Captain America: Brave New World director Julius Onah has revealed his initial response to seeing Harrison Ford's Red Hulk on the screen for the first time.
"It's surreal, it's incredible, it's exciting," Onah told Fandango. "I gotta tell you, when Red Hulk first became a possibility in this film, I just smiled. I was smiling like a kid, and that's when I knew it was the right idea and right moment to put it out into the world."
For Onah, however, it's not just the star power of Ford or the shock value of the Red Hulk that appeals. The director insists it's also going to prove "relatable" to viewers, as well as really smashing at the heart of Brave New World's themes.
"The Hulk character is such an expression of pure id, but there's something about a rage Hulk that's so relatable and so exciting for an audience as well. But there's also a real thematic core to the expression of that anger in this film and what it means about the conflict at the centre of this film. It's not just the inner kid in me who is excited about it, it's also the director and the storyteller in me who is also excited about where this goes," Onah said.
As shown off multiple times, including the new Captain America: Brave New World trailer, Ford's Red Hulk is set to square off against Anthony Mackie's Captain America in the Marvel Phase 5 film. Ford's character, President Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross, was recast after the death of William Hurt in 2022.
Speaking to GamesRadar+ at last year's San Diego Comic-Con, Ford revealed his own reaction to Red Hulk.
Ford said, "It was based on what I had done and it's animated so it looked familiar." Ford jokingly added: "I think my wife thinks I look like that all the time, so it was not that big a deal."
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