After a 17-year-long wait, Marvel Studios finally paid off a tease from The Incredible Hulk, reintroducing actor Tim Blake Nelson as the villainous Samuel Sterns, a.k.a. the Leader, in Captain America: Brave New World. He was the mastermind baddie of the film, responsible for all of Sam Wilson’s woes. But he almost looked very different than what moviegoers saw. Early makeup tests from Blue Whale Makeup had the Leader looking far more similar to his original Marvel Comics look. Ultimately, during reshoots, they changed Stern’s look for the film. Now, Blue Whale Makeup has posted several images of their version of the original Captain America: Brave New World Leader on Instagram. They’ve also posted a video showing them applying a makeup test on Tim Blake Nelson. You can check it out right here:
In this version of the makeup, Captain America: Brave New World‘s Leader looks more like the original Jack Kirby version, who has an elongated cranium. This is pretty much how the character appeared in the pages of The Incredible Hulk for decades. As the ’90s rolled around, newer artists began to draw Sterns’ giant brain seemingly protruding from his head. And it looked far more grotesque. In more recent years, artists at Marvel Comics have leaned a little more heavily into that version. But neither the unused makeup nor the one that made it on screen is less accurate than the other. They simply reflect two different eras of comics.
Chances are, whether you liked Captain America: Brave New World or not, your opinion didn’t rely on Tim Blake Nelson’s makeup or look as the Leader. But the fact that at one point his character looked so radically different goes to show the MCU didn’t have a clear vision for his character, beyond the basics. Who knows, even if Leader returns to the MCU one day, he may look completely different again, with no explanation. Marvel did that once already, with Tim Roth’s Abomination, who first appeared in The Incredible Hulk, and later had a different look in Shang-Chi and She-Hulk. If they redesigned one character from that MCU film, why not two?
Content shared from nerdist.com.