The villain for the upcoming MCU sequel Captain America: New World Order has been announced, and it's a surprise returning character from 2008's The Incredible Hulk. The 2008 film, which featured Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, was an origin story following the scientist being exposed to gamma radiation and developing the ability to transform into a raging green monster when he gets angry. It was Marvel's immediate follow-up to their megahit Iron Man, before they had a full plan in place for what they wanted to MCU to look like. The film is often considered the least favorite film in the franchise among fans, likely leading, at least in part, to The Hulk being recast with Mark Ruffalo for The Avengers in 2012.

Captain America: New World Order, which is being directed by Julius Onah, is due in theaters on May 3, 2024. It will feature the return of Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson as Captain America, a mantle he took on over the course of the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The film will feature the return of two other actors from the series as well: Carl Lumbly as the forgotten supersoldier Isaiah Bradley and Danny Ramirez as Air Force intelligence officer Joaquin Torres.

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Screen Rant had the opportunity to attend to Marvel panel at D23 Expo 2022 today, where it was announced that the villain of Captain America: New World Order will be Tim Blake Nelson, reprising his Incredible Hulk role as Samuel Sterns, AKA Leader. Sterns is a cellular biologist who believed he had invented a cure for Banner's condition. Sterns is later forced by Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) to inject him with Banner's blood, and late in the film he is exposed to an agent of his own that slowly transforms him into Leader, who is depicted in the comics as a blue-skinned person with an extended forehead.

This sudden reappearance of Leader after over a decade is in keeping with the MCU's new embrace of its history with The Incredible Hulk. That film's main villain, Blonsky, is a major figure in the new Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, as the title character - Bruce's cousin Jen Walters - is forced to defend him in court. She-Hulk also acknowledged the recast by having Bruce Banner joke about being a completely different person.

It certainly seems that She-Hulk needing to tap into the background of Hulk has opened the floodgates. However, it's still surprising that Leader will factor into Captain America: New World Order in such a major way. So far, Blonsky hasn't been positioned as the main villain of She-Hulk, so this will be the first time that the MCU makes good on promised villainy from that oft-overlooked early Phase 1 entry.