After the death of William Hurt, it was more than questionable whether we would see his Thaddeus Ross again in the MCU. But now it seems that none other than “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” legend Harrison Ford will replace Hurt.
General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt) was one of the first antagonists ever in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the antagonist in “The Incredible Hulk”. After that, however, it was several years before we saw the Air Force officer and later US Secretary of State again in the MCU. But with appearances in “The First Avenger: Civil War”, “Avengers: Infinity War”, “Avengers: Endgame” and “Black Widow”, he was then more present than ever.
And it was repeatedly rumoured that he could soon play an even bigger role in Marvel’s film universe, after all, Ross was at times not only one of the string pullers behind the antihero team of Thunderbolts (who will soon get their own film) in the comic templates, but also eventually gained Hulk abilities himself, which turned him into Red Hulk.
However, with the surprise death of Oscar winner and Ross actor William Hurt in March 2022, the character’s MCU future has been uncertain of late. However, unlike with the late “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman, Marvel has now apparently decided to recast the role and let it live on. And Kevin Feige and his team have managed to pull off a real casting coup, which makes the MCU, which is already full of superstars, even more top-class: Harrison Ford is to follow in William Hurt’s footsteps in “Captain America 4: New World Order” and from now on embody Thaddeus Ross.
HARRISON FORD IN “CAPTAIN AMERICA 4” AND “THUNDERBOLTS”?
Though there is no official confirmation of the personnel, the information comes from the well-connected Hollywood insider Jeff Sneider, who gave it away on the podcast “The Hot Mic” (we have included the corresponding video below, Harrison Ford is talked about from 4:35). In addition, the website Slash Film says it has also heard about the casting quite independently from unspecified sources.
In fact, rumours of Ford’s Marvel casting have been circulating for a while now, although initially it was rumoured that he would make his MCU debut in “Thunderbolts”, in which veteran characters like the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and Red Guardian (David Harbour) embark on a secret mission on behalf of the government. Now, however, Ford is to become the new Ross even before that in “Captain America 4”, in which Anthony Mackie takes over from Chris Evans as Cap. Of course, this does not rule out the possibility that we will also see him in an even more important role in “Thunderbolts” immediately afterwards, even though there is no information on this as yet.
“Captain America: New World Order” is scheduled to open in cinemas on 1 May 2024, followed shortly afterwards by “Thunderbolts” on 24 July 2024. With his involvement in the MCU, the now 80-year-old Harrison is swinging into a new mega-franchise, after he has already said goodbye to “Star Wars” and will soon hang up his Fedora and whip in “Indiana Jones 5” (cinema release: 29 June 2023).
