Rise of Hydra Chose the WWII Setting

Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra already has a lot on its plate. In addition to placing the player in the roles of Captain America and Black Panther, two beloved Marvel characters with huge fan bases, the upcoming game will also include a Wakandan spy and a member of the Howling Commandos for good measure.

However, this title is being developed under the leadership of legendary video game writer and director Amy Hennig at Skydance Media. So, we can expect that Hennig will dish out a great Marvel game, that is set in the backdrop of World War II. However, there are two reasons why Hennig and the team chose this particular event as the game’s setting.

Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra will feature two different versions of Captain America and Black Panther

Amy Hennig, the producer of Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, revealed new concept art and additional information about the upcoming superhero action game, including a glimpse of Wakanda in December last year. Hennig explained to Entertainment Weekly that this time we will see two different versions of Captain America and Black Panther, unlike the ones we are accustomed to seeing in the MCU movies. This is what Hennig stated:

It led us to do a bunch of interesting things. One of which was to not only tell a story with a young Steve Rogers who’s still trying to find his feet, as opposed to the more seasoned guy that we’ve seen in a lot of the films. It also let us introduce a new Black Panther of 1943.

This explains the reason why Skydance and Marvel Games chose World War II as the setting of the upcoming game. As the game is set in that period, the developers will get the opportunity to explore those characters from a different point of view. The game’s Captain America will be far less grown up than the superhero Marvel fans are accustomed to. However, since the Black Panther is T’Challa’s grandfather, Azzuri, it will be the complete opposite.

A full trailer for Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra was unveiled at the Game Developers Conference 2024 in March of 2024, after Skydance Games first teased the game at the D23 Expo in September 2022. The game will see Captain America team up with the Black Panther of that time to stop the terrorist group of Hydra from destroying the planet.

Hydra’s Wakandan jungle will be a lot different as well

The Rise of Hydra trailer we’ve seen so far shows Cap and Azzuri fighting in the streets of Paris; they appear to be fighting the same foe but are unwilling to cooperate. In addition to telling EW that a portion of the game will be set in Azzuri’s made-up homeland of Wakanda, Hennig also gave EW an early preview of the game’s depiction of the closed-off African nation.

The Wakanda we see in Rise of Hydra will be very different from the one we’ve seen a lot of in the MCU, much like Captain America. The artwork depicts a breathtaking Wakandan jungle, and although it’s highly unlikely that the game will feature a lot of futuristic depictions of the country’s cities, they aren’t visible at this initial glance.

According to Hennig, Wakanda in the 1940s is far more isolated than the contemporary depiction of the nation in the films. Because it is so closed off that its existence appears to be hidden from the outside world, Captain America and his allies are unaware of who they are interacting with when Wakanda’s king is present.

As the game’s title implies, Azzuri is compelled to leave Wakanda in order to fight for a cause that will impact his country just as much as the US and other nations during World War 2. This cause is most likely the emergence of the enemy organization Hydra. Although Hennig did not name the third hero, it was implied in the trailer that they were running around Paris fighting Cap’ and Azzuri. Who knows, it might be Bucky Barnes.