A Marvel movie is never standalone fare.
What Were the Storyline Challenges for Brave New World?
How do you bring so many projects together for a new audience?
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That working title came from her.
I believe you were hired around July of 2022 on this.
What were those first few months like?
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When you came on, how much was the script close to done?
How much was it a work in progress?
What were those first few months like?
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ONAH: Those first few months were mind-blowing.
So, just on a human level, I was like, Whoa, this is crazy.
But specifically, the main pieces were in play.
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They were not fully shaped.
We always knew this was going to be a Sam Wilson story.
At that point, Serpent Society was ready on the table, but it was will-we-won’t-we?
Image via Seth Rollins/Twitter
So that was in the scripting process, something that was really, really important.
When Does Kevin Feige Get Involved With Marvel Projects?
The Marvel Studios President is a very busy man.
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So you get there.
It’s those first few months.
Who is in the room with you when you’re figuring things out?
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A lot of people wonder, is Kevin Feige in all these meetings?
Which leadership is there?
Who are you working with?
Custom Image by Zanda Rice
Ultimately, it’s part of the Marvel machine, so where is the approval coming from?
So, the team is always on top of everything.
When did you know Liv Tyler was willing to come back?
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ONAH: We knew Liv was willing to come back when I had a Zoom with her.
Luckily, she responded.
When in the process did you ask her?
Was it towards the beginning when you guys were figuring things out?
She didn’thaveto be in the movie, but she has an important role.
ONAH: It was right during the development process.
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Sebastian Stan as Bucky is in the movie for a small bit.
ONAH: Bucky was always a part of it.
Obviously, we weren’t going to tip our hand to the entire world.
It was just a question of when.
So, he was there and in the orbit of the movie.
You have to let the characters tell you where they want to go.
I think we found the right place.
It was so gratifying to hear some reactions when that scene played for the first time with audiences.
That scene is pretty serious, and then at the very end, there’s some humor.
When I saw it with the audience, everyone was laughing.
Was that last bit of that scene improvised, or was that scripted?
So, the shape of the scene and even some of the words there are what is scripted.
I think that gets you the best organic result.
What is something that you fought for that a lot of people debated?
ONAH: I would say whether or not Red Hulk should talk.
That was something that came up quite a bit.
My feeling was that he shouldn’t, which is what is the case in the movie.
It was the same way Harrison felt.
That speaks to a guy and how great of collaborators everybody at Marvel is.
They respected that, and that’s what we got in the movie.
I’m very much on your side.
I agree with your decision.
Was there anyone who really was like, Weve got to get him to talk?
But I’m really thrilled.
How do you make the character feel consistent and coherent?
It felt like the best way to do that was to allow him to be a rage Hulk.
What Really Happened to Seth Rollins Serpent Society Character?
The movie takes a very grounded approach.
There have been some characters that were cut out, and I want to actually talk about that.
Was he just in a scene or two scenes, or was he a bigger part of the movie?
What can you say about what he was going to do in the film?
ONAH: There’s been a lot of misinformation about the process of a film.
You know when you’ve got so many moving pieces that that’s going to be necessary.
So we had planned from the very beginning, and we only had one additional photography process.
How is that going to work in the tone ofthisCaptain America movie?
So we always knew that we were going to be coming back to potentially refine that.
So, it becameI’ve said this over and oversomething of a no-brainer.
I was a student of his in film school at NYU.
He had a history with Mackie, so it just felt so organic.
I read that originally the movie opened with Serpent Society before additional.
ONAH: Yeah, exactly.
You’re just turning dials to see to it that, tonally, everything feels coherent.
That’s all that happened with Seth.
The only difference is there are different action set pieces.
That’s what the post-production process is.
I think sometimes there’s this idea that the making of a movie is input data, press enter…
Without that, we wouldn’t have these things.
I’m really excited about everybody being able to see it.
I’m fully on board.
Why Was Rosa Salazars Character Cut?
It just became the cleanest and simplest way to do it.
So Rosa Salazar was originally in the movie, and she even got a McDonald’s Happy Meal toy.
Was she just in the opening, or was she more in the movie?
ONAH: Again, Serpent Society is serving the exact same function in the story as what you saw.
It’s just thatwhen we pivoted, it didn’t make sense to have these two Serpent Society characters.
It made sense to have one character.
And again, also with timing, I believe Rosa was shooting another movie in Australia.
I don’t even think she was available during our dates.
I’m giving you the nuts and bolts of how movies get made.
You’re working with all these different factors: schedule, tone, etc., etc.
A lot of people don’t realize how messed up scheduling is with movies.
In some of those Avengers movies, those actors were never in the room together performing scenes.
ONAH: Fortunately, I’ve known Rosa for a very, very long time.
We’d almost worked together on a previous film 10 years ago.
I consider her a friend and she’s an actress I have so much respect for.
He’s an incredible human being.
I’m just curious, was that part of the movie and then there was a change made?
I’ve seen two versions of the Leader if you will.
I think maybe in some of the photos you saw there were orange dots on him, as well.
There are so many iterations of it, and we had discussions about multiple iterations.
We explored renderings of it, we explored makeup tests.
So, it was really exciting to find that and to work with Tim on finding that.
ONAH: I love that.
I love turning those dials, in specific.
The great thing about a thriller, as you said, is it’s all about information.
When does the audience need to know what they need to know to move the story forward?
The first time we hear the name Samuel Sterns is with Sam.
Is that true, or was that a BS online rumor?
ONAH: I think theres been a lot of BS and online speculation.
And in fact, we called them just Serpent in the movie.
Even just the orange lapel on his coat throws back to the orange of Sidewinder.
ONAH: The things that made us feel great, first and foremost, were the characters.
There was a real great love for Sam, Sam and Joaquin, Isaiah, and Ross’s journey.
Also, I had a rehearsal process with these actors.
All that was shining through.
Every movie has a lot of deleted scenes, especially at Marvel.
Do you know what deleted scenes you’re planning on releasing on either the Blu-ray or Disney+?
Or have you not thought about it yet?
ONAH: I have.
We have gone through and we’ve made our selects.
When the digital release eventually happens, those will come out.
Are any of the scenes five minutes?
Are they all, like, a minute?
ONAH: I would say some of them are a couple of minutes long.
How close did you come to having a member of the Eternals in the movie?
Was that ever discussed?
ONAH: That was never on the table.
I had to ask.
You have a post-credits scene but not a mid-credits scene.
How much did you guys debate having a mid-credits scene?
ONAH: Not at all.
Even the tease we have is still very Sam-centric.
ONAH: Again, that was shot during our additional photography.
That’s what I mean about all this is planned ahead of time.
We didn’t know what our post-credit scene was going to be just yet.
So, who knew whatThunderbolts*was going to look like necessarily?
Or the next Avengers was going to look like?
So, that’s how it evolved.
Steve is an incredibly honorable human being.
I agree with you 100%.
It’s movie magic.
How much is it like comic logic?
How much is it real?
What’s that debate like as a director and working with the crew in terms of figuring it out?
Obviously, Sam does have enhancements.
Sam is also trained.
This is a guy at peak human performance.
He’s been a PJ in the Air Force.
You’re not dealing with just your average Joe.
Sam Wilson has some assembling to do.
One of the things about VFX is that every shot costs a lot of money.
Like maybe you learned a certain shot costs way more money than another?
I’m just curious what you took away.
I’m a preparation junkie.
I love to storyboard.
I love to previs.
So it’s really as boring as it soundsa scheduling thing.
And that’s something that I think you learn from experience.
Every filmmaker learns from experience how to allocate time, to achieve a certain thing.
So, that was probably my biggest take away from the VFX of it all.
Captain America: Brave New Worldis in theaters now.
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