The Leader is an upcoming archvillain of the MCU who will star alongside the titular hero in Captain America: Brave New World, which begs an explanation about what to expect. Captain America: Brave New World will be Sam Wilson’s big-screen debut carrying the mantle. Joining him will be a host of characters that debuted The Incredible Hulk, including Liv Tyler’s Betty Ross, Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns, and Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross portrayed by Harrison Ford, following on from William Hurt’s prior performance in the role.

Emerging details about Captain America: Brave New World have confirmed that Thunderbolt Ross will be the President of the USA at the time the movie takes place. This was confirmed via exclusive footage shown at 2024’s CinemaCon in a scene that depicts an attempt on President Ross’ life, which Captain America helps thwart. This attempt was seemingly made through the use of mind-controlled super soldier Isaiah Bradley, which heavily alludes to the Leader’s interference. Here’s who this clandestine villain is and what audiences can expect from his MCU debut.

Who Is The Leader?

The Leader is the villainous moniker of Samuel Sterns, a character whose history differs substantially between Marvel Comics and the MCU. The sworn nemesis of the Incredible Hulk is not typically as associated with Captain America, but with a solo Hulk MCU movie still looking unlikely, his involvement in the fourth Captain America installment makes sense. His arrival also gives a few clues as to what his role will entail when compared to his comic book origins.

Who Plays The Leader In Captain America: Brave New World

Samuel Sterns/The Leader is portrayed by Tim Blake Nelson in the MCU. Nelson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1964 and began making a name for himself as a playwright in the early 1990s. Since then, Nelson has become a prolific character actor, whose most memorable roles include Delmar O’Donnell in O’ Brother Where Art Thou and the titular Buster Scruggs in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. While he has received plenty of acclaim, he has yet to win an Academy Award.

Nelson joined the MCU in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, where he played a mild-mannered genius scientist Samuel Sterns, also known as Mr. Blue, who aided Bruce Banner in his hunt for a cure. His MCU role bolsters his Marvel movie credentials, as he also portrayed Harvey Allen in 2015’s Fantastic Four, a character initially planned to be Mole Man. He has also directed multiple movies, including O and The Grey Zone, which were both adapted from plays that he has written.

The Leader’s Marvel Comics Origin Explained

Samuel Sterns’ Marvel Comics origins differ substantially from the character portrayed in The Incredible Hulk. In the comics, Sterns was a chemical plant laborer with below-average intelligence who suffered an accident with chemicals he was handling, causing severe exposure to gamma radiation. He survived the ordeal before the effects began taking hold, vastly increasing his intelligence as he began absorbing as much knowledge as he possibly could. Unfortunately for him, the accident would also cause his skin to turn green and the size of his head and brain to expand.

The character would become a recurring and central foe of Bruce Banner, even sparking Banner’s transformations into new versions of the Hulk, like Grey Hulk. He has lost his powers and his life multiple times, only to reinstate himself as one of the Hulk’s foremost enemies. In many ways, he is Hulk’s antithesis, swapping brawn for brains as a result of the gamma radiation to which he was exposed. It is through his superior intellect that the Leader is able to stand up to and even defeat Bruce Banner and come close to enacting his plans for world domination.

The Leader’s Powers Explained

Like many figures in the MCU’s villain roster, Leader’s threat levels are rooted in his intelligence and the technology it helps him to create. This intelligence is comparable to Hulk’s strength, with seemingly no upper limit on the information that he can retain. Unfortunately for him, this expanded brain capacity has also led to an over-inflated ego that can often cause the downfall of his own schemes. He has also demonstrated the ability to telepathically control minds with just a touch.

His technological prowess has culminated in the invention of a personal army of synthetic servants he dubs “Humanoids,” which he commands to enact his whims. Other notable inventions include his Kinetron Mitts, which can reflect the Hulk’s power back at him, teleportation devices, sentient computers, and devices that allow him to control minds – specifically Hulk’s. It is this latter invention that may play an integral role in Captain America: Brave New World.

What We Know About The Leader In Captain America 4

Aside from the fact that Tim Blake Nelson will be reprising his role, little else is known about the Leader’s designs in Captain America: Brave New World. Nevertheless, clues from the exclusive footage suggest that he will be pursuing his megalomanic goals through mind control, as he seemingly makes an attempt on the president’s life with a hypnotized super soldier. This tracks with his MO in Marvel Comics and suggests that the MCU will be debuting the Hulk villain in a faithful manner.

Still, the fact that he will be emerging in a movie that is ostensibly devoid of Bruce Banner means that he will be treading new ground as an adversary of Captain America. Signs point towards Thunderbolt Ross adopting his Red Hulk persona for the first time in Captain America: Brave New World, however, suggesting that he may step into his green counterpart’s shoes instead. Nelson himself has also stated that the movie will be “Reality-based,” which suggests that he will be deploying tech rather than superpowers in whatever nefarious scheme transpires.

The Leader’s MCU Past Explained

Samuel Sterns debuted in The Incredible Hulk as a well-meaning cellular biologist. He was first introduced as the faceless “Mr Blue” with whom Bruce Banner was in contact online, as the two hashed out ways to rid Banner of Hulk entirely. While their initial plans failed, Sterns requested that Banner submit a sample of his blood from which he could construct an antidote in his lab. Upon receiving the sample, however, Sterns proceeded to experiment on it in order to bring about an antidote to genetic diseases.

This subversion of Banner’s will would culminate in Sterns’ Hulk-blood concoctions being used on Emile Blonsky, turning him into the Abomination. In the ensuing fray, Sterns was infected with the same blood through a wound on his head, leading to a rapid process of mutation that began increasing his skull size. Sterns would later be apprehended by SHIELD, though his knowing smile in The Incredible Hulk suggests that he will be fully transformed into the green-skinned Leader by the time Captain America: Brave New World releases and in a prime position to escape using his increased brain power.