Captain America: Brave New World Brings Adamantium, Finally References Eternals

Adamantium is coming to the MCU thanks to Captain America: Brave New World from an unlikely source–The Eternals. If you’ve ever been a Marvel comics fan, you know why this is big news. The fictional metal Vibranium has been a central element of the MCU since Captain America’s shield first appeared, but that’s because Marvel’s most famous metal belonged to a character they couldn’t use at the time.

As part of Marvel Studios’ big San Diego Comic-Con panel, the studio is talking about the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World. Among the many details shared in the panel and trailer, this one stood out: Adamantium is coming to the MCU.

In Marvel comic books, Adamantium is the king of sci-fi metals. Captain America’s shield is crafted from the material in the books, as is the body of Ultron (the primary antagonist of Avengers: Age of Ultron). But Adamantium is best know as the material coating the skeleton of Marvel’s best-known and most profitable mutant, Wolverine.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this introduction is the source. Adamantium is being found for the first time in the solidified form of the Celestial that rose from the Earth in the South Pacific in the 2021 film The Eternals. This is one of, if not the first mention of the Celestial since the movie released, aside from Easter eggs like the mention of “a giant statue of a man sticking out of the ocean” in She-Hulk.

For years, the X-Men and all mutants–including Wolverine–belonged to 20th Century Fox. With Disney’s acquisition a few years back, the X-Men were back in the hands of Marvel proper, leading to Wolverine’s debut in the just-released Deadpool & Wolverine film.

It would be easy to assume, then, that Deadpool & Wolverine is the introduction of adamantium into the MCU. But Deadpool & Wolverine isn’t quite the same as a mainline MCU film. It acts as a sort of bridge between the Fox and Marvel Studios films, and takes place on Earths other than Earth-616 (Marvel’s primary canonical Earth). The Wolverine in that movie also won’t be the one introduced to the MCU. Thus, this acts as the official introduction of the metal into the main MCU–setting the stage for the day that Marvel Studios recasts the grumpiest X-Man and lets him go ‘snikt’ for the first time with his iconic claws.

Captain America: Brave New World stars Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Captain America, and introduce both Giancarlo Esposito as the leader of the Serpent Society and Harrison Ford as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. hits theaters on February 14, 2025, so take your beloved to go see Harrison Ford maybe turn into the Red Hulk.