An explosive surprise hit theMarvelfandom yesterday when Skydance Media revealed a trailer for the upcoming action-adventure game Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra. Due to be released in 2025, the talk of the town highlighted the stunning graphics quality rendered in Unreal Engine 5, using the latest Nanite and Lumen technology. Still, not every comic book nerd was convinced by the presentation.
Despite flaunting movie-realistic details, a high-octane cat-and-mouse pursuit between Captain America and Black Panther, and the rich ambiance of occupied Paris, shots were fired against Steve Rogers’ “off-brand” likeness to Chris Evans’ portrayal of the star-spangled hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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During the State of Unreal 2024 showcase, former Naughty Dog lead Amy Hennig - the award-winning writer and director behind theUnchartedseries - and the Skydance Media team showcased thefirst trailerfor Rise of Hydra. Presented as a single-player, narrative-driven story, the unprecedented graphics, environmental detail, and references to the Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers comic run that it’s loosely based on, bewitched the fandom like a moth to the flame. Naturally, comparisons to Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix’s 2020 blunder,Marvel’s Avengers, were made, particularly towards Captain America’s suit and the off-kilter likeness to actor Evans.
Comic book writer@midnightcapon X shared disapproval towards the Captain America variant taking the spotlight in Skydance’s upcoming title, sharing: “If you’re going to use these characters without the MCU actors, that’s great, but I wish you’d then steer much further away from MCU-esque costume design. Your Cap doesn’t have to look like off-brand Chris Evans.”
While some users agreed to an extent, acknowledging that the modern helmet design looked strongly inspired by the MCU version - spanning from Captain America: The First Avenger up until Avengers: Endgame - a majority of the nearly 250 comments argued that Rise of Hydra’s Steve Rogers looked nothing like Evans.
With Wyatt Russell’s John Walker from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier bearing more resemblance to Evans, most concurred that Rise of Hydra’s portrayal and aesthetic harbored enough original detail to separate it from the MCU’s adaptations. Paying particular attention to the suit,one userdrew attention to Cap’s “leather double-breasted jacket with tac embellishments” in Skydance’s game, which differs from Evans’ tactical body armor.
Less tactful commenters wasted no time in calling out the writer, withone usersaying “I think that’s just what Captain America looks like dawg”, andanothercompared the writer’s criticism to past grievances aired towards Insomniac Game’s Marvel’s Spider-Man: “Off-brand Chris Evans is giving the same vibes as the off-brand Tom Holland complaints from Insomniac Spider-Man.”
A thirdreplynoted the reception given to Crystal Dynamics’ title: “Last time Captain America looked different than the MCU you guys bullied it off the game store.”
Of course, Rise of Hydra’s Cap is played by actor and producer Drew Moerlein, who’s starred in a handful of live-action productions, including Bloodline Killer and South of Hell, alongside a host of voice work in video games, such as Grand Theft Auto 5, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Horizon Forbidden West. Moerlein provided the voice and facial likeness for Steve Rogers in Skydance’s pioneering title, alongside The Walking Dead star Khary Payton who brought Azzuri’s Black Panther to life.
Since the Marvel Cinematic Universe has grown into an empire, it’s difficult not to compare the faces fans have grown to love over the years to new portrayals, but Rise of Hydra promises a specular leap in video game technology and a killer story from one of the industry’s finest.
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