Nigeria-born Julius Onah, director of “The Cloverfield Paradox” and “Luce,” is set to direct the fourth “Captain America” movie.
According to Variety, the movie will star Anthony Mackie and will build on the events from the 2021 Disney+ series, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”
That show’s creator and head writer, Malcolm Spellman, is writing the screenplay with Dalan Musson, a staff writer on the series. On the show, Mackie’s Sam Wilson struggles to accept the mantle of Captain America that Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) gave him at the end of 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” ultimately learning to accept the title and the cultural weight that comes with it.
The film does not yet have an official title or release date, but expectations are high that Marvel Studios could announce both later this month at San Diego Comic-Con, where the studio will be presenting for the first time since 2019 after SDCC was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. It’s also unclear who else from “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” — including Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes (aka the Winter Soldier), Wyatt Russell’s John Walker (aka U.S. Agent), Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter (aka Power Broker) or Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine — would be joining Mackie in the film.
Born in Makurdi, the capital of Benue State to a diplomat father, Onah attended NYU’s graduate film school, and his thesis film, the 2015 feature “The Girl Is in Trouble,” was executive produced by Spike Lee. He was then hired by J.J. Abrams to direct a sci-fi space thriller that eventually became the 2018 Netflix feature, “The Cloverfield Paradox.”
The following year, Onah’s indie drama “Luce” opened at the Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews for its examination of the pressures facing a white couple (Naomi Watts and Tim Roth) and their adopted Black son, Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). The film was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards, including for Harrison’s lead performance and Onah’s direction.
