Harrison Ford as The Red Hulk in Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Image: Marvel Studios
Harrison Ford is one of America’s greatest action stars and icons. Even if you only consider his most famous roles playing Han Solo and Indiana Jones, that alone would secure his status. But Ford’s legacy goes beyond that: Blade Runner (1982), Jack Ryan in Patriot Games (1992), and Clear and Present Damage (1994) and The Fugitive (1993). However, after Air Force One (1997), where he played the president (more on that later), Ford’s status as an action hero began to fade. At eighty-two years old, his most recent role as Thaddeus Ross in Captain America: Brave New World may not be the fitting farewell that Ford deserves.
Why did this happen? First, the films he chose after Air Force One just weren’t very good, in my opinion. Second—and perhaps the bigger reason—Ford wasn’t a young guy anymore, and it was difficult for viewers to see him as an action star. This became very obvious to me when I watched Firewall (2006), in which he plays a security specialist whose family is taken hostage. To pay off his family’s ransom, he is forced to rob the bank that he’s protecting. Ford looks old and cranky, even in scenes where he is supposed to enjoy being with his family. And when it comes to beating up people 20 years younger than him, it looked really ridiculous.
I believe Ford should have looked to Clint Eastwood and John Wayne as examples of how to navigate action films after aging out of the traditional roles for leading men. Eastwood and Wayne had gotten older, but they never tried to pretend they were younger. They both found roles that reflected their true age, and audiences still accepted them as action stars.
Instead, Ford returned to playing Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). Though it was the second highest-grossing film of 2008, I’ve never met anyone who actually likes it. From the infamous scene when Indiana Jones survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator, to a Russian villainess (played by Cate Blanchett) that comes off more campy than evil, and the UFO storyline, audiences were left wondering what they had just watched. As a result, the audience reaction and backlash were hostile enough to severely damage the Indiana Jones legacy.
Ford continued making action films in the 2010s, but only one of them is still remembered: Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015), where he reprised his role as Han Solo. Not only was the film successful, but Han Solo actually reflected Ford’s true age. Ford did not want to continue playing Solo. There are two conflicting reasons on why the character was killed off in the film. One reason is so that he could solely stop playing Han Solo. The other reason is that he felt his death would add another dimension to the character . That didn’t stop Disney—they had purchased Lucasfilm from George Lucas—from continuing with a prequel, Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). But audiences made it clear that there was only one Han Solo, and it was Harrison Ford.
Ford still wanted to continue his role as Indiana Jones and for Jones to be the leading hero. At this point, he was in his eighties. He made Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), but audiences remembered the Crystal Skull and stayed home—the result was an estimated loss of $143 million for Disney.
While most of Ford’s career has been in film, he has also found considerable success in television. In 2023, Apple TV cast Ford to be a mental health professional in Shrinking (2023). As the show progresses, Ford’s character, Paul, has Parkinson’s disease. The show is successful and has lasted for two seasons and only recently was renewed for a third season. Ford received nominations from the Critics’ Choice Awards and the TCA Awards for his performance.
Ford was cast in 1923 (2022–2025), a two-part miniseries and prequel to Yellowstone, which followsthe Dutton family. Ford plays Jacob Dutton, an elderly rancher and the patriarch of the Dutton ranch and the Dutton family. Yet, he is not the action hero. That role falls to Spencer Dutton (played by Brandon Sklenar).
Yet, he still wanted to continue to act in action movies. He did not read the script for his latest movie, Captain America: Brave New World (2025). In fact, Ford reached out to Marvel to star in a Marvel movie, so he didn’t care what kind of movie it would be. Big mistake.
Captain America: Brave New World faced a troubled production from the start. An early test screening went horribly, and three major sequences were cut. A new writer was hired to add new material, which resulted in extensive reshoots in January 2024 until May or June of that year. These reshoots also introduced a new major supporting character, Sidewinder, played by Giancarlo Esposito.
Although this wasn’t part of the reshoots, a crucial element of the film had been kept from the public: Ford’s character, Thaddeus Ross. In the early previews, it was revealed that Ross is the president of the United States. On New Year’s Eve 2024, new previews began to show that Ross would transform into the Red Hulk. I saw this commercial at a bar on New Year’s Eve, and a bunch of people sitting next to me were definitely not impressed. They yelled at the screen, “Green! The Hulk should be green!” Advertisements leading up to the release continue to show the Red Hulk, with posters showing a red fist hitting the Captain America shield.
Critics haven’t been that impressed with Brave New World,with a 49% percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a film score of 42 out of 100 on Metacritic. Audiences haven’t been that enthusiastic either, giving it a B- score from CinemaScore, the lowest for an MCU film. Before I saw the film, I came across some helpful information from a website that confirmed Ford’s character is the same character that the late William Hurt played as a general in The Incredible Hulk (2008). In that film, Edward Norton played the Hulk. There is another character from that film—Samuel Sterns, a gifted biologist played by Tim Blake Nelson—who also appears in Brave New World. This information helped me put things into context because Brave New World assumes that audiences remember supporting characters from a film that is seventeen years old. I can only imagine how confusing it must be for viewers who either haven’t seen the Norton’s Hulk film or don’t remember it.
About the film itself—when I watched it, the early scenes show the new Captain America, Sam Wilson (portrayed by Anthony Mackie), battling Sidewinder. For the first thirty minutes or so, I thought, “Gee, this isn’t that bad,” but then I realized I was watching the reshoots. Once I got past the reshoots, I began to see what was wrong with the film, and the biggest issue is the Red Hulk.
The Red Hulk is just red and destroys everything in sight. That’s it for this character. The Red Hulk has zero personality. Honestly, the Hulk could have been yellow or blue, and it would make no difference to the character. The fight between the new Captain America and the Red Hulk is very underwhelming.
And as for the post-credit sequence—Marvel movies always include a scene after the credits have rolled—Brave New World is so lame it doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Right now, Captain America: Brave New World is off to a good start and made $88.5 million at the opening box office. But that doesn’t mean it will be a hit. With a $180 million budget, plus a ton of marketing costs, it still has to make up a lot of ground. The film experienced a significant drop in its second weekend, earning only $28.2 million. Other Marvel films, such as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), Eternals (2021), and The Marvels (2023), had strong No. 1 debuts but quickly sunk like a stone and either broken even or are considered box office failures. Even if Brave New World does go on to become a box office success, that still would not make it a good film. Remember Crystal Skull?
I mentioned John Wayne and Clint Eastwood earlier. In Wayne’s last film, The Shootist (1976), he is an elderly gunslinger dying of cancer. In real life, Wayne was dying of cancer, which made his portrayal even more realistic. Technically, Eastwood’s last acting film was Cry Macho (2021), but it went unnoticed due to the pandemic. What people do remember Eastwood for is The Mule (2018), in which he played a ninety-year-old man who resorts to drug smuggling to provide for himself, his family, and his friends. Eastwood is still alive, but it is unlikely that he is going to continue to act, given that he is ninety-three years old at the time of this writing. Both The Mule and The Shootist were great final acts for two screen legends.
Harrison is eighty-two, and if Captain America: Brave New World ends up being his final role, it would be a disappointing conclusion to his legacy. Please, Harrison don’t let this be your last role. It would only tarnish a damaged action star legacy. Find another film that represents what you are truly capable of. And, at the very least, please read the script before signing up to do it. As fans, we hope for a final act that does justice to the remarkable career of a cinematic legend.
