This is odd.
Right now at various retailers — including Amazon and the online shops of AMC, Cinemark, and Regal Cinemas — you can buy a variety of merchandise tied to Marvel’s new movie, Captain America: Brave New World. There are Captain America shield pillows and adorable little Red Hulk plushies.
There are also several items featuring the Leader, Tim Blake Nelson’s character from the film. That in and of itself is not strange: the Leader is one of the main villains in Brave New World, so it stands to reason Marvel might want to slap his likeness on some merch.
Here, for example, is the Funko Pop! of Tim Blake Nelson’s character:
If I took that figure out of the box and handed it to you without context, would you know it’s the Leader? It’s a guy with a goatee and an overcoat and green skin. I would probably guess it’s Elphaba’s hunky son from Wicked: Part 2.
That’s a conversation for another time. There are other examples, though. Here is a T-shirt on sale at Regal Store for $28.95.
Regal is also selling a massive standee of Tim Blake Nelson as the Leader for $49.95. According to their site, it measures 70 inches tall. Google claims the real Tim Blake Nelson is only 65 inches tall, meaning this standee’s sporting about five extra inches of forehead.
READ MORE: Our Full Review of Captain America: Brave New World
The standee and the shirt are based on the same image, which appears to be a concept art illustration of Tim Blake Nelson as the Leader. The design, with a mop of hair atop a long, cylindrical head, strongly resembles the classic design of the Leader from Marvel’s early Incredible Hulk comics.
In other words, this merch features a faithful recreation of a Marvel villain’s iconic comic-book look. But that’s the problem: The Leader in the actual film looks nothing like this.
Marvel hasn’t released any official images of the Leader from Brave New World that I can show you here … and literally as I am typing these words I am wondering for the first time if this merch is the reason why. The movie’s trailers only show Nelson in shadow, from behind, wearing a hat. So you’ll have to take my word on this, but in broad terms he resembles the late ’80s and early ’90s version of Leader, as depicted on this Marvel trading card (minus the orange and black battle armor).
There have been tons of rumors about Brave New World’s reshoots, and this merchandise is one of the clearest indications to date that at least some of those rumors were true. Marvel apparently got far enough along with that long-headed Leader design that they seemingly gave it to licensors. They made shirts and toys and 70-inch standees, and then at some point Marvel pivoted and went in a different direction for the character.
This isn’t the only Brave New Work merchandise with no basis in the actual film. Last year, McDonald’s released a series of Happy Meal toys inspired by the movie. One was for a character — Diamondback of the Serpent Society — who is not in the theatrical cut at all.
The Happy Meal toys also included a version of Shira Haas’ Ruth wearing a costume that looks nothing like the one she sports in Brave New World. All of this points to a movie with a very messy production, full of revisions and reshoots.
The worst part about it is … I think the original design of the Leader from this merchandise is better than the version in the final film? Granted, it’s just artwork and not a flesh-and-blood person interacting with other human characters. But the version we got looks like a dude with broccoli for a head. He’s not exactly intimidating.
Captain America: Brave New World is now playing in theaters.
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