Major Captain America Villain Actor Teases When He’ll Be Back
The MCU keeps throwing curveballs: after storming back in Captain America: Brave New World, Tim Blake Nelson addresses if his long-dormant mastermind The Leader will resurface in Avengers: Doomsday.
Marvel keeps tossing curveballs in the post-Endgame era, and one of the strangest (in a good way) is Tim Blake Nelson popping back up as Samuel Sterns, aka The Leader. He just made his return in Captain America: Brave New World, and now he is teasing what comes next without actually confirming anything.
So, is he in Avengers: Doomsday?
While promoting his new book, Superhero: A Novel, which pulls from his time in blockbuster-land, Nelson was asked about future MCU plans after playing the big bad in Brave New World. Speaking to ComicBook, he did not say he is in Avengers: Doomsday, but the enthusiasm was not exactly subtle.
"I can confirm that if I have my way, they won't have to wait 16 years."
Translation: he wants back in, and preferably sooner rather than later. No hard confirmation, but the door is clearly open.
Why The Leader matters now
Nelson’s Sterns wasn’t just a nostalgia play. In Brave New World, he was central to the conflict, and the post-credits scene gave him a creepy new wrinkle. The Leader drops a warning about a coming reckoning from "the others" that he claims to have seen "in the probabilities." That puts him in a unique spot: he has insight into the big, multiversal trouble that is supposed to be looming over Doomsday. If that holds, it would actually make sense for the Avengers to consult the guy who just tried to outsmart them. Desperate times, etc.
The surprise factor
Most fans figured if The Leader was coming back, it would be in something Hulk-centric. Instead, Marvel slotted him directly into Sam Wilson’s first solo outing as Captain America. Not the obvious choice, which is exactly why it worked.
Meanwhile, he wrote a book
Nelson also talked about writing Superhero: A Novel, a project inspired by his experiences on major Hollywood sets. It’s not a tie-in to Brave New World, but it does explain why he has a lot to say about how these giant movies get made.
Bottom line: there is no official word on The Leader in Avengers: Doomsday yet, but Nelson’s very public interest and that post-credits setup make another appearance feel more like a question of when, not if.