Director Reveals Why Seth Rollins’ Role Was Cut From Captain America: Brave New World

Seth Rollins filmed a role in the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World that didn’t make it to the final cut, and the director has explained why. Rollins was set to play a member of the Serpent Society in the upcoming MCU film, but the footage didn’t end up in the final film and director Julius Onah was asked why by ComicBook.com. Onah explained that it was a decision that became clear when Giancarlo Esposito, who plays the Serpent Society’s leader Seth Voelker (aka Sidewinder), became available.

“When you’re taking characters like Serpent Society from publishing, who, as you know, are individuals dressed up as snakes and have snake-adjacent powers, you’re always iterating and trying to figure out the version that totally works best in a movie like this,” Onah said. “I love Seth, Seth’s incredible. But as we were evolving and we knew we had an additional photography period, just one that we did early on in the process that’s planned.”

He continued, “We were trying to figure out, ‘Hey, who’s somebody that can bring a very specific kind of gravitas that works with this tone?’ And when Giancarlo became available, it was such a no-brainer. I have a very particular history with him. He’s iconic for working with Spike Lee. I interned with Spike Lee when I was 19 years old. And, of course, fans have been fan-casting him for a long time in the MCU. So it’s really about making sure that all the elements worked in the grounded tone and vision that I have for this film. And as we evolved and iterated, Giancarlo just made sense. And what a blessing to have in this film.”

Captain America: Brave New World is set to release on February 14 and sees Anthony Mackie reprise his role as Sam Wilson/Captain America along with Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, Xosha Roquemore, Esposito, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson, and Harrison Ford. It is described as follows:

After meeting with newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross, Sam finds himself in the middle of an international incident. He must discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot before the true mastermind has the entire world seeing red.