Captain America: Brave New World brought Samuel Sterns back to the MCU after 17 years, making major changes to his comic book history and possibly setting him up for an important role in a future film.
The movie, released on February 14, 2025, focuses on Samuel Wilson’s first solo appearance as Captain America, six years after Steve Rogers gave him the shield and title.
Despite the movie’s name, Captain America: Brave New World is more focused on plot points and characters from the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk than on previous Captain America movies.
Two of the main villains in Captain America: Brave New World were key characters in The Incredible Hulk, with Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross taking on an antagonistic role in both.
Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns, on the other hand, has undergone a major change, going from a helpful character to becoming the enemy of Sam Wilson’s Captain America. Now known as the Leader, Sterns is the mastermind behind the chaos in Captain America: Brave New World, with Marvel Studios using their creative freedom to bring him to this new point.
Samuel Stern Was Seen 17 Years Ago
The Incredible Hulk came out on June 13, 2008, as the second movie in the MCU, following Iron Man. While two of the main cast members from The Incredible Hulk, Edward Norton and William Hurt, have been recast, Tim Blake Nelson returns to play Samuel Sterns in Captain America: Brave New World. Even though it’s the same actor, Sterns has changed a lot over the years.
In The Incredible Hulk, Sterns was introduced as “Mr. Blue,” a mysterious person who works with Bruce Banner to find a cure for his condition. Sterns is an expert in cellular biology, so Banner secretly communicates with him, sending Sterns a sample of his gamma-irradiated blood.
Samuel Sterns Revealed: The Hulk Villain’s Comic Origins and the Leader’s MCU ProspectsBanner is worried about the dangers of his blood, but he hopes Sterns can use it to find a cure. Sterns secretly multiplies the blood sample for his own reasons, hoping to use it to cure diseases.
Unfortunately, Banner’s fears come true when the blood is used to create the Abomination, thanks to the demands of Emile Blonsky. During the same fight, Blonsky forces Sterns to inject him with Banner’s blood, and Sterns gets a wound to the head, which is accidentally exposed to another blood sample.
The last shot of Sterns in The Incredible Hulk shows him smiling as his head starts to grow, hinting at his future role in the MCU as The Leader, a famous enemy of the Hulk.
Samuel Sterns’ Captain America: Brave New World Plan Explained
While Thaddeus Ross made small appearances throughout the MCU, where it was shown that he was suffering from a heart condition, the Samuel Sterns cliffhanger was finally addressed in Captain America: Brave New World.
After his accident in The Incredible Hulk, the movie reveals that Sterns was arrested for his role in creating the Abomination and was secretly imprisoned. It also explains that the accident gave Sterns incredible intelligence, similar to how the Hulk’s blood gives him great strength.
Ross then makes a secret deal with Samuel Sterns: he agrees to help Sterns avoid the deadly effects of his heart condition in exchange for a full pardon when Ross becomes president.
Sterns creates a pill that is later revealed to include gamma radiation, which helps Ross rise in politics by using his power. This power mostly shows as an unusual ability to predict the exact outcomes of situations. Captain America: Brave New World begins with Thaddeus Ross winning the presidency, but he breaks his deal to pardon Sterns and instead uses his ability to develop weapons.
The movie then focuses on Sterns’ plan for revenge. Using the discovery of adamantium in the remains of the Celestial from Eternals, Sterns turns countries that were once cooperative against President Ross and the USA by staging the theft of the only sample.
Samuel Sterns Revealed: The Hulk Villain’s Comic Origins and the Leader’s MCU ProspectsThis almost leads to a full-scale war as Japan and the US move to claim the Celestial, with Sterns predicting that Ross will unknowingly be affected by the gamma-infused pills and turn into the Red Hulk.
This plan is stopped by Captain America and Falcon, who manages to calm the situation and control Ross’ anger. Sterns then changes his approach: he reveals himself and his partnership with Ross to weaken the president and tries to force the transformation by creating stress during a tense press conference.
This time, Sterns succeeds as Ross turns into the Red Hulk, destroying part of the White House and rampaging through the Capitol. Eventually, Captain America convinces Ross to stop. Ross then turns himself in for his attack and is imprisoned, along with Sterns, in the Raft.
Slight Changes From the Comics
Even though Samuel Sterns plays an important role in Captain America: Brave New World, the details of his abilities remain unclear, except that he can predict outcomes accurately.
In the comics, Samuel Sterns is much more intelligent, with powers that go beyond just predicting the future. He can remember and recall endless amounts of information and do intellectual tasks far beyond what a normal human can.
Some of these abilities are the same for both versions of Sterns, but Captain America: Brave New World makes them feel more realistic.
Besides differences in his powers, Marvel Studios has changed how The Leader looks in the live-action version.
While Tim Blake Nelson’s Sterns has been more severely disfigured by his gamma mutation, with parts of his brain seemingly coming out of his skull, the version in the comics usually just has a larger head, with no visible brain. Also, in Captain America: Brave New World, Sterns seems to have lost vision in one eye, as it appears cloudy while his other eye glows green.
Samuel Sterns Revealed: The Hulk Villain’s Comic Origins and the Leader’s MCU ProspectsSterns’ backstory has also been slightly changed for the movies. In Marvel Comics, Samuel Sterns worked at a chemical plant and had below-average intelligence until he was exposed to gamma radiation from some chemicals, which caused his brain to mutate.
In the MCU, Sterns’ mutation happens as a direct result of being exposed to the Hulk’s blood in a similar accident, though the MCU version of Sterns was already a top expert in biology before his transformation.
Will We See Him Again In the Avengers: Doomsday?
Samuel Sterns surrenders himself as part of his final attempt to make President Ross transform near the end of Captain America: Brave New World.
This is the last time Sterns is seen in the main part of the movie before his plan works, and President Ross is removed from office and sent to prison in the Raft. Sterns appears again in the post-credits scene of Captain America: Brave New World, where Sam Wilson visits him in the prison for an important conversation after celebrating his supposed victory.
Although Sterns seems to have been defeated, he hints that he knows about a much larger, unseen threat coming from another world. In the context of the Multiverse Saga, this shows that Sterns is aware of the multiverse, incursions, and the disaster that will come in major movies like Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
This places him with a small group of MCU characters (who are still alive), such as Loki, Doctor Strange, and Monica Rambeau, who share similar knowledge.
Samuel Sterns Revealed: The Hulk Villain’s Comic Origins and the Leader’s MCU ProspectsHowever, it appears that Samuel Sterns might be the only character left on Earth-616 who could help Sam Wilson and a possible new version of the Avengers with this knowledge.
Sterns warns Wilson about the threat of “The others” from another world, possibly hinting at a multiversal invasion or incursion that Sterns would also want to stop.
After his role as a villain in Captain America: Brave New World, Sterns could be ready to assist the MCU heroes in dealing with the struggle he has predicted and might even play a key part in Avengers: Doomsday.