Anthony Mackie behind the scenes of Marvel Studios’ CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD. Photo by Eli Adé. © 2024 MARVEL.

A rumor claims that Marvel Studios’ upcoming film Captain America: Brave New World is “awful” following recent test screenings.

Captain America/Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) in Marvel Studios’ CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2024 MARVEL.

This rumor comes from scooper MyTimeToShineHello on X. He wrote, “Just heard back from like 3 people who went to see Captain America Brave New World test screening and WOOF. Movie sounds awful.”

It was also previously reported by Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel. He wrote, “Two different cuts of the film test screened last week. … The person who attended didn’t seem to like the movie all that much.”

He added, “The reactions I’ve heard have not been very kind to this movie, which is being described as ‘inessential’ and ‘flat.’”

(L-R): Prime Minister Ozaki (Takehiro Hira), Captain America/Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), and President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) in Marvel Studios‘ CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2024 MARVEL.

This test screening appears to have taken place following significant reshoots for the film that were initially rumored to last anywhere between 3 months and 22 days. It was initially reported by scooper DanielRPK via MarvelNewsFilms in January that the film would undergo “reshoots from May until August.”

MarvelNewsFilms on X

However, The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit reported at the end of May reported that the reshoots would last 22 days and would include the introduction of Giancarlo Esposito’s new villain character. The rehsoots eventually took place throughout August.

Interestingly enough, actor Tim Blake Nelson, who will play The Leader in the film, revealed he shot the entire movie twice. He told The Hollywood Reporter in September, “Well, we’re done. I’ve shot it. I’ve actually shot it twice because I did it originally a year ago, and then we came back and redid a lot of it at the beginning of it this summer.”

Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Captain America in Marvel Studios’ CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2024 MARVEL.

Actor Anthony Mackie, who stars as Sam Wilson in the film, had previously downplayed the significance of the reshoots telling the Radio Times, “We shot the next film and now because we had this big strike, it kind of delayed everything. So now we’re going in to do our reshoots, which isn’t a big deal.”

He elaborated, “Every Marvel movie I’ve done has done between six weeks and three months of reshoots. It’s just how it works. All of these big budget superhero movies, all of them do reshoots. When we did Endgame, we did like three months of reshoots, so it’s always a thing where you shoot what you have, get it in the editing, you see what you got, then you come back, and you make it better. So it’s just the way the process works.”

“I mean, I’ve done, I guess, like eight Marvel movies now. And we’ve done reshoots on all of them. So we were going back in this summer, and seeing what we got and make it better,” he concluded.

(L-R): Harrison Ford as President Thaddeus Ross and Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Captain America in Marvel Studios’ CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD. Photo by Eli Adé. © 2024 MARVEL.

While downplaying the significance of the reshoots, it appears they were necessary due to an initial round of test screening going poorly. A rumor from OHIMATM claimed previous test screenings for the film did not impress audiences.

The user shared information about those test screenings, “I’ve been able to get some insight into what some of the main issues were at the Captain America: Brave New World test screenings. Apparently audiences were unimpressed by the film’s action scenes and the chemistry between Cap and his love interest.”

OHIMATM on X

Not only did OHIMATM share that audiences did not find the actions scenes and the chemistry between Falcon and his love interest impressive, but they found the movie’s political intrigue “uninspired and unengaging.”

The user shared, “However, the biggest issue was how audiences responded to the film’s political content. You might think this’d mean audiences found it divisive, but it was actually worse than that: they found it boring.”

“I’m told that the overall feel was that the political material was ‘uninspired and unengaging’ that audiences found it lacked nuance, was overly expository, and really slowed the movie down. I’m also told that while the ‘three sequences that will be removed’ were a big part of the problem.”

OHIMATM on X

READ: ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Actor Anthony Mackie Addresses Reshoot Rumors And Says Marvel Is “A Space Of Controlled Entertainment”

The user continued, “The film’s issues go beyond that and will likely include significant rewrites throughout as well as adding/removing characters. I’m told that Marvel really wants to keep the summer window for reshoots in order to avoid another release date delay not just because it’d mean vacating what they feel is a good release date for the film, but because, as usual, delaying this film would result in a domino effect whereby it would likely mean delaying others.”

OHIMATM on X

Given these new alleged reactions, the reshoots do not appear to have improved the film. And it is not really surprising given Mackie was promoting the film as a “clear reset” and claiming that it transcends “good versus bad” storytelling.

He told Entertainment Weekly, “This movie is a clear reset. It really reestablishes the idea of what this universe is and what this universe is going to be.”

“I think with these movies, you’re getting a clear, new branding of what Marvel is headed towards the same way they did with Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” Mackie added.

Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Captain America in Marvel Studios’ CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD. Photo by Eli Adé. © 2024 MARVEL.

He even noted the film’s title, which was changed to Brave New World from New World Order, is evidence of this new direction, “The title implies that there’s a new, bigger enemy now; there’s a new frontier that we have to conquer.”

He explained, “From Captain America: The First Avenger to Endgame, the enemy was always good versus bad. Now that we’ve conquered that, where do we go from here? When the bad guys reappear, in what form are they reappearing? It is a new storyline with new characters, with new beliefs, and it creates a new idea of this new world that we’re going into.”

Captain America/Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) in Marvel Studios’ CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2024 MARVEL.

What do you make of these rumors regarding Captain America: Brave New World having poor test screenings?