The Star-Spangled Man
TALKING RUNNING AND RED HULK WITH CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD DIRECTOR JULIUS ONAH
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT
Red menace: New Cap Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and a Hulked-up Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford). Below: Japanese PM Ozaki (Takehiro Hira) with Wilson and Ross. Far left: Director Julius Onah and cinematographer
JULIUS ONAH IS exhausted, and it’s not hard to see why. The last few years of his life have been dedicated to directing Captain America: Brave New World, the 35th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the first to solely spotlight Anthony Mackie as the new Cap, Sam Wilson. It’s a movie that sees Wilson do a lot of running, and Onah — a big proponent of pavement-pounding — would have loved to follow suit. “I’m trying to get back my running mojo,” he tells Empire over a Zoom from his home in Berlin. “These movies take a lot out of you. I tried to go for a run this morning, and I’m just like, ‘I want to nap.’”
Onash’s solid MCU entry sees Sam and his new sidekick, Danny Ramirez’s Joaquín Torres, stuck in the middle of a conspiracy that leads to newly minted US President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) turning into the Red Hulk. Empire caught up with the director (who has also directed the likes of 2018’s The Cloverfield Paradox and the 2019 indie drama Luce) just before Brave New World hit Disney+ and shiny discs everywhere, and just after it had been supplanted by Thunderbolts* as the newest Marvel Studios movie…
This is how quickly the MCU moves.
Brave New World
is no longer the most recent MCU movie. Now that it’s somewhat in your rear view mirror, how are things for you?
Things are good. You pour so much into these movies, but at the end of the day you’re making it a) for the fans, and b) as part of a continuity that’s much larger. So you know the next episode is going to come in, and then the next episode after that. Right now it’s Thunderbolts* and in a couple of months Fantastic Four, and then before you know it, another Avengers movie. You get to contribute to one chapter, but the story continues. It’s actually pretty cool.