Valerie Macon / AFP
With a diverse cast, a core message about unity, and an endorsement of international diplomacy, the latest in the Captain America film franchise which premiered Tuesday presents a vision of the United States out of step with the Trump era.
Written and filmed before Donald Trump's return as president, the latest blockbuster from Marvel Studios has already faced an online backlash from some right-wingers over supposedly unpatriotic comments by lead actor Anthony Mackie.
Mackie, the first black actor to play the superhero, became a target last month after attempting to make a point about the universal message of Captain America as an ideal of good conscience and incorruptibility.
"Captain America represents a lot of different things, and I don’t think the term 'America' should be one of those representations," he told a promotional event. "It's about a man who keeps his word, who has honour, dignity, and integrity."
In "Captain America: Brave New World", Mackie flies, fights and flings his famous shield in pursuit of world peace alongside flawed and mercurial president Thaddeus Ross, played by Harrison Ford.
Ross is attempting to negotiate an international treaty with America's allies to share a precious new metal discovered on an island in the Indian Ocean, but is being thwarted by his past associations and an international crime gang.
"This a new genre, a new audience for me -- and it was fun!" Ford told an audience in London of his first foray into the Marvel superhero stable at the age of 82.
Directed by Nigerian-born Julius Onah, "Brave New World" features a diverse cast including Danny Ramirez and Xosha Roquemore.
Mackie has taken over from Chris Evans in the lead role of the popular film franchise, with his self-doubt and impostor syndrome a theme in the plot.
Onah told Vanity Fair on the eve of Tuesday's world premiere in Los Angeles that the film's main message was about bringing people together.
He insisted on inserting a line at the end in which Captain America tells Ross that "if we can't see the good in each other, we've already lost the fight."
"I think it speaks to the moral obligation that we all have to each other in a shared society, even when we might see things differently," he told Vanity Fair.
Such sentiments are out of fashion in Trump's Republican party, with its hostile stance toward diversity and aggressive "America First" foreign policy.
In his first three weeks in office, the new US president has pursued a "war on woke" by cancelling federal diversity programmes, pulled the United States out of international treaties, and threatened America's allies.
It remains to be seen whether the latest Marvel offering can appeal across political lines in such a polarised environment.
The Disney-owned Hollywood studio is seen by industry observers as needing a box-office triumph after a string of recent television and cinema disappointments including "The Marvels", which flopped in 2023.
Fans of the original 1940s Captain America point out that the messages in the latest film -- and from its lead actor and director -- are true to those of the Nazi-bashing comic strip, which was created in response to European fascism and America's isolationism during World War II.
The film will be released internationally from Wednesday before hitting cinemas in the US on Friday.
© Agence France-Presse
