Marvel is officially back. It’s been eight months since the last Marvel Cinematic Universe title, but we’re getting “Deadpool & Wolverine” this weekend, and the first reactions tease a grand welcome for the Merc With a Mouth in the MCU. But this is Marvel, and since the company is always looking way into the future, we also got a look at the next chapter in the Multiverse Saga when the first trailer for “Captain America: Brave New World” released earlier this month.
The trailer gave us our first look at Sam Wilson’s new suit, Giancarlo Esposito’s villain, Harrison Ford as Thaddeus Ross, and a peek at Red Hulk. There is even a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod at a forgotten MCU plotline. But eagle-eyed fans noticed something missing when the YouTube account for Marvel India shared the trailer earlier today. Coincidentally, the brief look at an assassination attempt on Thaddeus Ross, who is running for President, has been cut short. Now, the scene jumps from the Isaiah Bradley character standing up in the middle of a speech to the chaos that ensues, without showing exactly what caused the chaos in the first place.
Naturally, it makes sense to think that this was removed because of the recent assassination attempt on convicted felon Donald Trump. But just like in the plot of the film, there seems to be a little more than meets the eye here. But just like in the plot of the film, there seems to be more than meets the eye here.
Captain America: Brave New World controversy, explained
First of all, it is curious that the only trailer that was seemingly edited was the one uploaded on the Marvel India account. Sure, Marvel may not want to cause further controversy by calling attention to the change and they don’t want to lose the millions of views on the original trailer, which has been widely spread since its release, but it is still important to note that only the trailer meant for Indian audiences was changed.
This leads us to believe the alteration was intended for that specific audience. The deletion of the shots of the assassination attempt may be because of Trump, but they could also be a simpler matter of censorship. Indian movie censors are notoriously strict, and given it is an election year in India as well as in the U.S., this may be a “kill two birds with one stone” situation of trying to get ahead of censors and controversy in India.
Side note: Marvel wouldn’t go back into reshoots to excise this plotline in the final film for everyone, would they? That would be extremely expensive, let alone creatively difficult given what appears to be a pretty significant focus of the movie.
Comments under the new trailer upload also hint at a totally different change that was made to this trailer. Apparently, there was some controversy around a very brief shot showing Harrison Ford’s character standing in front of a holographic world map, with some audiences getting angry that the wrong map was shown in the trailer. The shot in the unedited trailer doesn’t seem to include Kashmir as part of India as a whole, and that region has long been a source of dispute between Pakistan and India, so it’s easy to see why it would cause controversy no matter how the map is drawn. So while we can wonder about the reasoning behind the assassination attempt being removed, it seems this very real controversy being the reason for the change is pretty plausible — and it echoes a similar controversy that befall “Barbie” last year regarding a map that was depicted in that film.
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