Captain America: Brave New World Just Retconned Its Most Divisive Character
Does the Mossad belong in the MCU?
Marvel Studios is finally returning to the big screen. Only one MCU movie will hit theaters this year, Deadpool and Wolverine, but that hasn’t stopped Marvel from setting the stage for its 2025 projects. The franchise certainly needs all the help it can get, and the first trailer for Captain America: Brave New World seems perfectly timed to put fan anxieties to rest.
Brave New World is the MCU’s fourth Captain America film, and the first to see Steve Rogers’ (Chris Evans) successor, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), wield the mantle. After The Falcon and the Winter Soldier debuted on Disney+, fans are looking forward to a proper solo adventure for the character. It’s been a long time coming, and Brave New World has had no shortage of setbacks on its path to a premiere. Among those is the introduction of a controversial comic character, the Israeli mutant and Mossad agent Sabra. Unorthodox star Shira Haas was cast in the role back in 2022, and her presence in Brave New World earned more scrutiny as the Israel-Palestine conflict went on.
Marvel stood firm on its decision to introduce the character, insisting that director Julius Onah would be “taking a new approach” to Sabra. That approach seems to extend beyond her grounded look in the Brave New World trailer, as Marvel has quietly tweaked Sabra’s origins for the upcoming film. Will that be enough to justify her MCU debut?
The hero formerly known as Sabra is making her MCU debut in Captain America 4.
Sabra first appeared in Marvel Comics over 40 years ago. Formerly an Israeli intelligence agent, the mutant, also known as Ruth Bat-Seraph, later became a hero who worked closely alongside heroes like the Hulk. But her comics have often been accused of stereotyping and dehumanizing Arab characters, and attempting to add a Mossad agent to the modern MCU, which is hardly the venue for a delicate interpretation of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, has long felt ill-advised. At best, the MCU would have to completely ignore serious real-life events to include Sabra, which wouldn’t be the most sensitive move.
Marvel, however, has insisted that Sabra wouldn’t be the character fans knew from the comics. “While our characters and stories are inspired by the comics,” the studio said in 2022, “they are always freshly imagined for the screen and today’s audience, and the filmmakers are taking a new approach with the character Sabra who was first introduced in the comics over 40 years ago.” Two years later, we’re finally seeing that statement in practice. Haas doesn’t sport Sabra’s trademark white-and-blue costume in the Brave New World trailer; in fact, she may not be known as Sabra at all.
Brave New World will see Sam Wilson torn between duty and his own moral compass... again.
An official report from Marvel seems to completely retcon the character. Instead of a Mossad agent, the Sabra of the MCU is a former Black Widow. What’s more, Marvel explicitly refers to the character by her civilian name, with no mention of her superhero alias. “Ruth is now a high-ranking U.S. official who has the trust of President Ross,” Marvel says. She seems to be filling the role that someone like Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) played in previous Captain America films as a conflicted agent working under a corrupt regime.
Whether Ruth will become an ally to Sam or remain loyal to Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) remains to be seen, but it will be equally interesting to see if the character fits into this story, and whether her contentious inclusion was actually worth the effort.
