiences didn’t like about Marvel’s new political thriller. In a piece about Hollywood dialing back on its heavy-handed left-wing messaging in the wake of Donald Trump’s election – and recent swearing-in as – President of the United States, Vulure mentions Brave New World’s woes. Apparently, Harrison Ford’s character, General-turned-President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, was seen by test audiences as a stand-in for Trump, especially when he turns into the Red Hulk, whom Vulture describes as “orange-hued,” prompting Disney to order reshoots, with a source claiming Disney’s reasoning was, “not to piss off our core base anymore than we have been over the past couple of years.” Vulture calls the audience backlash to Red Hulk “unforeseen,” implying that the Trump allusion wasn’t intended.
I think that’s bull. Obviously, I have no way of knowing for sure, but based on the Vulture piece and early reports that the climax of the film evoked January 6, 2021, I suspect Red Hulk/President Ross was intended to be a Trump stand-in, and the original version was probably much more orange than red because modern Hollywood is not exactly known for its subtlety. I believe the test audiences saw right through it and groaned so hard they caused an earthquake because… who wouldn’t? And my guess is that that led to at least some of the reshoots, which changed as much as they could while making Red Hulk more… you know… red, as opposed to orange. However, I’m not sure how much they’ll be able to change; it’s obvious from the trailer that the climax of the film will have Sam Wilson fighting Red Hulk. Did the reshoots remove all of the Trump references, imagery, and whatever they shoved in there to take potshots at the guy it turns out a majority of the country likes? It’s possible – they did a lot of reshoots – but what will the finished product look like?
Anthony Mackie explains what Captain America represents for him:
“Captain America represents a lot of different things & I don’t think the term ‘America’ should be one of those representations. It’s about a man who keeps his word, who has honor, dignity and integrity.”
(Source:… pic.twitter.com/d5bvqIbreF
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) January 28, 2025
If the video above is any indication, it’ll probably be a hot mess of various ideas mashed together into a barely understandable amalgam – in other words, it’ll be like most Marvel movies and shows from the past few years. Anthony Mackie’s description of his Captain America as something that has nothing to do with America before listing a bunch of good qualities tells me that the people behind this film intended to heavily critique America using the usurpation of one of its greatest symbols (in the Marvel Universe), with Ross/Red Hulk representing the proud, patriotic America of Donald Trump. If you saw The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, you know what I mean; they essentially turned Sam Wilson into an entirely new character who thought America was a racist wasteland, took the side of terrorists who killed innocent people, made a nonsensical speech about how he knew everything despite not knowing anything (I’m not even joking about that), and derided the real Captain America, Steve Rogers, for giving him the shield. That video makes it sound like he’s still that guy in the new movie, which probably made some kind of sense with the Trumpian Red Hulk as a villain; without that, what’s the point? This is why forcing your political ideology into a story where it doesn’t belong is a catch-22; you either make an obnoxious propaganda piece with an insufferable hero and a villain representing at least half your audience, or you get your Frankenstein on and cobble together a disjointed, inconsistent monster of a film that appeals to no one and barely counts as a real movie. This is Marvel’s new stock-in-trade, and if that course correction Chris Gore said is coming (and the Vulture piece seems to confirm it, at least to some degree) is true, it can’t come fast enough… and if the next year or two are as bad as Captain America: Brave New World sounds, it might not even matter once it gets here.
Let us know what you think about Red Hulk being a stand-in for Trump in the comments!
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